Flying Lesson Siesta

It is true... a siesta... hiatus... break... is being taken from flying lessons.. Would you like to hear my logic behind it? Of course you would.

Basically it all comes down to financial reason. I am coming close to the end of my full time Internship in which I will be going back to school and working only part time. This will deflate my bank account very quickly causing more loans. That just isn't fun.

When I went in to flying I went in with the mindset of it being a hobby (yes, a very expensive hobby). I put together a very extravagant, very detailed budget in Excel and went to town on keeping the budget on track. I was very successful until a point. There came a point in my budget when something changed. A social addition was made and suddenly I really wanted to spend money in other ways. For nearly three months this continued. I was taking less flight lessons in order to accommodate the increased spending, but this was just increasing the amount of time to obtain my certificate. Once this temporary social addition's visit was up, I came to my realization...

Over the next six months, until I start working full time again, I would be able to have fun in only one way (that involves money), flying lessons. I could make it work, but every penny I found would go to the flying fund. I am about to be 22 here in September; I am in college and living with friends. Flying is my hobby... how much fun would I have if I spent all my time, energy, and money on taking the plane up once every three weeks for an hour or so, just flying in circles (cause I wouldn't have the budget to take a fun trip). My other option is to take a little break, have fun with friends by going bowling, going to bars, maybe taking a weekend road trip... and then next spring start flying again to finish off my lessons. To me (especially seeing it in writing) the choice is obvious.

I talked to my instructor, parents, and friends, who all agreed with my reasoning. I am very confident that I made the right choice. I love hanging out with friends, and much of the time that involves spending a little money. Sometime in the future as well, maybe I'll start seeing someone and like to spend some time and a little money on them... I would love to have that option.

Who knows, maybe I'll strike it rich with flyingpage.com and finances won't be anything to worry about... but I'm thinking cautious now. I already feel less bogged down about money and spending, and it makes me a happy camper. Any comments?

Flight Lesson 17 - Is this plane airworthy???

Arriving at Lunken as the sun was dipping past the horizon, it was a strange feeling... Usually I'm leaving the airport at this time, not just getting here. Tonight, we start night flight with a nighttime cross-country... and I don't think anything more could have decided otherwise for us.

During preflight we were checking lights and noticed that the landing light was out of commission. Kind of against regs to fly without the landing light... but, we'll survive. We still have our strobes and nav lights. Taxiing to 21L my eyes become fully adjusted to the unusual lighting.

Take off was normal, just a little dark, especially with no landing light. We got into our climb, turned crosswind, turned downwind and departed on our heading of 086 for KUNI over in Athens (the Ohio University Airport)

Soon after we were up in the air ATC calls asking about our transponder. We were showing up as a target with no altitude... after smacking it around a little bit we got the OK from ATC. In the meantime our right strobe light stopped working as well. Occasionally it would give a little blink, but not enough to be comforting. The left strobe light then gave out as well... good thing for Nav lights, eh? The strobe on the left wing did come on about 3 minutes later though.

We're chuggin' through the skies above Clermont Country, reviewing normal night flight procedures along with nighttime navigation. I was a little uneasy (especially with things not working) but most was fine. Not long after departure, Gary asks me, so do you think we should turn around? He's always asking me these loaded questions, and I can never tell what he's going for. I answered with that if I was by myself I'd be turned around and back on the ground as quick as I could... but since he was up, I had full confidence that we could handle ourselves. He shrugged an OK and we continued.

After getting about 45 miles to the east of Lunken, near Hillsboro, the lights on the instruments started a methodic dimming process along with the amps meter. This was going on when we had the alternator on... and the alternator off... no good. I think it had something to do with only having one strobe light on, and the capacitors were discharging unevenly. I also then noticed, with rising tension... that the plane was only feeding fuel through its left wing tank...

... well crap

So we're 45 miles out, with 1/4 of one tank of fuel, no landing light and half of our strobe lights, a transponder that is on the fritz... and its bloody dark outside!

**Note: In all this craziness, I do have to make note that I have never seen so many stars in Cincinnati as what I saw up away from the lights. It was amazing, absolutely gorgeous. I had to keep my mind on flying the plane and not on staring at all the pretty stars :-)

Gary makes the executive decision and I pull a 180 heading directly west, back towards Lunken. I'm nervously watching our fuel and making calculations to see if we have enough to get back... 29 gallons full, and burning 6 per hour. 1/4 of 29 is about 7.25 gallons, plus a 10 knot direct headwind... we should be fine to get back, we had only been flying for about 25 minutes. See my error (that I just now realized)... we had 1/4 fuel on one wing, not total. The right wing fuel wasn't even feeding. 1/4 of 15 gallons is just under 4 gallons, 2/3's hour, 40 minutes? Scary eh? These calculations, however, do not match what I saw from the cockpit. You can never really tell how much fuel you have from those gauges, but we were just under 1/4 tank when we were landed.

On the way back to Lunken, we kept going over nighttime navigation and what to be looking for. I noticed how many more planes you see flying at night. Gary chuckled and said its funny because there's like five-times as many flying during the day, and we don't see them!

