Flight 14

December 28, 2010

I had my first unsupervised solo today. It was strange, I was much more nervous about flying today than I was during my first solo. After my first landing though, the nerves went away and I was ready to fly.

I don’t really have much of a story to tell this time. I flew for 1.1 hours and did a total of eight landings. I had a few good ones, one great one, and a few that needed work. But I never bounced or ballooned, so I’m satisfied.

Next lesson will be all ground training. We will plan out my dual cross country trip. Although I am currently working towards my Sport Pilot Certificate, I plan to eventually earn my Private. With that in mind, we have decided to meet the cross country requirements of the Private instead of Sport. This will save me time and money.

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 16.8

New Instructor

December 26, 2010

Today was my first day flying with my new instructor, Matt. He spent about an hour on the ground introducing me to the procedures for short and soft field takeoffs and landings. Soft field means that you are landing or departing from either grass or another soft surface. Short field prepares you to takeoff and land with either a short runway or with obstacles nearby (such as hills, power lines, etc.)

For each type of takeoff and landing, he did the first one to show me how it’s done, and then he let me do it. They are definitely different than normal takeoffs and landings, but kind-of fun!

After we practiced that for a while, we headed out to the practice area. From there we reviewed slow flight and power-off stalls. I’m glad we did this because it’s been a while. Then as we headed back to the airport, he pulled the power back and we simulated an engine failure. This was my first time being asked to land in a specific place with a simulated malfunction. With previous practice, we would just pick a field and not actually land, this time he picked a specific runway and I had to make a landing without adjusting power at any point.

All-in-all I had a pretty good day. It was a lot of new information, and with the new instructor, I received some good tips. Matt definitely holds his students to a high standard, which I greatly appreciate. My next lesson will be a one hour, 100% solo practice, staying in the traffic pattern to practice takeoffs and landings. I’m really looking forward to it! Matt also told me that from now on when we are flying together, none of my landings will be normal. We will either be simulating an engine failure, landing on a runway with a crosswind, or doing a short/soft field landing. Should be interesting :)

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 15.7

First Solo!

Flight #12 - December 21, 2010

The day that I will never forget. I started off doing three landings, still with some instructor input, and then it finally clicked. The next three landings I did completely on my own. Justin didn’t need to say or do anything and it felt amazing. The weather was perfect too. The winds were calm and I didn’t have to deal with any crosswinds. After about an hour and a half, Justin asked the unexpected question… was I ready for him to get out of the airplane and go up by myself? After a second of shock, I said yes. We then taxied back to the hanger and went inside to do some paperwork. Once that was taken care of, we taxied back out to the runway, turned off the engine, and he got out. I was a bit nervous, because by time we got situated, I had at least 3 other airplanes to deal with. He stood out in the grass with a radio, while I went flying. I had to stay in the pattern so he could watch.

I’ll never forget how I felt looking at the empty seat next to me; there are really no words to describe it. Once I was clear to takeoff, I announced on the radio that I was departing the runway and pulled onto Runway 36, lined up on the centerline and applied full power. I somewhat expected to forget something due to nerves, but I didn't! I made my turns at the right time, adjusted the power as necessary, added flaps at the right times and made all the required radio calls. Now it was time for my first landing. Having Justin out there watching me, along with the other planes waiting to takeoff made me a bit nervous. I came in high but corrected it enough to make a safe landing. It went quite well, I was happy with it. As I was taxiing back to the runway to go again, Justin got on the radio and said, “Congratulations on your first solo echo victor!” (the echo victor stands for the EV in my airplane’s tail number). Wow, what a feeling that was. The second time I went up, I still came in high. I was actually too high to land comfortably/ safely so I made a radio call and did a go-around. I think my biggest mistake with the go-around was that I was a bit late on retracting the flaps and the plane kind of wobbled a bit when I finally did retract them. I managed to get back on track and came in for the final time. This landing was fantastic. I was really proud of it.

I then went and picked up Justin, who was outside the whole time (about 30 minutes). We didn’t feel like taxiing back to the hanger, so we took off and flew the pattern for a different runway that was closer to the buildings. As we were coming in to land, another airplane wasn’t paying attention and took off on the runway perpendicular to us. Justin immediately told me to climb while he contacted the pilot on the radio. It was a close call but everything ended up ok.

After getting out of the airplane, he took a picture of me standing in front of the plane. We then went inside and I got to meet my new instructor, Matt. Justin is moving away to go back to school, so it was his last day. It was quite the bittersweet moment for me.

I don’t think it really hit me that I just soloed until I started driving home. There has never been a moment in my life that I felt that level of accomplishment. Graduating high school, or college, or getting my first job, or earning my black belt… nothing compares to how it felt soloing.

Later that night I looked at my logbook and saw that Justin signed off for me to be Pilot in Command from here on out with my airplane. Wow!! So now I will need to get some solo practice in, then my new instructor and I will start reviewing maneuvers and start working towards my cross country flights.

Little fact: First solo was exactly two months to the day of my first lesson.

 Picture of me in front of my airplane after my 1st solo

My instructor Justin and I after my 1st solo. (Photo taken by SCFS)

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 14.8 

Arch Tour

December 20, 2010

Today was quite awesome. It was a bit too windy to focus on landings, so we flew out to the Arch! It was absolutely amazing. To get out of the practice area and fly over the city was a great experience. I had the controls during the entire flight. We started off at Smartt, and basically flew a circle around most of St. Louis at 1500’. Once we made it to the Arch, we circled it once before continuing on. We got back to the airport about a half hour before my lesson was due to end, so we did three landings. At least one of the landings I did all on my own. After we went back inside, I asked him how close to soloing I was. He replied with, “You’re extremely close. Maybe one or two more days with good weather and you’ll be there.” Wow! I can’t believe that almost exactly two months after my first lesson, I’ll be able to solo.

