I haven't been flying recently - bad weather and mechanical gripes. I'm getting withdrawals because my next flight is my first cross-country solo. Maybe I need to point out to those who are unaware that this is a BIG DEAL. Oh, if anyone asks, it's no big deal. But just quietly, it's a BIG DEAL. This will be the first time I will be allowed away from Bankstown all on my lonesome, to find my way to a distant airfield a couple of hundred kilometres away with no more assistance than a compass, map and clock. Using instruments no more complex than a pair of EBv1.0s (Mark One Eyeballs.)

I'm not concerned about it because I am as ready as I will ever be. So ready I am in danger of becoming stale. I've worked out how to program Microsoft Flight Sim to fly the route for me so I can get a rough idea of what I'm going to see, I've hand drawn a mud map with squiggly annotations only I can understand, I've practised radio calls in the car so that when I stop at a traffic light pedestrians think how great it is that the mentally challenged have been awarded driving licences.

I only ask this - can the weather please clear up and the gremlins stay away until after June 9th? Because that's when my current maps go out of date.