Welcome!

Hello Readers,

If you're just finding this blog, welcome! Feel free to read through any of my stories by looking to the right side of this page, under "Past Stories." From there, click on a year, then on a month. By clicking on a month, you will find the individual stories. The stories range from my first lesson, to advanced training, fun flights, and then flying charters nationwide.

You can also find other pages with links to my photos, videos, and a map of the airports I've flown into or out of by looking above this post.

Many people ask me these days, how much flying am I doing? What am I up to with my life? Well, the biggest news that I can share is where my career stands. In January 2017, I accepted a position with a large medevac company. I work in the Operations Control Center as an Operational Control Specialist. I monitor every active flight that's currently flying in any of the 15 states we operate in. I work directly with our EMS pilots to ensure every flight is operated safely and legally. Monitoring the weather is a huge part of my daily work, and I often provide weather information to pilots on the ground or in flight. Additionally, I participate in the FAA required preflight risk analysis program, to include approving or declining a flight, and mitigating risk. I provide guidance to the pilots regarding FAA regulations, company policies and procedures, and give assistance with troubleshooting any numbers of technical issues. Some people refer to us as virtual co-pilots. It's an incredibly rewarding career.

Since beginning this job in January 2017, I have quit working for my flight school due to the schedule of the new job. I am no longer flying charters, and I really only get airborne 2-4 times a year. I hope to change that soon! I've found myself getting back into photography lately, and I spend a lot of time baking and gardening. I also assist in running a large local aviation Facebook group. It's a lot of fun meeting other local aviators through the internet or planned events.

I hope you enjoy looking through my blog, and thanks for visiting!

My Current Status

April 1, 2018

Update: My current hours, sorted by airplane are shown below. My total flight time to date is 421.8 hours.

Flightlogg.in is the website I use for my online logbook.

C-172 = Cessna 172. This is a 4-seat single engine airplane, commonly used for flight training.
C-310 = Cessna 310. This is a 4-seat twin engine airplane. This is the plane we use for charters.
EVSS = Evektor Sportstar. This is a 2-seat single engine sport airplane mostly used by Sport pilots.
C-152 = Cessna 152. This is a 2-seat single engine airplane, commonly used for flight training.
C-182RG = Cessna 182RG. This is a 4-seat single engine complex airplane with retractable gear.
BE-76 = Beechcraft Duchess. This is a 4-seat multi-engine airplane. Used this for flight training.
MO20 = Mooney M20. This is a 4-seat single engine complex airplane with retractable gear.
Remos = Remos GX. This is a 2-seat single engine sport airplane. Used this for flight training.
DA-40 = Diamond DA-40. This is a 4-seat single airplane that I flew in during an aerial tour.
Unknown = This was the Schweizer 300C helicopter that I did an introductory flight in. I also have a couple hours of Bell 206 simulator time not shown above.

I've landed in 19 total states (I've landed in KS but couldn't log those hours). Traveling across the country has been an amazing experience so far and I can't wait to see what journeys lie ahead.

Thank you all for your continued support! 

  

Rounding out 2014

Although I don't have much of a story to tell of the following flights, I thought I'd at least provide some pictures of my activities from Fall 2014.

September 21, 2014
Charter to Raleigh, NC was uneventful until we ran into a storm line coming home. We stopped in Louisville, KY to wait them out.

Killing time with photography

Beautiful sunrise back home

October 8, 2014
I went on a nice long charter, with Chicago being the first stop to pick up the part. From there, we flew to New York to deliver the part. As usual, NYC is stunning at night. Once we were finished in New York, we lifted en-route for a fuel stop in Alleghany County, PA. We arrived home a couple of hours later. I acquired so much flight time on this trip, which was awesome!

