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To pass the end test, I travel far and wide
Long did I travel, well past the day's end.
A new destination, a new instructor, a new trip;
I find myself in areas unknown.
With the Blood Moon rising, I travel back,
over the night sky, yet under the calm dark.

So yesterday was a big day for me, for it was my 200 nautical mile cross country, both day and night, in the Piper Seminole, PA-44-180. This is all part of my Multi-engine trainning. My original destination was supposed to be Kansas City, where me and my flight instructor were gonna get some BBQ ribs, and it was gonna be delicious biggrin

However, that's not how it worked out stressed There were several thunderstorm activitiy (not thunderstorms per say, but they were trying to build into them) so I had to choose another airport to fly to. Now, I know I could have cancelled the flight outright, but I really want to finish this stage of flying, so delays just aren't has helpful as you would think. So I finish my flight plan, finish preflighting, only to then find out my instructor can't come, but he's given me a different one, one I've never flown with before, but I did know him, so it was all good. cool

We take off, into much haze and reduced visiablitiy, for a little bit, I was concerned we had gone from VMC (Visual Meterological Conditions) to IMC (Instrument Meterogical Conditions - means I can't see the ground any more) and the issue with that was this flight is ment to be done as a visual flight only, no IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) allowed. So, after a long, and I do mean long, we would up adding an extra half an hour on our trip because the GPS and VOR (Very-high frequnecy Omnirange Radio beacon) weren't syncing up right and were waaay off course. But none the less, we arrived safe and sound in DeLuth, Minnesota. stare There's nothing up there really, atleast from what I saw anyway

And it's not like I was able to see much anyways, I think we spent a grand total of 45 minutes on the ground before we were off again, there was alot of fog rolling into the Dubuque airport, and we didn't want to get stuck somewhere for the night. So we refulled, filed, and took off. What was really cool was that right as we were taking off, a blood moon was rising (hence the title). And one of the things that I love about night flying, is that on a cloudly night, the sky looks like it should be the ground, flat with little to no light, but the ground, espically in a suburb to densely populated area, it actually looks like stars that should be in the sky. So it almost looks like your flying upside down. It's really a cool feeling.

But yeah, all in all, I felt I was cheated, I want my BBQ ribs! crying