Lunken was about 3 miles in front of us and we were descending from just under 2000. Gary asks, can we make it with power off? NO WAY my mind said... "No, I don't think we can..." Gary thought for a second and reached over and pulled the throttle all the way back. This guy is a freakin' loony! is all that went through my mind. We're coasting / dropping over darkness... which knowing the Lunken area can only mean that trees were soon to be our passengers. I was doing my best to keep 70 knots and aim straight for the threshold of the runway, but we just kept dropping. We were going down at about 700 feet per minute and at a level that appeared to me to be just skimming the tops of trees... when Gary said... guess you're right, and pushed the throttle to max. I breathed a sigh of relief and we continued...

We landed at Lunken just a few minutes after 11, and the tower closes at 11, so we just missed them taking care of us. A little bit of traffic was in the area, but we had no problems getting in and off the runway. I kept wanting to flare well too early during the landing. The combination of not being able to see the runway due to being nighttime and along with no landing lights was keeping the darkness below me a little scary.

We did survive though. We hung around the office until 12:15ish talking about the flight and all the different aspects of night flight. I think I'm really going to enjoy flying at night as long as the plane is in working condition... I'll have to reschedule the cross country, this time with 3729D instead of 37147... hah... crazy planes...

Have a great weekend!!!!

Flight Lesson 16 - A Long Cross Country

I showed up to Lunken today with my flight plan prepared only to find out that there were slight changes in plans.... well, major changes in plans.... complete changes in plans.

Not only were we changing locations of our cross country, but we were going to be flying a four-seater Piper Cherokee with a passenger in back. I was very excited to fly the slightly bigger plane.

The Cherokee felt much heavier than the Skippers, probably because it is, and in addition we had an extra passenger in the back.

We took off from Lunken at exactly 16:00 and went out east towards KUNI where Ohio University is in Athens. We landed, with a touch and go at 17:00 and then turned north to go to Newark, which is just east of Columbus. That leg took about a half hour.

The reason for the passenger was that he had heard about a building that was shaped like a hand basket. And he thought it would be very neat to see it from the air. Well we found that basket, and it was that... a giant building with handles, very funny. I took a few pictures with Gary's phone, so hopefully he'll send those my way and I can post them. We landed and stopped for fuel at Newark. The uncontrolled airport was very quiet and laid back. They had cookies, which of course I sampled a few of :-)

Taking off from Newark, we headed back towards Cincinnati on the longest leg of our flight. Nothing of too much excitement happened. I did fly over a hot air balloon, as well as seeing a jet airliner fly above us (probably heading into Columbus). But total flight time for the cross country was 3.4 hours..... took quite the hit on the wallet.

I really enjoyed learning about and flying the Cherokee, it was exciting to try something new. Next on the flying agenda is night flight this week, followed by a night cross country. We're going to do the Lunken -> Athens -> Portsmouth -> Lunken for the night cross country. Then after that I'm going to repeat the cross country, just solo. I think I've broken the 20 hour threshold, so that is pretty exciting for me.

After my lesson I went over to the bar at Wings with Dave, Sharon, and Gary to have a beer and chat. It was a good time. These folks have been in Cincinnati a very long time and know a lot of the history. It is very enjoyable listening to them.

That's all for now, hope your weekend is going well!

Later!

Flight Lesson 15 - a very gorgeous day

Yesterday was a gorgeous day. I had such a fun time flying!

If you normally follow my flight lessons, you have probably noticed an absence in blogs. Yesterday I went up for the first time in about two weeks. Between iffy weather last week and being sick, I just never got the chance to fly.

There was a little bit of wind whipping around on the ground so I expected to be tossed around a little bit up in the air, but it was surprisingly smooth. And was it ever clear! On my way back west to Lunken after practicing maneuvers I got one of the most beautiful sights of downtown Cincinnati ever!

I flew Skipper 37147 yesterday, which unfortunately has no window vents... but it has two radios, which I really love. After flying I gave my credit card to Sharon and she remarked, "wow, this card is warm..." I kinda felt like saying... "well... duhhh" :-) She's lots of fun.

Up in the air, I just flew around mostly practicing steep turns. Nice smooth motions with attention to attitude are my needs. When leveling off after the steep turn you have much more vertical lift, so I kept popping up 50ish feet, until I finally got it right by pushing in the throttle more than you would think you'd need.

I flew over to East Fork Lake and watched a few boats going around. There were also a very large number of boats on the Ohio River. When coming back to Lunken to do touch and go's I did my landings on 3L, which is not fun. Since Sunken Lunken... is indeed sunken, there is no easy way to approach without buzzing the tops of houses. I survived though :-)

All in all an uneventful day of flying, nevertheless so much fun. I love going up and just cruising around. I decided to be a little more demanding with the plane and go into turns quicker, or ascend/descend quicker. It was fun... like a jet pilot... just at 80 knots... hah.

Fireworks tonight up in Mason!

Later!

Flight Lesson 14

I went up solo today. Flew about 25 miles southeast to Meldahl Lock and Dam, did some maneuvers and toyed around for a little bit. I did one practice stall, but the stall horn wasn't working. So when I started falling out of the sky I corrected fine and decided to head back for a few touch and go's.

It was quite bouncy up there today.

On the way home I think I left my flight bag on the top of my car when I drove away... have you seen it?

