Did you hear that???

September 11th 2011.
 10 years have passed since the horrific attack on our country.
 And the sky's were extremely quiet.
 As James and I prepared for our flight lesson, we were reminded of the sacrifice made by so many on that day, 10 years ago.
 There isn't a better day to solo. Take a day that was meant for harm and evil, and honor those people that died, by gaining valuable knowledge and experience in the aviation field where dedicated and professional pilots can make all the difference.


 I got to the field a half hour early to study, and relax so that I would be fully prepared to complete the pre-solo written exam, and make a solo flight for the first time.

 James and I had an hour of ground lesson before we went to fly, so that I could get a refresher course on systems, and a few flight procedures. Then we entered a new topic.. Navigation.
 With a Seattle sectional in hand, we reviewed the different types of airspace, and the requirements associated  with each one. There are many things in the aviation industry that can be confusing at first... and this was one of them. I had studied the airspace system by my self, and was not able to make much sense of it. Luckily I have a good C.F.I that was able to give me a good overview of the requirements in a little under an hour.

 Feeling fairly confident with the topics covered, we discussed some more systems and V speeds in the airplane that I was supposed to solo in.

James pulled out the feared "Pre- Solo Written" test
.
"Now is as good a time as any" I said to myself.

I looked over the test questions and realized that I knew most everything on the test..
All of the anxiety involved with studying for this test melted away, and I  was able to complete the test with a score of 89%.

James was happy with my score on the test, and he wanted to go out and have me do my first solo flight.
All of that anxiety that I was feeling prior to the test suddenly rushed back filling my head like a very thick fog. I knew that I possessed the skills to fly the plane by myself, but the security blanket known as "James" was not going to be there.."just in case"
So I called my dad, and had him come to the airfield. He had told me before that he wanted to be there when I soloed. Thinking that I would enjoy the support, I invited him to ride along with James and I to Aurora, where the flight would take place. Little did I know, an exciting afternoon was in store.

 Flying out of the home base (Twin Oaks Airpark ) was uneventful and fairly normal; The only thing that separated this flight from the many others that I have had, was the lack of visibility. We were able to stay in visual conditions, but visibility was limited due to the smoke and smog from the forest fire burning on the other side of Mount Hood.

 Coming around the end of the hills, towards the Willamette river, Aurora (KUAO) came in to view. James instructed me to make all of the radio calls so that I could get the most practice possible. I made my call for  the 45 degree for a left downwind entry. The nervousness mounted and my first approach was horrific. I was high, fast and unprepared. James casually suggested that I go around and make another attempt. This second time my approach was much better. Still a little bit high, but I wasn't fast, so I just deployed 30 degree's of flaps, and aimed her right at the runway. The flare was a little bit soon, but it worked out fairly well.

 After a few more practice landings, James had me pull off the runway and taxi over to Aurora Jet Center.
 I kept the engine running while dad and James exited the airplane just to keep my workload to a minimum.
Never before has the door closing startled me so much. The sound of that door closing indicated to me that this was real.. not a dream any more.

  I started to taxi away from the Jet center, and made my taxi radio call. I had taxied all the way to the end of the runway where I held behind a beautiful piper arrow. I called them up on the radio, and they said they would be a few moments yet so I went ahead and pulled up to the hold short lines. I started running through my checklists and flows so that I would be ready to go. Right as I was about to pull the button for the radio to make my departure call,
I saw James running towards my airplane!

 He opens up the door and tells me that as I was taxing away from the jet center he had heard a weird sound from the engine of the airplane.. a metal on metal grinding sound.  The line technicians at the jet center agreed that it sounded bad. I was impressed that james had run all the way from the FBO to catch up with me, but then I noticed a fuel truck driving away. James jumped in, and we taxied back to the FBO to figure out what was going on.