Having a good time flying

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 13.0

Flight 9

December 15, 2010

We started off practicing forward slips and side slips. Then once I got comfortable enough we headed back to the airport to practice pattern procedures. It was a much better lesson. I finally felt prepared and ahead of the airplane. We did a total of four landings, and at least one of them I did 100% on my own, for the first time. Doing a landing without instructor assistance is the most amazing feeling. It was even better than I expected. I didn’t want to stop but time and the cold weather (frozen toes/fingers) kind-of gets in the way. Then as we were packing up to go back inside, I received a bit of sad news. My instructor tells me that he’s moving away to go back to school for at least a year. I will have three more lessons with him before I have to start going with someone else.

On another note, I received my 3rd class medical certificate and student pilot certificate on December 9, 2010.

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown:10.5

Learning to Land

December 7, 2010

Today we stayed in the traffic pattern and focused on landing. It was a pretty rough flight. It’s been a week since I’ve flown, so I started off feeling pretty rusty. Then, we had a helicopter (looked like one of the medical helicopters) that decided to use the airport to do the same thing as us. Practice the traffic pattern and landings. I got so flustered having this guy flying around. It’s already crazy enough trying to do (what feels like) 100 things at once. We did two landings, and then decided we’d take a break and flew out of the traffic pattern and headed north. We just cruised around a bit, practiced airspeed control, and simulated being in the pattern. It was a much needed break. I was able to relax and get myself together. We then headed back and did two more landings. We had a slight crosswind today too, which made it a bit difficult. I did better on the 3rd and 4th landing, but I still left feeling disappointed in myself. I’m just thankful to have an instructor that’s patient and understanding. Hopefully the next lesson will go better.

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 9.3

Flight 6

November 23, 2010

It was a good day all around. I did the takeoff, then we headed north over the river. We practiced more slow flight, and stalls. I finally nailed it and feel way more comfortable doing stalls now. We then simulated an engine failure and practiced emergency procedures. This is still pretty new to me, but I think I did pretty good. After that, we practiced ground reference maneuvers, such as "S" turns, turns around a point, and the rectangle. I enjoy doing these, it's kind of fun. While we were doing them, we also looked East and could see downtown STL and the Arch. That was really neat. Justin (my instructor) said that one day coming up, we'll fly right by the Arch. I totally can't wait, that'll be amazing! Anyways, the last thing we did was go back to the airport and land. But then we had some time left, so we went back up in the air and did a go-around. On that landing, he said I did 95% of it. How cool! Everything seems to be coming together and I'm having such a good time. 

 

Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 7.0

Flight 1

A brief history of how I came to the decision to fly... I've always been intrigued with aviation. But it really started in 2008 when I had a job across the street from a Class D airport. At this point I had never even stepped foot on a plane, but I knew I wanted to learn to fly. So a few days a week, I'd take my one hour lunch break and drive to the airport. I'd sit in the parking lot and watch the planes takeoff and land, and I would also watch pilots do their preflight inspections. I studied everything they did and tried to learn as much as possible just by being a bystander. In May 2008, I had my first plane ride. I flew with a bunch of family to Montana. I didn't like it on the trip there, but by the trip home, I was having a blast. Later that year for my birthday, I was given money to take a one hour discovery flight in a Cessna. It was amazing! Afterward, I decided to buy a book from Borders. I read it for a couple of weeks and quickly got overwhelmed. I felt like it was way above me. I convinced myself that I was not capable of really becoming a pilot, so I returned the book and gave up the idea. Then two years later, in 2010, I had the opportunity to fly a helicopter for a half hour for half price. I knew immediately after we lifted off, that being in the air was for me. I also knew that as fun as the helicopter was, I really wanted to fly airplanes. Less than a month later, I found the courage to take my first official lesson. I'm so glad I did.



October 21, 2010


I arrived at St. Charles County Airport at 10am and met my instructor, Justin. We went out to the hanger and spent about a half an hour going over the pre-flight inspection. That involves everything from checking the wings, to the gas, to checking the engine. We then got in the plane and got ready to taxi the runway. Justin and I did the takeoff together. Once we leveled out, he gave me full control of the plane. The flight lasted one hour and we mostly went over the controls and instruments such as the altimeter, throttle, rudder use, etc. The second half we focused on turning in level flight, in a climb, and in a decent. I would guess that he had me do about 15-20 turns ranging from 90 degree turns to 180’s. I got the hang of it after about the fourth turn.

That’s about all we did for today’s lesson. It was very windy in the air today too. I don’t usually have an issue with turbulence, in fact I rather like it, but today it was a bit overwhelming. On the bright side of it, the trees were gorgeous and the river looked beautiful from the air. Once the hour was up we headed back to the airport. Justin did the landing because there was a bit of crosswind, which is hard to handle until you have some experience flying. I then taxied back to the hanger. Once we had the plane turned off we just went over questions and then went inside.

I bought the Sport License pilot training kit which has five books, a flight log, a flight bag, some software, and some navigation tools. I’ll have to buy a headset this week. We went over my homework and then we were done. For about two hours after getting home, I still felt a bit queasy from all the turbulence. That airplane is just so light that you feel EVERYTHING. But overall I had a great time and learned some great information.


Flight Log to Date
Hours flown: 1.0