I'm now missing...
- flight headset
- log book (filled out with 14 entries) (I just did my 40th landing today... it was the end of a second page)
- Cincinnati Section map
- Airport Directory
- Flight planning tools
- BE77 Checklist booklet

I think that's all that was in there. I just want my log book back... sentimental reasons. I can buy the rest again... it sucks to buy it all again, but i really just want my log book back. The new one won't have 'FIRST SOLO!' in really big letters... or at least it won't be the same.

Flight Lesson 13 - Review of Maneuvers

This lesson last Wednesday was just review. We reviewed flight plans on the ground, then went up and reviewed maneuvers. I forgot how much I liked practicing maneuvers... especially steep turns. When you get all the G's pushing down on you while you're in a 45 degree bank for a 360 turn, its a little more exciting than flying from point A to point B.

During the steep turns I was able to do it perfectly only twice. If you keep constant bank and keep your altitude within +/- 50 feet you feel a burble from the prop wash when you've made your complete turn. Its a satisfying feeling.

Yesterday, Thursday, we didn't fly, but I went in to the airport to work on flight plans more. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. Gary and I chilled in the back room for about 3 hours just shootin' the breeze and working on the flight plan. I brought in a 6-pack of Sam Adams Boston Lager for us, and we each had one over our lengthy chat.

I'll be heading up solo a few times now, practicing maneuvers and such, then I'll be going on my cross country after Dan and Katie’s wedding the weekend after this one.

Later!

A note of appreciation

Yesterday's lesson was definitely a no go.

First off, we were planning on just working on maneuvers, and winds were at 18 knots, gusting to 26 knots... those would have been rather difficult turns around a point. And on top of that we pushed over 90 degrees yesterday with lots of humidity... which means a high density altitude. I think the DA was at 3,900 feet when I phoned the ATIS before the lesson. We would have been at cruising altitude while on the runway! That little skipper would have been in sorry shape yesterday. So no lesson, no worries though.

Next I would like to say wow and give a huge thanks to everyone who visited my blog and sent comments my way. There's nothing like notes of assurance and confidence when you are in a new endeavor.

For those that don't know, I posted a link to my post yesterday (with other links to my blog) in the AOPA forum yesterday. I figured it was quite the quirky lesson that others would enjoy reading about (I do apologize for the length... but too much to talk about)

Anyway, I just wanted to give a thanks out there and let y'all know I appreciate the support!

Later, have a good weekend!

PS> I just added a new module on the right side bar. I added a list of blog that I keep up with daily (or at least do my best to). If you are in a feed and see no right bar... well visit my blog and check it out. If you want me to check out your blog, send me a note with the address!

Flight Lesson 12 - Is it time to panic yet?

Quite the crazy lesson I had yesterday.

We started out reviewing how to make flight plans and gathering weather information for about an hour and decided it was time to get up in the air.

A slight change to the lesson this time was we went pretty far and I soloed. After leaving Lunken we got up to 3,000 feet with a heading of 047 and went up to Xenia. The ATIS said there was 10 miles visibility, but I really don't think there was, it was quite hazy. On the way up the 53 mile trek we reviewed in cockpit flight planning by watching the map and triangulating our VORs.

Once up in Xenia we landed on a gravel runway. I didn't realize how much I relied on the lights of the VASI to find my proper approach angle and we landed pretty rough. Gary wasn't phased though... "Not bad for your first not-solid ground landing..." This airport is in the middle of nowhere really. We turned around and taxied back up the runway (keeping the nose up as not to flip gravel with the propeller). We got up to a street and looked both ways before crossing... a car had stopped to let us cross. I want to be driving down a street and have to wait for a plane to cross the street... hah.

An old worn out hanger in need of a new coat of paint was on the other side of the street with a few planes sitting around. One of them was Gary's plane. Gary is a big guy, and his plane is tiny... I want to ride in it sometime though, it looks fun.

Gary hopped out carefully (we didn't stop the engine, cause we were in 3729D, the one that always has a rough time getting started) and went over to his plane to do preflight and startup. Once moving, he taxied around me and we crossed the street back onto the runway. I requested that we use the longer grass runway instead of the gravel runway just for my nerves. Gary took off first. As soon as his wheels left the grass I held the brakes, full throttle, then released brakes to get up to rotation speed.


This is panic point #1
======================

I'm up to about 50 knots and the plane starts moving left. I push a little right rudder to straighten out... still going left. More rudder... more rudder... rudder to the ground.... still going left! I'm panicking... The edge of the runway along with its blue bin marking the edge are close to my wing. I look for my speed, I’m about 55 knots... I gotta pull up. Normal rotation is about 65 knots... but I'm about to go straight of this runway, and I figure my 150 lbs will let us pull up early. I pull up and sure enough I can get my wheels a little off the ground. The stall horn blares intermittently as I sweat and look ahead to see if there's an OK place to set this bird down if I can't stay afloat. Keeping the plane about 10 feet off the ground I am able to level off and use ground effect to gain some airspeed.

"A little left there weren't ya....?" Gary jokes over the radio giving me a friendly and sarcastic critique.

We get up to 2500 feet and fly in pattern on the way back south at a heading of about 215. Gary took the lead as I requested and I flew low to his back right. Not too much excitement on the way back to Lunken. I saw a hot air balloon off in the distance which was nice. There was also a rainbow that was only projected on a cloud. I had never seen that before, it was gorgeous!