 We shut the airplane down, and got out to do a little visual inspection of the engine compartment and prop area. This inspection turning up nothing abnormal, we decided to start the airplane and taxi around and see if we heard the concerning sound again. Sure enough, there it was again. So we pulled back into our parking spot, and jumped out to do a little more visual inspecting.Yet again, we didn't find anything that was out of place. So we decided that we would call the maintainance manager at the airport to see if he had any idea's as to the cause of this sound. However we were unable to reach him. After trying multiple times to contact him, or one of the maintainance technicians, we decided to call the owner of the airplanes. Of course over the phone there wasn't much that he could do, so he decided to hop in one of the flight schools other airplanes, and fly over to figure it out first hand.

 After hanging out in the nice airconditioned FBo for a little bit, and watching some football, we saw Bob role up in the flight schools Piper Comanche. He stepped out of the plane as casual and unconcerned as an owner can be. He spent a few moments looking the plane over, and came to the same conclusion that James and I had already come to. So he moved to his second option and wanted to hear how the airplane was running. So I hopped in and started it, and again taxied around a little bit so he could hear the engine running. Bob ended up figuring out what was going on. The starter rod was not sliding properly, and it was rubbing on another peice of metal inside the cowl. He took out the oil dipstick, and got some oil on the rod.After lubing up the rod real well, we started the airplane again, and didn't hear the sound as much as the first time. But it was still there. So we shut it down, and  added a little bit more oil to the rod. The last time starting it, we did not hear the sound at all.
 Bob instructed James and I to take the airplane around the pattern again so that he could listen after the engine had worked a little bit.
Bringing it back in, we decided that the airplane was safe to fly again, and Bob turned it back over to us.
After that frieghtning experience, I was not feeling confident in myself about soloing. But James gave me a little pep talk, and again closed the door.

Taxing out behind Bob in the Comanche, I was very aware of every little sound and bump. I took a deep breath, and went through all of my flow, and pre flight checks again. As I saw Bob drift away into the herizon, I realized yet again, that this wasn't a dream.. It was happening. For real. No saftey blanket, no help, no reminders. It was just me, and all the experience I had gained up to this point.
As somewhat of a leap of faith, I pushed the throttle to the stops and aimed her right down the middle of the runway.
The airspeed came alive, and I checked my engine instruments, and everything looked good. I called Vr and began pulling back on the yoke.
As the wheels came up off the ground, and I felt the effects of the wind one the airplane, everything just seemed to stop.
No noise,  no wind, no thoughts in my head, no other airplanes in the pattern. A peacefull calm came over me like a heat wave.Everything I had learned came to me like I had known it all along.
 I made my radio calls and started to descend back down to the runway for my first of 3 full stop landings. I started what seemed to be a normal approach for me. A little bit high, and a tad bit fast. When I did make it down to the runway, I was still a little bit fast and ended up ballooning a little bit. But with a little bit of added power, and plenty of runway ahead of me, I stabalized out, and set down nice and smooth.
 I let out a big huge sigh of relief as I slowed down, and cleaned up my configuration.
 Forgetting that it was suppost to be 3 full stop landings, I started to apply power again..but then I remembered and imidiately retarted the throttle and applied the breaks. Now, there was not enough runway to take off again, so I pulled off onto the taxiway, to make a second attempt.

 With all my thoughts rushing into my head I realized that I could hear a rushing wind sound..not normal with a closed cockpit...
  I was nearing the FBO again, where my dad and James stood anxiously waiting. I frantically searched the cockpit for the source of this sound, only to find that the passenger door was not latched! With the absence of a wind stream against the plane, the door had the ability to swing open.
I reached over and latched the door shut, right as I was passing my dad and James.
 I waved to them when I passed by, and went on to complete my final two landings.

Exausted and relieved at the same time, I pulled up to the FBO the final time, and picked up my passangers. Dad and James climbed in and congratulated me. James looked over at me, noticed that I was exausted, so he took control of the airplane, and said he would take off and climb out, to give me a moment to relax. James decided to do a victory performance take off. Which, for those of you who don't know what that is, you take off, and fly down the runway at about 20-30 feet and gain airspeed. Then once you have reached a good airspeed, you pull back on the yoke hard, and aim that bird up in the air and bleed off all that airspeed you just gained. The result, is going from 20 feet to about 750-800 feet in about 5 seconds. What a rush!

 With a full day of flying behind me, we did a little sight seeing and then headed home.
 What a day!

