I flew my first solo cross country to Merced (KMCE) and back. After left downwind departure and shortly after Livermore tower approved a frequency change, my first order of business was to establish contact with Norcal and request flight following. Per frequencies published, I tried 123.85 but no response. My instructor had mentioned that this frequency doesn’t work and to try 125.1 instead. But when Srinath flew last year, he had established contact with 123.85. Not only was there no response but there was no chatter on this frequency contrary to what I had expected from Norcal. Next I tuned into Oakland Center at 126.85 but again no chatter and neither was there a response to my request. I waited a while, was already climbing over the hills at 4000′ and was anxious to get in touch with Norcal. So I tuned back to Livermore tower and got the frequency as 125.1. Successfully established contact with Norcal on that frequency and got a squawk code for flight following. Why the charts do not list 125.1 is a mystery to me.

The course was to fly heading 84 (after wind correction at altitude) out of Livermore. That would have me skirting along the south end of restricted area R-2531 all the way to where I-5 meets I-580. At that point I turn to heading 121 to Gustine (3O1). I was doing 100kts airspeed with 128kts ground speed with a healthy tailwind at 5500′. My estimate was 110kts with an airspeed with 100 kts.

Along the way, I would pass Crows Landing airport when I cross radial 191 from Modesto VOR 114.6. Gustine is then along radial 328 from Panoche VOR 112.6.

After passing Gustine with the airport directly below me, I turned to a heading of 69 that would have put me straight into Merced. About 8 miles from the airport, I spotted the airport in the distance and set myself to enter on the 45 degrees for left downwind into runway 30. Winds were from 320@11kts, it was already warm at 27c and density altitude was 1600′ at the airport whose elevation was only 155′ MSL. It turned out that the airport I spotted was Castle (KMER) which is just a few miles to the north of Merced. I was growing suspicious because I didn’t see any traffic or aircraft at the airport and was beginning to wonder if it was even an airport at which point I realized it was not my destination.

Glancing at the GPS, I found Merced off to my right at which point I cross referenced with my notes that Merced was to the west of Hwy 99 whereas the airport I initially saw was on the east side of Hwy 99. The runway at Merced is 5914′ x 150′ which is plenty for a C172. The airport has a tower but it is no longer operational. I pulled into the transient parking area and reset my notes and instruments for the return trip.

On the way back from Merced, Norcal transferred me to 123.85. Not sure how the frequency is working now when I had trouble connecting on the way out of LVK. There was some aerobatic activity over Tracy about which the controller alerted me and requested I stay above 4200′. It was getting quite hot and turbulent over the Altamont pass. The controller at LVK was clearly overloaded with the traffic. He ignored my first call and asked me to stay outside Class D airspace on my second call before clearing me for landing on 25L. Another aircraft was asked to stay on downwind and it reported approaching Altamont when the controller turned them base!

The course I had planned had a 144nm (72nm distance each way). The actual course I flew was 164nm (85nm + 79nm).