We are getting clsoe to Lunken so Gary listens to ATIS and calls me telling me we have information Zulu. He then tells me he's switching over to 118.7, the Lunken Tower frequency. I remembered him saying something about me staying on 130.5 and he would call back with instructions. So I stay on the frequency.

This is panic point #2
======================

I don't hear anything for about 5 minutes and we are getting very near Lunken. I don't want to flip to the tower frequency and miss out on Gary calling me back on 130.5, but I soon see Lunken about 5 miles ahead, and I don't know what's going on. Lunken can be a busy airport at times, and I didn't want to be responsible for anything scary. Oh yeah, and about 1 minute before Gary had quickly descended and blended in with the ground... I was all by myself... eh... this is where I really started to get worried. I flip over to the Tower frequency and make a call.

Me: "Lunken Tower, Skipper 3729D North of you about 5 miles, requesting landing" (I couldn't remember what ATIS information I had at the moment)
Tower: "29D you have a group of two in front of you, but you are clear to land on 21L"
Me: "Lunken Tower, 29D, I'm actually the tail of that group of two, I just lost site of the leader... sorry"
Tower: "29D, you are 3 miles north and clear to land on 21L"

I felt like an idiot... but I would have felt more like an idiot if I hadn't known where I was going and landed on the wrong runway, or worse... caused grief for some other plane.

While in my final I heard what I thought was the tower telling other planes they were clear to land on 21L. I then was again concerned. He did say I was clear, no? I decided to sound like an idiot again in the name of caution and confirm with tower my instructions.

Me: "Lunken Tower, Skipper 3729D, just to confirm, clear to land 21L"
Tower: "29D, yes, clear to land on 21L"

Hah... yeah. They know those skippers have students in them... but still. The entire ordeal is actually quite amusing in hindsight.

After tying down the plane and walking over to Gary at his plane, he said it was funny listening to me. He said he had wanted to get on the radio and let out a long "Duuhhhhh..." when I told tower I was indeed the second in the group of two...

Wow... what a lesson. I fly again tonight as long as these winds die down a little.

Later all!

Flight Lesson 11

So yesterday evening was my first time flying in nine days... it was almost like meeting up with an old friend.

I got to Lunken about 17:30 and talked with Gary for about an hour in ground school sort of deal. We went over writing up a flight plan both on paper and on the computer (which is super easy). We also called the weather-briefing center. The guy I talked to was super nice and helped explain everything to me as we went along, telling me what to listen for, what other options were for the weather briefing and the sort. I have realized that most everyone who deals with your flight (ground control, tower control, weather brief...) are all really friendly and are there to make your life easier. When first starting lessons with Richard, he made comments about how the people in the tower can be jerks sometimes... I am yet to see it though. I have made my fair share of mistakes so far and they have been very kind and friendly about it.

An hour passed and about 18:30 Captain Dave came in and asked if we were going up. He told us that someone had reserved the plane at 19:30... which we weren't aware of. We were going to fly up to Xenia and do some grass field landings and probably be gone for 2ish hours. Well so much for those plans... hah. I decided to go ahead and go up by myself. Gary agreed saying it would be a waste of my money to bring him up since we didn't need to go over anything around the airport. So I went out, did my preflight and taxied for my second solo flight. It felt like I hadn't been in the plane a while (nine whole days!). While doing my run up the engine was running kind of rough when I brought the throttle back to idle, but I figured it wouldn't cut out on me while I was in the air cause the wind would help keep the propeller going. I took off and got up in the pattern.

In the 0.4 hours I was up in the air I did two T&G's along with my full stop final landing. It was a fun time. I really enjoy Gary as my instructor, he is quite the character. I appreciate him thinking of my finances ahead of his own finances, it shows great character.

That's all for now. I fly again next Wednesday and Thursday. The reason I hadn't flown in nine days was because of the visibility being poor. Those fires down in Georgia are giving Cincinnati a haze and smog alerts all day now... no good. And then the other lesson I ended up not having was because we got in the plane and couldn't get it started... yuck (there were fireballs coming out the exhaust pipes :-D) That plane is in the shop now.

Later!

Flight Lesson 10 - Short Cross Country

So at first I was just going to solo today, but then I decided I didn't feel quite comfortable with leaving the Lunken airspace by myself, so canceled the lesson. Sharon called me back a little later with news that they just hired a guy on and that he could do my lesson this afternoon if I still wanted to go up. Well of course I did!

This lesson was a surprise actually, it was my first cross-country flight. We took off from Lunken 21R and went north to past the Blue Ash airport and over Kings Island. I saw the building where I work, but I wasn't able to see my house up in Mason without getting a little closer, all the trees are really big. So we continued from Kings Island up to the Lebanon/Warren County Airport where we flew a little bit past, saw Wright Field and turned around to land at Warren County. We taxied off and around the runway before taking off again (not another plane in sight). We headed back to Lunken while Gary (Porter) explained VOR to me and how to navigate with it. It makes logical sense in my head, but completely doing it while flying is another story... I'll have to get used to it.

We made it back to Lunken where I was told to continue south of the field and radio at mid-field for entrance to downwind of 21R. So at mid-field I start turning to cross at mid-field because we are on 21L side and radio the tower... "Crossing mid-field wasn't the initial instructions, but that's ok, enter on the 21L downwind." What!? You said 21L... well apparently we were both wrong, he did say 21L when he meant 21R but at the same time he never did say cross mid-field which I had done. Whoops... he was very friendly about it. The ATC folks at Lunken are extremely nice, I'd like to go up and meet them sometime.