Hudson River

Coastline in NYC

PA fog- top right, in the clouds- middle right, morning sunrise- bottom right

October 25, 2014
Every year near Halloween, the airport has an Open House and Pumpkin Drop event. What was special about this year was that it was the first time I'd ever truly got paid to be a pilot. I piloted for a lovely lady who is working on her Private Pilot, so that she could drop the pumpkins out of the plane. I then flew some guests; a grandfather and his grandson. It was the grandsons first time in a small plane. He had the job of the bombardier. After the flight, they asked for a picture... with me in it :-)

November 19, 2014
It was that time again... instrument flight currency. I had a friend act as my safety pilot while I performed the required ILS, GPS, and VOR approaches. I also needed to knock out a hold before ending the flight with a circle to land approach. I remember back in my training days, how hard I thought approaches were. Now I look forward to doing them!

Labor Day Charter

September 1, 2014

Today is labor day and my wonderful place of employment has given everyone the day off. To start the day off right, I sleeping in and eat a nice breakfast. This afternoon I have plans to attend my brother's Labor Day BBQ. It's about 8:30am and I'm in the middle of making a dessert to bring when the phone rings. It's a charter to Burlington, Vermont! I have never been to Vermont before, so I was immediately excited. However, I also knew that it was going to be a looooong trip and I had to be at work at 5am the next day. What was the lesser of two evils in this situation? Not going at all and being upset that I turned it down, or go and risk getting home late, then either having to call in sick or go to work with little sleep? I choose the latter and commit to the opportunity.

Ed is my pilot today. The preflight inspection is done and the paperwork is ready. We depart Lambert International at 10:35am, carrying one GoJet mechanic and some cargo. The cool thing about this trip is that it's in the daytime, whereas about 90% of charters are overnight. This means that I will actually get to see all of nature's beauty along the way! Flying northeast-bound, we make our way over Great Lake #1; Lake Erie. Our route takes us right down the middle of the lake, from the west end all the way to the east end. It is so unbelievably gorgeous and blue. Looking to the right is the USA, and looking to the left is Canada. I have never been to Canada, nor flown over it. This is a first for me! We then cross over into Lake Ontario, just barely missing Niagra Falls. Again, the scenery is amazing.

We continue on our way, flying over Lake Placid, then Lake Champlain in Vermont. Our airport is just ahead. Looking down over the mountains, I can see a forest spotted with yellow. The leaves are already beginning to change for Fall. Another two weeks and Burlington will be filled with an abundance of oranges, yellows, and reds. I can already imagine the beauty that the northeast is known for in the Fall.

We land at the Burlington International Airport around 2:35pm (all times will be listed as central time for the sake of simplicity). I enjoy a refreshing cup of lemon water while we wait for the lineman to fuel our plane. The mechanic took his cargo and went on his way. Inside the FBO building, they had a nice cabinet full of items known to Vermont. Pure maple syrup was one of those items, and boy did it catch my eye! I mentioned to Ed that I had never tried pure maple syrup before. Little did I know that later while I was distracted, he had scored a couple sample bottles from the friendly lady behind the counter. Ed kept one, and gave me the other... how thoughtful!

Since we didn't need to transport anything home, I jumped in the pilot's seat and Ed sat on the co-pilot's side. We departed Burlington at 3:35pm, headed for Columbus, OH. We knew we would need fuel for the trip home because of headwinds and possible storms. Along the way we flew over Amish country, where you could see small houses, randomly laid out, and each with their own little farm. Further along the way, we flew over the Finger Lakes. That was pretty neat because they really did look like fingers; all long and skinny lakes, paralleling each other like fingers. We landed in Columbus at 6:45pm.

After snacking on some freshly popped popcorn, checking the weather, and getting fuel, we departed Columbus at 7:23pm. Shortly after arriving at altitude, we were met with some small pop-up thunderstorm. They weren't going to affect us at all, but it made for a nice light show. It was shortly after sunset and the lightning inside the cell illuminated the clouds like I'd never seen before. I grab my cell phone and get lucky enough to capture one.

A little beyond that cell, we could see out in the distance an enormous storm structure. I assume it's the rain that we see on our on-board radar. When I mention it to Ed, he said he would actually bet money that we are seeing the storms over St. Louis. To put that into perspective, we are over Dayton, OH and still 260nm away from St. Louis! That storm system we are seeing is an absolute monster. I can tell it's going to get interesting in a couple short hours.

