This past Saturday, I did my first solo x-country. I had flown this one before with my instructor. Starting at about 20 miles from my destination I had one of those "where the heck am I" moments. Sky conditions were less than perfect with a fair amount of haze and broken clouds at my planned altitude. I kept to my planned heading and, after a few minutes, spotted my next checkpoint. I was west of my course flying into a towered airport (KRDG, Reading PA). ATIS had 31 as the active runway. 10 Miles out, I called the tower (with the field still not in sight) and was told to expect a clearance for 31. When I had the field in sight, it took a bit of checking and re-checking to visually identify 31 and differentiate it from 36. The tower cleared me to land on 31 using a right base turn. I was actually in a better position for 36, so I made a left turn to fly a very short downwind and then made a continuous turn to final. That approach is over part of Reading itself which is just east of a prominent ridge, so everything had to be done smartly. By the time I was lined up on 31, I was a bit high and feeling the weight of all the responsibility of flying solo. I checked my airspeed (which was right on the money), set power to idle and set 40 degrees of flaps. What followed was the single nicest landing I have ever done. I was right on centerline, I rounded out at just the right height and I smoothly pulled back on the yoke as the 150 settled smoothly onto the runway. It was a thing of beauty.

I can't say if the tower was watching, so I'm not sure if anyone saw it. My instructor had to take my word for it. I was there, though, so it's real to me!