After the lesson I sat around with Gary for quite some time and we talked about a whole lot of different things... I was there until 8:30, when we had landed just before 7:30.

Overall, it was a great lesson. Gary is a character, I will enjoy his company for the remainder of my dual flights (hopefully he's my third and final instructor). I enjoyed seeing some places outside of the boring Clermont County airspace as well... turns out Ohio isn't all just farm land... hah, we followed I71 pretty much up from exit 5ish up to exit 25ish (Kings Island).

Tomorrow I have another lesson, wish me the best.

Later!

Flight Lesson 9 - First Solo!

WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

hah... yeah, my first solo went extremely well :-)

Brian and I took off about 11:30 this morning and did one touch-and-go and one full stop landing. He hopped out and I called ground to get taxi instructions. I taxied to runway 21R, called tower, and waited for takeoff permissions.

The first thing I noticed when I was in the plane by myself was the weight difference. I had heard from many other articles that you notice the plane is much easier to hand and everything, but feeling it is completely different. The plane while taxiing was so light and moved very well.

I took off and was in the air, by myself... I made a right turn to the crosswind following the Ohio River and then made a right turn to downwind. I leveled off at 1500 feet and set flaps to 10 degrees when at mid-runway. When abeam to the numbers I incremented the flaps. Turning on base I called tower and reported... was cleared for landing on 21R. I turned onto approach and descended to touchdown.... FIRST SOLO LANDING... haha... I was excited... It's a good thing I have to push the button to call tower and they couldn't hear me cause I was sure cheering myself on :-D

I did the pattern about 6 times and finally brought it in for to park.

At Lunken today they were having a air race... so there were lots of other airplanes around that were from all over the country. As I landed they were all taxiing to their respective runways. The race is something where you estimate your time and whoever is closest to their estimated time wins... or something like that, I wasn't completely sure how it was working. So when taxiing back to the terminal I slowed to let all the super fast looking props planes taxi by... it was pretty exciting.

Once back, Brian met me out at the airplane and congratulated me with a handshake. We got a few pictures taken in front of the plane, which I will post once they are sent my way. The office folks, Sharon and Captain Dave were also there to congratulate me. I got a certificate which I will have to get a nice frame for.

So Brian is leaving, off to the airlines, I am very glad I got to do my first solo while he was around... very exciting. I'll meet a new instructor probably sometime next week and continue with lessons.

Yay for me! Time to go celebrate!

Later!!

Flight Lesson 8

Post 40... going on 400... wow, thanks to all who read

This lesson was quite stressful indeed. The thoughts of flying solo looming in all areas reminding me to be thoughtful of how I would do the current procedure if I were there alone... are there any more questions I need to ask? What if this happens? Did I just do that wrong?

We did a lot of touch-and-go's while also practicing soft field landing/approach and short approach. Short approach gave me the biggest scare yet. We were coming in for landing and I was going slower than usual with thoughts that I needed to slow down quicker. I wasn't completely sure what this exercise was and that was my big mistake.

There was quite the wind blowing, and it was tossing my little skipper around quite a bit. It was also a beautiful day out, which in turn brought lots of traffic around our continuous pattern. These elements along with the repetitive action of take off, pattern, land, take off, pattern, land, got to me and I made a few mistakes.

As stated before my biggest mistake was not questioning further our current exercise. My brain was telling me, well if you ask more about it, he won't think you know what you're doing and get upset with you... but in hindsight that is exactly what needed to be thought about me. We were coming in slow, nose pointed about 10 to 15 degrees above the horizon and descending at 500 feet/minute and 65 knots. That last note was the issue, we were about 15 feet above the ground when Brian jumps to life, grabbing the wheel and telling me to go full throttle, we were going to belly flop the ground, and not softly either. The full throttle helped a little but not enough to keep us off the ground. Our wheels touched and the entire plane jolted under the shock. With full throttle still we accelerated working the flaps up, and me trying to not let my face get too red.

I was completely humiliated. I should have asked for further instructions on our procedure... never again will I make a mistake like that. The feeling of that landing, and the embarrassment that followed didn't leave me for the rest of the night. I finished with a picture perfect landing, but that isn't the feeling I left with.

------------

So this morning I went to get my FAA Third Class Medical Examination Certificate, which doubles as my student pilot certificate. Over in Western Hills I went and completed everything just fine except for a past medical history field of my Physical Therapy a year ago. The Doctor wanted a fax from the PT saying I was fine and discharged properly. I leave without my certificate and head to the PT office... unfortunately, sometime in the past year they have closed their Clifton office. With my phone being dead and no pen to write the number on, i started scraping numbers with my stylus into a paper until a nice old lady came by and let me borrow her pen. Once back to the house I gave the PT a call only to hear that my file, since old, is in storage, but she should be able to fax it to them by tomorrow.

So much for flying solo this afternoon...

I am starting to think it is a good thing though. I've been getting extremely stressed out with the thoughts of going solo, and the events of this morning didn't help in the least. I need some breathing time. I have my whole life ahead of me to fly, no need to rush into something I'm not completely mentally prepared for. So I talked to Brian on the phone, and we rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Dan will drop me off, and Brian said he could drive me back home after the lesson. He's a nice guy, it is a shame he is leaving and tomorrow will be my last lesson with him.