We arrive in the St. Louis area around 9:30pm and the ground is lit up by the constant brightness of lightning bolts. Air traffic control diverts us to the south to stay away from the storms. I have never seen anything like this in my four years of flying. We're flying westbound, the storms are to the north (on our right side) and currently over our home airport. Our plan was to get behind behind the storm and land once it moved out. Mother Nature has other plans though. The first cell moved past, and we could see the airport beacon flashing out in the distance, We told ATC that we wanted to go for the opening while we had the chance, knowing that another cell was not far behind the first. We get within 2nm when we lost visual contact with the airport and had to abort the landing... 2 MILES!!! After an attempt to get under the clouds and trying to come in from a different side, we decided we had better go wait out the storms at Lambert. It was now 9:55pm.

Video of the storm can be found here: YouTube

While waiting, we heard a story of an airliner that tried to land after us. It took them three attempts due to wind shear. We watched as Lambert stopped all air traffic and the runways went vacant. Shortly after we were informed that the tornado sirens were going off in the surrounding towns. The major downside to this delay was that it turned into a nearly three hour wait. One storm would pop up right after another, giving us no opportunity to get home. Finally the storms moved out enough that we would take off. After a safe landing at home, we were exhausted.

I thanked Ed for letting me fly along, then hopped in my car and began my 30 minute drive home. It was pitch black outside and another small storm popped up, making driving dangerous. The roads were severely flash flooded and I nearly hit a fallen tree branch. At 1:15am, I finally opened the front door to my house. I got three hours of sleep before having to wake back up and go to work. Thankfully my shift ended at 10am and I could sleep all afternoon... before having to go back out to the airport for my other job at the front desk.

After all was said and done, I'm actually quite happy I went on the flight. The scenery was amazing, and I had a great learning experience dealing with the storms. Now onto the next flight!

Recent Fun

August 24, 2014

I have created a Flickr account to store all my aviation photos. Be sure to check it out! You can find the link on the Photos page of this website. Thanks!


August 15, 2014

A friend and I went out on a fun flight on August 11th to see this 12 acre corn maze. It was amazing!!

This photo courtesy of Mark C.

Some other cool aviation things:

• Here's what air traffic looks like when a thunderstorm hits a large airport: http://imgur.com/gallery/HL4jqNm
• Airliner takes off in front of a tornado! http://www.itv.com/news/central/update/2014-08-15/plane-takes-off-from-east-midlands-airport-in-front-of-tornado/

Fun in the Clouds

July 13, 2014

I just created a new video (with music) of flying through some clouds. Enjoy!

More Flyin'

May 6, 2014

Here's some pictures of recent flights, etc.

March 13th - I took my nephew flying for his first time in a small airplane. We flew down the river, circled the Arch, then came home. He fell asleep during the landing approach and slept right through the landing!

March 16th - I went on a charter to LaGaurdia in NY, then over to Washington DC, and back home. It was a  beautiful, calm night to be flying.

Looking towards downtown. The green building is the Empire State Building.

The charter plane at night (Cessna 310)

This is our airport kitty, Notam. I think he's ready to fly!

April 6th - I went on a charter to Raleigh, NC. These pictures were taken on the flight home over the Appalachian Mountains.

I also went on another charter to Raleigh on April 23 but I don't have any good pictures to share from that trip.

May 3rd - I went flying with a friend who is working towards CFI. It was at sunset :-)

May 4th - I saved the best for last. The Blue Angels were in town and put on an incredible airshow! LOVE LOVE LOVE THEM!!!

My current logbook stats:

Total time: 320.6 hours

PIC time: 247.7

Multi engine time: 44.3 hours

Total distance flown that I can legally log: 12, 910 NM

Texas

February 26, 2014

I've never traveled to Texas until this year. Within a matter of a couple of weeks, I had the opportunity to fly down there twice.

The first trip was an overnight charter to Austin, TX (KAUS) on January 29th. What amazed me the most about this trip was how huge Dallas was! It felt like flying from northern Dallas to southern, took forever. The other memorable thing about this trip was that we expected warmer temperatures down south. No such luck, it was still in the low 30s...

Loved the cactus decorations! Also napped in the pilot's lounge
while waiting for the mechanic that we were flying home.

