My First IFR Cross-Country

Today (with beautiful weather) I did my first IFR cross-country flight to West Houston airport. We filed two flight plans (one each way) and took off from Austin about 1:30pm. On the outbound leg from Austin I was not given a "direct" routing but rather the "Centex Three" departure with Jayjo transition with the Blue Bell Two arrival (don't you just love that name?)

So I flew all the way to Houston and saw nothing out the window until I was over the Pine Forest golf course on the final approach to runway 15 at West Houston airport. No sightseeing today. Landed, got some ice water, re-fueled, organized my departure/arrival procedures, called Clearance Delivery for routing and clearance, took off and started back to Austin. The flight back to Austin at 6000 feet was smooth. But I must admit the last 10 miles at 2000 feet was *hot*.

ATC cleared me "direct" on the return leg...as shown below. One more IFR cross-country and I'll be done with this phase of my instrument training!