So my hopes are that I am able to get my medical certificate tomorrow and maybe fly solo tomorrow evening. However, I don't know if the right doctor is in tomorrow, so I might be putting solo on hold until I meet and fly with my new instructor... instructor number 3 that is. I'm averaging 5 hours of flight per instructor, kind of annoying, but they do what they gotta do.


I'm not 100% sure when this solo flight is going to happen, but keep your fingers crossed and maybe say a little prayer tomorrow around 530 to 800 pm.

Remember to breath... I've been forgetting to do that a lot lately... Later!

Flight Lesson 6 and 7

Two days of flying in a row, crazy fun!

On Wednesday, we flew for 1.1 hours practicing slow flight, stalls, steep turns, the hood and a few touch-and-go's. I wasn't very happy at all with my touch-and-go's. The first two Brian had to grab the controls to help me onto the ground, but the third and final landing, I did completely on my own. I think that was the first one that was completely on my own without any hands on any controls from the instructor side of the plane. It was a rough one though, and then I could get enough right rudder down to keep us on the center line and we were veering quite badly onto the far left of the runway. Must have been quite the sight from the tower... but hey, they know I'm a student. Leaving my lesson on Wednesday I was feeling kind of disappointed with the way my flight ended with the bad landing... Thursday would quickly change that.

Neither Wednesday or Thursday were the clearest of days. The air was nice and smooth and the sun was sure out full in all its glory shining brightly right into my eyes (I really need to find my sunglasses). Yesterday, Thursday, we were just going to repeat our maneuvers from the lesson on Wednesday. We took off 21L and went up to 4000 feet to do our maneuvers out a little east of East Fork Lake. Nothing too exciting, more stalls and other fun things. The stalls aren't nearly as scary as I expected. Flying on the computer, the nose of the animated plane violently flings itself towards the ground, but in the real plane, the plane starts to shake with the stall and loses altitude, nothing to take your breath away. The lesson was going well, we were up at 4500 feet and further east than we've ever been. I tell you south-east Ohio... not much there. It was great for our emergency landing practice. Brian reached over and said, "Guess what... you just lost your engine..." then he pulled the throttle all the way back and I picked a field to land in. About 500 feet AGL we went full throttle back up to 3500 for a nice trip back to Lunken.

Back at Lunken after an expert conversation over the radio, I brought us into the Left base of 21L and soon after turned into Approach. "Full Throttle, go around..." Huh? Ok, Brian says to do it so I do it. We get past the field and I ask "Did they tell us to do that or did you decide?" "I decided... you were going to land on the wrong runway..." Whoops! haha... I felt pretty stupid, especially when we radioed in to tell them we were going around, the ATC responded with "Skipper 2-9-Delta Proceed to right patter for 2-1-Right, that's Right, 2-1-Right..." Yeah, I think she got her point across :-) We went around the right pattern for 21R and came in for a touch-and-go. I was a little high above the glide slope and set the throttle to idle and descended at 1000 ft/min to find the red over white. Once proper, pushed the throttle and aimed for the beginning of the runway at a descent of 500 ft/min. About five feet above the ground, I pitched the airplane up for its flair bringing its tires to a light screech on the runway... "Perfect! Very well done!" were the words from Brian. He flipped up the flaps, I throttle full and we raced down the runway rotating at 65 knots gliding up over the trees, and turning right over the Ohio River to follow the pattern. The following touch-and-go and the final landing were just as good, if not better. I was feeling very good about my success for the day and couldn't keep the smile off my face.

While in the office after our flight, Brian surprised me with saying "So one or two more lessons and you'll be ready to solo..." WHAT!? I thought I had to do 20 hours with an instructor first. Apparently not... 20 hours eventually, but you can solo whenever your instructor feels you are ready and you can pass a small open book test. I am crazy excited about this now. I have a lesson next Tuesday and then on Thursday hopefully I'll solo. I want to invite my family and a few friends over to witness my first solo flight, maybe get some pictures and video :-) So next lesson we are just going to do touch-and-go after touch-and-go... I'm looking forward to it! I also have to get a FAA third class physical done before I can solo, so I have a few doctors I need to call today.

Wow, long winded post... if you made it this far, congrats! I'm very excited about soloing if you can't tell. I'll keep you posted as always... Cheers everyone, my hopes are that next Thursday calls for a drink!

Later!

Flight Lesson 5

Not much of note today really. I was kinda tired throughout the lesson, which may not have been a good thing, but still I got compliments, so I think I was alright. The winds were at 15 knots from South West, with a few gusts here and there getting up to around 20 to 25 knots. Week took off from 21L and Lunken with wind slightly coming from our right. I over compensated with the ailerons and made us turn sideways a bit after rotation. I wore the 'hood' as they call it for a lot of the flight today. It is a pair of shop glasses that are frosted over all the lenses except for a small portion on the bottom which allows you to see your instruments. No outside visuals, only Instruments. I didn't like the glasses very much, I could fly fine without them since I have spent so much time on my computer on the simulator, but between me wearing my own glasses instead of contacts today along with the added glasses, I got a headache. We practiced S-Turns, Steep Turns, Turns around a point, and the flight pattern with a landing on 21R. We spiced up the flight pattern today when we were asked to do a fly over the airport and enter the 21R pattern, which I have never done before, and I will say the right pattern is a little more difficult than the left pattern. Something to get used to. And we went through emergency procedures again of engine being cut out, this time I took the controls and went for a field to land in. Brian didn't say anything, but I don't think I really picked all that good of a field... better work on that for next time.