 I enjoyed the day, and the leap forward in my training. The feeling of accomplishment and validity are two things that I had never really felt before. I have  always skipped around. I never had the discipline to finish something and follow it to the end.
 That is changing. (the good kind of change)
 The support I have gotten from family, and friends is incredible. It really ensures the feeling, that this is where  I want my career to go. This is something that I can do. That I LOVE doing.

 When I first started this blog, I wasn't sure where my flight training would take me.
 But I know that I am going to enjoy where I end up.
 Thank you all for the support and encouragement.
 I hope that as you follow this blog, you will continue to see improvement.


  Thanks for reading!
 Make sure to leave your comments and questions!
I would be more than happy to answer them!

Flying High!

Well I know this is the way I start off every blog I write, but WOW. It has been a while.
 I really enjoy writing up my flights.. but life has gotten so ridiculously busy that I haven't had time to get on here and just write.
 I know that is a terrible excuse..but its true.

 Well flying is still going slow.
  I Feel like I am not making much progress because I am forced to fly when money and schedule allow.
  For some reason, the two do not align most of the time. But that is okay.

 When I do fly, it is just incredible. I get back home, and the only thing I can think about is flying again. Now a lot of times life gets in the way as well as work, money, and other things. But through all of that, I go flying one more time and I fall in love with it all over again.

 The scenes of beauty you get to view from the sky are breath taking. All of your problems that felt so frustrating, and overwhelming while you were on the ground just fade away. The only thing you think about is you, and that airplane. It is just you.









 The Flight I had last night was the closest I have ever been to flying by myself. Forest and I have never flown together before, so he wanted to see where I was at. Before the flight, we discussed what I had previously studied. Then we went down to the airplane, completed our preflight inspection, and got ready to take to the sky.
 He was very reserved, and allowed me to complete the checklists and everything by myself. He was there to make sure that I was being safe while still allowing me to rely on myself for all of the flight.
 At first I was nervous because he wasn't going back over everything checking what I was doing. However I did notice, that he was watching every move I made. Because he was not correcting me on little things the nerve's faded away and I pushed the throttle to the stops.

 As we climbed away from home base, the beauty of an Oregon evening became apparent. The sun was low in the sky, and the clouds were shifting softly. Over towards Aurora State, we began to see smoke drifting to the valley from the Forest Fire on the other side of Mt. hood.  This view, along with the constant humming of the 180 horses pulling us melted all anxiety away and I was able to really concentrate on honing my skills.

 Approaching Aurora State on the 45 degree entry, we realized that this was going to be a fantastic night to practice landings. For one, there was a slight cross wind, which makes it a little bit challenging. The second plus was there was no one flying. We had a large airport All to ourselves.  I was able to log 6 landings total in one evening flight with no stress. I was also able to complete all of the radio work, because I did not have to deal with tons of people on the radio. I made a few good cross wind landings and approaches. My approaches were a little bit high, but with 2 notches of flaps, and a little bit of a slip, it worked out well. Leveling out in ground effect allowed me to bleed off any excess speed, and softly set it down for a sweet kiss with the pavement.


  Entering the left downwind for another touch and go I heard a voice pipe up on the radio. It was a cirrus entering the pattern from the 45 over the river. I called my position, and continued towards the base leg. Just before I reached the base leg, I hear yet another call. Someone calling a 10 mile final. After I turned final and made my call, the cirrus entered on the downwind, and a few other airplanes taxied to the run up area.

 I decided then that this would be the last touch and go, because I wanted to leave before it got to busy. This last time, my approach was perfect. Not to high, not to low, not to fast.. just perfect. I came over the threshold at about 45-50 feet, and about 65 knots indicated. I entered ground effect and flared for what seemed like an eternity. But believe me it was worth the wait. The landing was smooth, soft and the famous "kiss" was heard as the stall warning started blaring. Feeling relieved and comfortable with the nights progress, we called out our intentions of departing the pattern to the north and headed home.

 What a way to end a long busy week. Such an incredible feeling. I float home on "cloud 9" every time I fly, but this time was especially high.