This week I made my first solo cross-country flight.  After the first couple of times planning a cross-country flight, the planning process goes rather quickly and is straightforward.  This flight was to Wisconsin Rapids and back.  There were several things I encountered that were new or nearly new to me so there were opportunies to learn.  For example, a cloud layer at 4500′ rolled in sooner than forecast and so on the return flight to Oshkosh I had to select a lower altitude than planned, had a stronger headwind than planned, and arrived later than the flight plan indicated.  Moreover, I arbitrarily decided to close the flight plan after refueling, which is found out is a bad idea.  When I did call to close the plan, the FSS informed me they had already closed the plan after calling the Oshkosh tower and verifying I was on the ground.  Two lessons may be learned from this — 1. call FSS in the air to tell them when you’re behind schedule — 2. close the flight plan in the air or as soon as you’re on the ground.