1 Year Anniversary

October 22, 2011

Sorry for the delay in writing! My last three lessons have been canceled, therefore its been two weeks since I last flew. On the bright side of things, yesterday was my 1 year anniversary of my first flight lesson! My, how time flies (no pun intended).

So, how did I celebrate? How else... FLYING!

Ryan, who is a friend of mine from the airport went with me. He's a commercial pilot working towards his CFI rating. It worked out well for both us because I could get free advice, and he could get practice working with a student. He left the flight completely open to whatever I wanted to do. I decided we would land at a couple towered airports and then do some scenic flying in between. This would be the first time that I've flown with another pilot who wasn't an instructor. Very exciting!

I did the preflight inspection on the Cessna 172. All looks good and safe to fly. Ryan ask me where we're flying today. I tell him that I want to head out south, find Hwy 40 and follow it out to the Arch. Then I thought we could do a landing at the Alton, IL airport. He then suggests that since we're going to be in the area, we could fly into Spirit Airport, then head out to the Arch. "Sounds like a great idea! I've never flown into Spirit before, so this should be fun," I reply. We depart, and begin flying south. Ryan takes out his iPad, (which is loaded with flight planning software) and pulls up the frequencies and airport information for Spirit. Alright, that's pretty cool. I want one; and currently taking money donations if you'd like to give to my "fund", hehe :)

I can't tell you how many times I've driven by the airport, and still had a somewhat difficult time finding it from the air. We're now in contact with the tower. Looks like we're cleared to do a straight in landing for Runway 26L. Now 100ft, 50ft, 10ft, and touchdown. Unfortunately it was an embarrassingly hard landing. Those big runways are deceiving to the eyes! Oh well, we were safe and Ryan explained what I did wrong. We taxied back to the runway and waited. "4882G, holding short of 26L, ready for takeoff," I said. The tower asks where we are headed, and after a brief moment we were cleared to takeoff with a left turn departure. We were now headed to the Arch.

As we're flying, Ryan asks if I want to land at Lambert International Airport after the Arch flyby. I think about it for a minute, then say sure. We tuned in to Lambert's frequency to see if it sounded busy. If it was, then they probably wouldn't have time to deal with us "little guys." To our benefit, it sounded dead. For it being a Saturday afternoon, we were shocked.

We're approaching the Arch, so I called up the airport nearby and requested clearance to transition through their airspace so we could fly by the Arch. It was gorgeous; the sun shining off the sides, just gleaming beautifully to anyone looking. We then depart the downtown area and head slightly north. We tune the radio to Lambert's ATIS frequency to get the weather and airport information. This was very amusing because the automated voice threw in a, "GO CARDS!" to the message (our STL Cardinals team is in the World Series right now) . Ryan asks if I want to do the talking or if I would rather him do it. I was quick to reply, "no no, you do it!" Yeah I chickened out, but what newbie wouldn't? He asks the tower if they have time to squeeze us in for a touch-and-go. We're in luck! They assign us to Runway 30R. I grab my camera and ask Ryan if he could take video of the landing; he was happy to do it (Check my YouTube page soon for the video upload- the link is on my video page). The wheels touched the giant runway. It was a much better landing. We quickly raise the flaps and configure the plane for takeoff. I add full power and at about 50 knots, I begin to climb. Ryan's still taking video as we gain altitude. After a couple of minutes, the tower tells us we're clear of their airspace and to have a good day. We're now headed back to our home airport.

We enter the pattern for Runway 18 and run through our pre-landing checklist. The landing was beautiful. We had a really good time. Ryan was very helpful and I learned just as much as I would've from a certified instructor. We'll be flying again for sure.