I did my night cross-country on Monday from FRG to HFD. It was a beautiful night with the air as smooth as glass. It went pretty well and I was able to navigate both there and back. I completed my required 10 night TOs and landings by doing a couple of touch-and-goes at HFD and then at FRG.

I kept a close eye on the VORs and got past the difficulty of reading the chart while in flight. I did a better job of trimming the aircraft so my altitude control improved over the previous cross-country. I did pretty well on all of the landings except the last one. Most of my landing issues begin with being too high but in this case I over-compensated and had to add power which caused me to come in a bit flat. Not pretty but as my instructor said "you got it in there".

Next time it's landing practice in prep for the checkout at Nassau Flyers for my required solo work.

I've stopped tracking the cost. part of that is to keep from getting freaked out. But a larger part is that I'm viewing my training less as an obstacle to my goal but as an enjoyable process in itself. In other words, it's only a matter of degree cost-wise between being a student pilot and a certificated pilot. I'm flying and that was the ultimate goal.

I finally got my FRG airport badge! It's a small thing, but it means a lot to me. I'm in the club!