The Lord has set things right, as always. All I had to do is entrust everything into His hands and have faith, it is as easy as that. When you believe, you will receive. I just know that whatever the outcome, it is for the best, even if I cannot see it now, it will all be revealed in the future.

There is no drama afterall and I really glad, thank God. The last thing I want is to be a star in some real life soap opera. Just keep me out of the spotlight, leave me to do my thing and I will be happy.

Moving on, I did a nav sortie with my instructor yesterday. I was quite sure I prepared very well on ground, but it did not do very much to prepare me for how different things can be up in the air. For one, a lot of the towns and key features look very different from Google Earth and the pictures I have seen. When I look down, all I see are patches of endless brown and a mish mash of tracks I am not sure if are roads, powerlines, train tracks or rivers. It is also difficult to tell which hill or mountain is which in relation to the map, because they all look the bloody same. Though, some are a much more distinct than the rest.

Then, there is the light turbulence and thermals that make it hard to maintain altitude and tolerance is +/- 150ft. The forecast winds which I used for my planning is totally different from the actual wind. Nabei.

It was a route I was totally unfamiliar with. I drifted off track to the left on my first leg and was unable to get a position fix to to a 1 in 60 calculation. Luckily, I know how the town Northam looks like and it is very distinctive. I positively identified the town and the time confirmed it, so I tracked perpendicular towards the town.

The second leg to Quairading was shit too. I was cruising at an altitude that made it difficult for me to spot the town from a distance. On top of that, the winds made me drift to well left of track, which had hardly any features! Again, I was screwed, I could not get any position fix to do a 1 in 60 correction. So I waited until I came to another town, did the same thing and once I knew where I was, I followed a highway to track straight to Quairading.

I was given a diversion from Quairading to Beverly. Nabei, again wind made me drift to the right of track where there are hardly any features! I had to do the same thing to get to Beverly town. I found it with some difficulty and I felt ready to give up.

Then, I got another diversion to Murray Field. It was a long leg of about 60NM. I could see all the prominent features from a distance already. When I did my clearoff checks, I realized that fuck, my compass and DGI was like misaligned by 35 degrees. No wonder always off track lah! It is my fault for not having the patience to wait for the lag to settle to make sure it is really aligned. I only did a cursory check due to the high workload. Huge lesson learnt there, I must make it a point to check every 5 mins.

I had a very good leg back. After I sorted out what was causing me problems, things came together nicely. I was not exactly familiar with the area but I had many good features to give myself positive features. It was turbulent and the winds blew me off track, as expected. But since I had positive fixes, I was able to do a 1 in 60 correction and and that worked out beautifully. I was also able to do a groundspeed check and all my figures were spot on. It was the leg which I redeemed myself and I employed the navigation techniques up to standard. Went back to Jandakot with no dramas heh.

I was cleared to go for my Nav solo check, which I will be doing this Friday. Lucky me! I was given the same route which was just described, with only a small difference for the last leg. I have ample time to prepare for it and I must do it well. I am glad I screwed up the sortie so much, if not, I will not be able to learn from the possible mistakes that can happen and fuck up the major check.

It is like another first circuit solo and first area solo all over again. I pray I will perform well.