On our way home, we made a fuel stop just ten minutes north of Austin (KEDC). This was definitely one of the coolest airports that I've been to. It had this gorgeous parking area for airplanes that made you feel top-notch. Then, you walk inside there's this massive, perfectly waxed airplane engine displayed in the lobby. Upon closer observation, we realize that this is a Concorde engine! Never in my life would I have imagined seeing this on a random stop. I feel complete.

The second trip took place on February 6th. Unlike most of my last cross-country flights, this one wasn't a charter. I was asked to fly our maintenance director down to Denton, TX (KDTO) so that he could perform a pre-purchase inspection on a plane. The plane is a gorgeous 2007 Evektor Sportstar Plus. It'll be one of our rental sport airplanes. 

We flew down to Texas in a Mooney, which was a first for me. The winter scenery was surprisingly beautiful.

Top right, St. Louis; bottom left, bubbly hills in AR;
bottom right, Table Rock Lake.

Current logbook hours:

Total Time: 308.1

Cross-country time: 93.5

Multi-engine time: 34.8

New York City

January 14, 2014

It's 9pm and I'm about to make my way to bed when my phone alerts me to a text. It reads, "we might have a charter to LaGuardia, you interested?" I'm already exhausted, as I've been up since 4:30am. Going to New York is a 12 hour trip, am I up for it? It's now 10:30 and I get the final confirmation that the trip is a go. I commit to being the co-pilot.

We takeoff from Lambert at midnight CST. We're taking a GoJet mechanic and about eight boxes to New York. We stop at the Allegheny airport in Pittsburgh for fuel. It's apparently the cheapest option on the east coast. An hour and a half later, we arrive in New York. The city is glowing with night lights, some of which reflect off the calm ocean waters. I'm completely awestruck. I thought it was cool to see St. Louis at night, but this is out of this world. I knew that I needed to take some quick pictures. We land around 5:15am CST.

After dropping off the mechanic and the parts, an airport employee picks us up in a shuttle bus and takes us to the FBO. I've been in many FBOs before, but this is the first time that I've seen one with not just one TSA officer, but three! That's when it really hit me... I'm in New York City.

We're brought back to our plane and wait our turn to taxi to the runway. It's now 6:15am CST and the sun is beginning to rise. I get to see New York City at sunrise... how cool is this?! We make our way out to the runway. There's five airliners in front of us and at least one behind us. I'm feeling pretty tiny right now, but hey, at least I'm in the pilot seat this time. 

LaGuardia tower at sunrise

Waiting our turn

The radio is hopping with conversations between ATC and the pilots. Now I see why this airspace demands and extra ear. We takeoff. The city is coming to life and it's just as stunning as it was at night. Clouds over the ocean start to roll in and cover the city like a blanket. Again, I find myself constantly taking pictures. I don't want to leave.

Brooklyn Bridge on the left, Central Park on the right.
Photo courtesy of my pilot, Mark C.

The city is consumed by low lying clouds

Now 8:40am CST, we're back in Pittsburgh for more fuel. At 9:20am we're back airborne. The skies are no longer clear and we run into some clouds. We're picking up light rime ice as well. For most of the trip it wasn't a problem, but eventually we skim the top layer of the clouds and the ice develops at a faster rate. I'm flying the plane home, and the other pilot has fallen asleep (we gotta catch a few ZZzzz's when we can!). I don't have a lot of experience with icing yet, but I have learned enough that when I see it developing quickly, even with anti-ice and de-icing equipment turned on, I know that I probably need to make some altitude changes. I radio ATC and climb up above the clouds. We're in the clear now. I apparently woke up the pilot in the process. Something about the word "icing" catches the attention of anyone flying a plane.

The rest of the trip is uneventful. I end up taking my 30 minute nap somewhere over Illinois. Landing back at our home airport went well. I think it's safe to safe I'm getting used to handling this complicated beast of a plane. She's slowing becoming one of my favorites to fly.

12 hours and 30 minutes after taking off from Lambert, we're finally back home, safe and sound. That was definitely one of the coolest flights ever. Not to mention, I logged my 300th flight hour!