I have flown for 6 full hours now. I asked Brian whether he thinks I'll be soloing after my first 20, and he was very confident and quick to say definitely!

Dan and I went back to Lunken after I came home, changed and ate a quick dinner for a run. We did the 5-mile track around the airport. It's the furthest I have ever run... it felt good. I have a little more knowledge of what to expect this Saturday now as well. I am excited, it will be a lot of fun.

I register for Fall classes tomorrow morning at 6AM... can't believe we're already looking that far ahead... eh, good night... sweet dreams.

Flight Lesson 4 - and an amazing weekend

Today's flight was spectacular. The weather is amazing (wind was gusting up to 16 knots near Lunken, so it did get jerky during the pattern). There was a showcase of airplanes new and old out at Lunken today which drew a huge crowd. Although, it also brought a delay in my lesson departure.

I met today my new instructor, Brian, who is a very fine person. With Richard's overly busy schedule, I was asked if I minded switching instructors since I'm still new, I'm flexible and obliged. We flew for 1.5 hours today, practicing S-Turns, Turns around a point, steep turns, Traffic Pattern (including takeoff and landing), and a few other items. One of note being emergency landing.

Brian brought the throttle back to idle while we were at 2,000 feet after a decent and we went over the details of finding a field to land in, which instruments to turn on/off, how to call the ATC folks, and such. We were about 500 feet AGL when he finally gave full throttle and brought us back to altitude. It was fun. He said we'd have fun later with other emergency procedures such as steering the airplane with the doors (in case of control loss) which should be fun and terrifying all at the same time.

I was very proud of myself for this flight. I maneuvered very well, bringing questions from the new instructor such as... you don't happen to have a flight simulator at home that you've been practicing on... I sheepishly nodded :-) Or other comments about how well I was keeping altitude during steep turns, or also in the approach, finding the right altitude and keeping good heading. After our flight he was talking to Sharon, the lady who runs the 'business' side of Flamingo Air and he made the comment, "I can't believe Jason's only been up three times before this". I was very happy with how things went. All the reading and review is helping out a lot, and I hope to be right on top of finishing lessons without too many extra hours of paying a flight instructor.

Also of note this weekend, well last night, the family and I went and saw Broadway's Lion King downtown. The show was amazing, the costumes were brilliant, and the singing was spectacular. We were all astonished with how well the show was done. With risk of sounding cliche or well... stupid... it was really magical. When Mom and I went to New York City to visit colleges we saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway there, and it too was amazing. We've also seen Music Man on Broadway, but I think the way the Disney productions are brought to life is just amazing. Highly recommended from here.

OK, this post is long enough. I'm very excited about this weekend, its been a lot of fun so far, and to top it off tonight we're going bowling! My all time favorite sport.. hah, yeah, you heard me. My ball has been getting dusty since we haven't been going every Tuesday night anymore. If you're in Cincinnati, enjoy this beautiful weather, if you are elsewhere, hopefully it is as beautiful as Cincinnati.

Later!

Flight Lesson 3

Well this was an exciting lesson to say the least. Tonight's lesson comprised of a few new areas.

First off, we discussed the traffic pattern on the ground before getting into the plane and flying away. But also before flying away I got to do the Pre-Flight check list on my own (none too exciting but something new). After making a complete fool of bumbling self on the radio to both ground and tower at Lunken, we were off and heading NorthEast towards Clermont County Airport. By this time it was almost 8 o'clock and darkness was coming quick. Once within 5 miles or so of Clermont County Airport we went over the procedures of radioing at an uncontrolled airport... this I felt more comfortable with, no pesky ATC folks to get on my case. (I must point out though, for the terrible time I had on the radio tonight at Lunken, the folks in the tower were very nice and understanding)

'Clermont County Traffic, Skipper 3729 Delta entering left traffic pattern of runway 22 on the downwind at one-thousand eight-hundred, Clermont County'

Richard took the controls and demonstrated flying the traffic pattern to the landing, with immediate takeoff (a touch-and-go). Once off the ground, he gave the controls back to me for my turn. At about one-thousand two-hundred feet we turned into the crosswind (radioing all the time) and climbed to one-thousand eight-hundred turning into the downwind. This time I kept the controls as we descended, turning into the base and then to the final.

Now before, my parents asked me... Jason, did you land the plane? Did you do it by yourself or did the instructor help you. My answer all the time was, I don't know... I think I did most myself, but he helped too.

Well I'm here to tell you, yeah... those landings were mostly him. This one was all me. We touched down pretty hard... hah. From there on we did two more touch-and-go's before heading back towards Lunken.

In the end I flew an hour, and it was pretty dark when done. It was a fun lesson. On Saturday we're going to be working with Stalls... scary eh? I'm still enjoying the lessons greatly.

As for singing flyboy, I haven't had a chance to even look at the website since I posted, I know there are a few broken parts, especially for those unfortunate souls who use IE instead of Firefox, but tomorrow night I don't have much going on, I'll probably work on it a little then. I still have to figure out a few more details before the site goes public with actual ability to make donations/purchases. All in good time though.

I'm getting pretty tired, its been a long day. Dan, Katie and I are running the 10K for the Flying Pig Marathon not this Saturday, but the next... and I'm a little worried about it. Dan and I ran 3 miles tonight, so we went almost half the 10K.

Have a good middle of week, Later!

Flight Lesson 2

I just got back from flight lesson two.

Things felt much more under control this time around. It's a good thing :-) My new adventure of this lesson was the radio.
- Who am I talking to?
- Who am I?
- What I want to do...
... wait for response
- Repeat instructions back...
Simple enough. Well I was nervous... ok, I was scared of the people on the other side of the radio. Hah, but it went just fine. I only had a few screw ups, I kept forgetting to tell them who I was on the response.

This is going to be an extremely expensive endeavor indeed. We were up in the air for 1.2 hours... so 1.2(90+40) [90 for airplane 40 for instructor] and we were on the ground talking for 30 minutes... so .5(40)... put it all together and after tax you reach a total of $177.60. Luckily they only charge an 'Airport Tax' of 1.0%. I need to come up with a way for people give me money... hah, maybe I could start a website where I'll make up a song about everyone who donates 10 dollars through paypal, and post a video of me singing it with my headset on. I could call it.... Singing Flyboy... or something... I'll work on that and get back to you.

My one mental note from this lesson is... STOP USING THE FLYING INSTRUMENTS... take a look outside every now and then... or most of the time. I need to pick a landmark and use that to help my navigating instead of all the controls.

That's all for now... Later!

Flight Lesson 1

"Skipper 37147... you are clear for take off..."

Whew! What a thrilling experience! I have to say, I don't think I have ever experience anything quite like flying an airplane before. Ok... so here's a little of what we did.

After checking the weather every 15 minutes all day at work today, 4:45 rolled around and I hopped in the car to head down to Lunken Airport. At about 5:30, Richard and I walked the airplane discussing the preflight checklist along with the different parts of the plane. After waiting a rather long time for fuel, we were finally ready to go. When that engine started and the plane started to rumble, I have to say I got rather nervous. These weren't nervous thoughts of not wanting to do this, they were nervous thoughts of, wow... I can't believe I'm doing this!

After taxiing, we were quick to take off. Taking off was probably the most unexpected experience of the entire flight. I had never been in a small airplane before, and I didn't realize how bouncy it would be. I wouldn't call it bumpy, I wouldn't call it jerky, I would really call it bouncy. They were gentle but defined bounces. At risk of sounding cliche... the ground kind of disappeared beneath us, as we ascended to 3,000 feet and leveled off turned east and heading past the Clermont County Airport, going towards East Fork Lake. We pretty much stayed around East Fork Park and Lake as I tried a few turns. I received compliments on keeping the level altitude while we went through turns (approx. 20 degree turns). Then we tried a few steep turns (approx. 45 degree turns). I had a little more difficulty with them, as I lost a little altitude. Sooner than it seemed, my time was up and we headed back towards Lunken. We saw a plane flying below us, kind of an awkward sight really. And we came into the flight patter on the downwind leg before turning to descend and land. I was actually surprised at how soft the landing seemed. I was really expecting to get jolted, but it was alright. And after a short taxi to the fence and gate, it was over.

I got the student pilot kit, which includes my first headset, pretty neat if you ask me, and my first entry in my log book.



I'm excited to get into these lessons. It seems like an awful lot to keep in mind while flying, but I'm sure it just becomes second nature soon. And of course, I'll keep the blog updated with the latest flight experience. Sorry if I seem a little giddy... its cause I am.

Later!

Flight Lesson 1 - Canceled... again...

I hate bad weather

Pre Flight - Lesson 1

I would be writing this entry at about 16:15 tomorrow... however, I'll be at work, and even though I could write the entry, I can't use the ftp settings to upload for you to see. That is why, tonight is the PreFlight entry.

Here's how I'm feeling: Excited, nervous, jittery, giddy, happy, anxious, sleepy, hyper... and everything else pretty much. Most of all excited though. I have never flown in a small airplane before, and my first flight will be with me in the left seat with hands on the controls. I am 99% positive that I will love every moment and will not be able to contain my excitement until I leave the ground again.

The weather tomorrow is a little iffy... Ever since that storm on Tuesday that canceled the first scheduled lesson, the air has been bitter cold again nearing record lows in the 20's, where'd my spring sunshine go? It is suppose to shower/snow tomorrow though, and I am hoping very much that it doesn't interfere with my plans. I'm not sure I can really wait anymore. Just a few minutes ago I took my flight around Lunken Airport on my Flight Simulator. I set the time to tomorrow at 18:00 with light rain and a breeze (the possible scenario). I then took off in my Cessna 172SP and took one lap around the traffic pattern at 2,000 feet. With my brother, Dan, by my side, I took us down for a nice graceful landing... hopefully tomorrow will be near the same :-)

So wish me luck, I'll let you know all about it when I get back!

PS. Did you notice the new banner up top? I need to change the side-toolbar colors now to a little darker, grayer blue.