Out and About

January 14, 2014

Here's some more pictures from recent happenings:

Washington, IL EF4 tornado

Tour of Lambert International's control tower!

More pictures from the tower

Charter to Little Rock, Arkansas on Jan 3rd, 2014

Ice on the Mississippi River, Jan 13th, 2014

Trouble in the Air

November 27, 2013

It's the night before Thanksgiving and I take a charter to Washington DC. The pilot is new to the company, but not new to flying or charters. He's from Alaska and has a great deal of experience flying in challenging weather. He's also flown many types of single and multi-engine airplanes and is a certified flight instructor, which makes we feel good. I have not met him before tonight, and since this was his first charter with our company, it was my job to show him the ropes.

We taxi the Cessna 310 to the runway and takeoff. Once landed at Lambert International, I show him where to go to pick up the part that we are to deliver to Washington DC. We load the plane and get on our way. The flight there was cold but uneventful. We talk, getting to know each other and our aviation backgrounds. After landing in DC, we go inside and wait to deliver the part. It's snowing and misting. We're hoping we can take off before the engines and airplane surfaces get too cold. After a longer wait that desired, we are able to hand off the part to the proper people. The pilot and I then go outside and preflight the plane. I grab some oil out of the wing locker and top off the engines. We're ready to go.

Ran into light icing (upper left), pictures
from the FBO, then a map of where we had to divert and land due to
complications with the airplane.

We're flying along in the middle of the night, headed for home. The weather is less than ideal, but we're safe. As we move along, I'm hearing a strange sound. Something seems louder than normal. I don't mention anything because I don't see anything wrong. I figure my headset batteries were dying, leading to the loudness. Nope, they're fine. Eventually I look out the window and towards the back of the wing. I see the problem. The door of the wing locker that I took the oil out of was open. We're cruising along at 170kts and I'm worried that the door is going to break off. It appears that a towel is hanging out, keeping the door from closing. I notify the pilot immediately.

We tell ATC that we need to make a landing at the nearest airport. We're somewhere over West Virginia, it's pitch black outside, and there's mountains beneath us. ATC gives us clearance to land at KCKB (North Central West Virginia Airport). Upon landing, the pilot pulls off the runway but keeps the engines running. There's snow and ice on the ground, and it's lightly snowing. I hop out of the plane while still on the taxiway (with permission from ATC), and hurry to move the towels out of the way so that I can secure the door. Alright, we're all set.

We take off and get back to altitude. Twenty minutes later, one of the engines start surging uncontrollably. The plane starts swinging side to side. The engine sounds like it's going to full speed then quickly decelerating, and repeating. We turn off auto pilot and scramble to figure out what's wrong. The engine sounds as if it's on the verge of completely failing and the pilot is fighting the controls to keep the plane straight and level. I check every last instrument and nothing is reading wrong; all gauges are reading in the green arc. We check the fuel; it's ok too. What is wrong??? We decide that it's absolutely necessary to make a precautionary landing. We notify ATC of our partial engine failure. The controller asks the pilot if he wants to declare an emergency. I look at him, and he looks at me. "Yes I do," he responds. It's still night time, and we're still over the mountains. A million thoughts are running through my head... This is this pilot's first charter with us, he doesn't have too much experience with this particular airplane, I hardly know him, it's Thanksgiving, and we're in the middle of now Ohio with a failing engine.

The engine continues to surge while ATC directs us to the nearest airport (KPKB - Mid Ohio Valley Airport). I'm so nervous that I'm trembling. The pilot does a great job keeping the plane as controlled as possible. As we get closer to the airport, he tells me to expect emergency personnel waiting for us. This only makes me more nervous, but I'm glad he mentioned it. We turn on to final approach for landing and I can see the firetrucks and ambulance on the field with their lights flashing. I can't believe this is happening!

We sigh with relief as we safely land the plane and follow the emergency vehicles to the nearest building. We turn the engines off and get out. The emergency personnel greet us immediately and make sure that we're ok. We're worked up, but ok. They ask what is wrong with the plane, but unfortunately we haven't even figured that out yet. The weather is still cold and nasty, so we go inside the small FBO. The pilot calls the manager, while I call another pilot who has many hours with this plane. After the pilot hangs up with the manager, he calls the maintenance director to start problem solving. The pilot that I'm on the phone with gives me some tests to try on the plane to see if it'll help identify the problem. I hang up and call my husband; he needs to know what's going on.

After my pilot and I receive plenty of tests to run on the plane, we go back outside and begin troubleshooting. A quick walk-around the plane reveals nothing, so we climb inside. The pilot turns on the master switch to check for things that don't require the engines running. Nothing appears wrong. We turn on the engines and run a series of tests. Again, nothing. We can't even replicate the surging. Completely baffled, we go back into the building and call the mechanic. While they're on the phone, I'm anxiously trying to figure out how we're going to get home. Do we wait for someone to fly out here and pick us up? Is someone going to drive across multiple states to get us? Should the pilot and I try to fly? They hang up and the pilot and I talk. We agree to take a test flight, staying in the traffic pattern at the airport where we're never too far from a runway.

The plane starts up like normal and we takeoff. He flies it while I check every last instrument, listen for weird sounds, and watch for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing. We bring the engines up to regular cruise to see if it'll start surging again. Nothing. We come in for a landing and pull back the power to see if that'll trigger anything. Nope. The plane refuses to do anything wrong. We land and go back inside. After a good discussion, we decide we are going to attempt to fly back home. Our plan is to follow a route where there's an airport every 10-20 miles. I'm certainly nervous about this option, but I'd like to be home for Thanksgiving without inconveniencing anyone to come get us. Since the plane was behaving normally with all the tests, and we'll have airports near us at all times while flying, we go for it.

Shortly after takeoff, we turn on the alternate air. It was a suggestion from the other pilot I had been on the phone with. By turning on the alternate air, it draws warm air from the engine and sends it to the back where the oil is. This warms the oil to keep it from congealing. Since it was so cold outside, we agreed this was a good plan. We hadn't thought of it when the engine had been surging. Our flight home was smooth and uneventful. We landed back home safe and sound. I have developed so much respect for my pilot tonight. He handled the situation like a true professional. I would be honored to fly with him again.

I inquired with the mechanics a week later to see what the problem was, and they too couldn't find anything. That lead us to believe that there may have been some ice in the engines, or the oil congealed. Both of which can be remedied by turning on the alternate air.

I drive home and find my husband waiting by the door. He was ready to drive to get me in the middle of the night if needed. I give him a big hug, then head off to bed. Several hours later I wake up and enjoy Thanksgiving with the family. It was a day I was definitely thankful for.

Havin' Fun

November 23, 2013

Here's some pictures from recent flights:

1. Halloween night 2013. I co-piloted a charter to Pittsburgh. The auto-pilot was inoperative, we dealt with storms, severe turbulence, had a 100kt tailwind going to Pittsburgh, and I landed the C310 on my own for the first time :-)

Top left: Jets in Pittsburg. Top right: Storm damage and high wind
reports from the night (right along our route). Bottom: The FBO in PIT

2. I took my mother-in-law flying for the first time on November 3rd. We did a city tour and flew by the Arch. It was peak Fall colors, which made for a beautiful flight.

3. I co-piloted a charter to Raleigh, NC. We had crystal clear skies and no turbulence. It was just an uneventful, dark, cold night.

Top: Coming into land at Lambert. Bottom left: St. Louis skyline.
Bottom right: The FBO at Raleigh

4. I was given the opportunity to fly an Embraer 145 jet simulator at Flight Safety on November 21st. The cockpit is an actual ERJ 145 cockpit, and the simulator was built around it. This is how airline pilots train to fly their planes. The simulator is built up on hydraulic legs, and you literately feel everything... even the cracks on the runway! I did stalls, steep turns, had an engine failure on takeoff, flew through the Arch, made four landings, shot an approach where I broke out of the clouds at 300ft, and taxied the plane back to the terminal. This was an amazing experience!

Right side: Top- The $18M simulator, Middle- The simulated scenery

I am now up to 286.7 total flight hours logged!