Updated plan

I haven't updated this blog in over a year! How sad.

Well, moral of the story is that I am not flying and haven't been for the past year.
Life just kind of got in the way. About the time I stopped flying, I started dating someone pretty seriously. We have been close friends, and even dated on and off over the past 10 years. (since middle school!) We started getting a little bit more serious and it quickly became apparent that we were meant to be together. a week or two before Christmas 2012, I drove her to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood, and proposed to her next to the warm fire while a snow storm passed through.

Fast forward a year, and now we are 2 weeks away from the wedding! Over the last year, we have been planning the wedding, and planning our lives. I have moved into more of a leadership role in my job, which really meant more commitment and more time. With everything that has gone on, I have not had time(or money) to fly at all.


We are discussing our options for jobs and education after the wedding. The current plan is to get through the wedding, and get all of our debt paid off.(the cars, and credit cards etc).  We are well on our way to that first goal.  After that, My fiance(soon to be wife!) is going to go back to school to be a CNA, so that she can get a better full time job. After she is settled, and after we have our debt paid off, my plan is to obtain loans and scholarships to attend PCC and get their 2 year degree in aviation science. This will serve 2 purposes.
1) to get me back flying.. because..well..lets be honest.. that's where I want to be anyways..
2) Give me a good marketable trait that I can take with me the rest of my life.

 I feel like I need to move on with my life, and leave the hometown feel. My life really isn't mine. It is kind of absorbed into the borg so to speak.

I have always had a dream to be a professional pilot. That means to be payed..to fly an airplane..
There are many options out there for pilots. From fire fighting, to airlines, to bush pilots, charters, airshows, what ever.

I am tired of hearing the saying " The sky is the limit"
Honestly, it better not be.. cause I am hoping to be up there..in the sky..

That is where we sit right now.
 Life has changed, in that I am not taking care of just myself any more. So I have to put family first. That's the way it should be.


So if you were following this blog, sit tight. When I start flying regularly, I will start posting again. I hope to get up for just a fun flight at some point. Just to get my feet wet again.


Thanks for reading.
cheers

1st Time I have wanted to kiss the Ground when I got back....

 So I went for my first solo flight COMPLETELY by my self.
 No instructor waiting at the office, no dad watching..nothing.
  Suffice it to say, I was nervous.

 The weather was marginal. It was Great for a January day, but still not perfect Visual flight rules weather.
  I had taken some time off of work, so that I could take advantage of this nice day. I was feeling kind of rushed because I needed to hurry back to work. That stress, combined with being nervous made for bad mental status for flying.

 After completing my interior and exterior pre-flight checklists, I got in the plane and started her up. Part of the Run-up portion of the pre-flight checklists, is checking the weather as well. Upon doing this, I realized the weather had deteriorated below what I was checked off to fly in. Or so I thought. The weather that I was checking was actually the weather at the Hillsboro Airport. Which only reports on weather inside the airspace that the airport resides in. I was outside of that airspace. Meaning that I only had to check the weather at the airport, or airspace that I was going to. Because I believed the weather was below what I was able to fly in, I decided to go back to park the airplane, check the weather one last time, and call my instructor before calling it quits. I re-installed all of the control locks and "remove before Flight" banners, and went back up to the office to make a final decision. The owner of the planes was actually in the office, informed me of my mistake regarding the weather and said that I could fly.

Realizing that I could fly, I went back down to the airplane, and hopped in, and started her back up. I was thinking at the time that since I had already done a pre-flight check, that It was not important to do another one. So I removed the control lock from the yoke, and proceeded to the run-up area again. After doing a short run-up of the engine, checking my gauges, and setting my instruments, I pulled out on the runway and started the roll.

 As you are rolling down the runway, the pilot is supposed to verify that the instruments are reading correctly. The two most important are the airspeed indicator, and the engine instruments ( oil temp, pressure etc..)
 So I checked those two instruments on the take off roll, and noticed that my airspeed indicator was not reading correctly. I looked over, and checked the engine instruments and they seemed to be normal.  I wanted to abort the takeoff, but I looked forward and there was not enough runway left for me to safely stop.
  The only thing I could do, was get the airplane airborne and pray that it was only the instrument malfunctioning. While I was trying to take in all of the information being presented to me, and make a decision, I completely missed the "remove before flight" banner and cover over the pitot tube that I had reinstalled when I went back up to the office.

   After I was airborne I tried to assess the situation so that I could decide what the best action to take would be. Seeing that "remove before flight" tag flapping in the wind, and hearing it was very nerve wracking. I made the decision to continue around the pattern, and land the plane.

          The pitot tube is a device that gathers information for the instruments to decipher and display. In this case, having the pitot tube covered prevented my airspeed indicator from reading correctly. The airspeed indicator is a vital instrument to even a visual flight, because you need to be able to control your speed in different phases of flight. If you are in the landing phase of flight, and your airspeed indicator is not reading properly, you could believe that you are going a different speed than you really are. In this case, I knew ahead of time that the airspeed indicator was not reading properly. Not being able to trust that instrument, meant that I had to feel the air on the airplane, and leave myself a little bit of room for error. If I got to slow in the pattern, I could stall the airplane and crash. This could happen also on landing. I could get to slow, and essentially fall out of the sky before I am ready to come down.

Well back to the actual flying, now that you know a little bit of information, to help you understand the situation.
Making the radio calls in the pattern, and getting back to the airport proved to be a tough task because I was getting nervous about not knowing how fast I was going. There was only one way to get back.. And that was DOWN. Taking a big breath, I started making the decent into the runway. Trying to make sure that I was not going to slow, I stayed high so that I had plenty of room to get slowed down, but recover if I had stalled.



 After flying for what seemed like hours, I was on final. And I was way to high. Just a few weeks ago, Forest, my flight instructor, showed me a good method to get down, quickly and be safe. So employing his method, I dropped all of the flaps, and aimed her down. I got nervous the farther down I got towards the runway because I realized I was going to fast. But It all worked out, because when I leveled out just a few feet above the runway, the speed bled away. The problem became worse however, because I was using up a lot of the runway trying to bleed off that speed. I had been told before by flight instructors, that if I wasn't down by the windsock, to just go around and try again.  But this seemed like an emergency situation for me.Going around, with out knowing how fast you are going could be even worse than just pushing into the ground and slamming on the brakes.

After just  passing the wind sock, the plane finally settled down, and sat right down on the runway. With only 500 feet left of runway, I hit the breaks and pulled off the runway, shut down the engine and pulled off the cover that had caused this whole mess.

  To add insult to injury, when I got out of the plane to remove the pitot tube cover, I smelled fuel. I thought to myself, Good gracious, what else could go wrong today. After a little inspection, I found fuel leaking from the seem in front of the flaps on the wing.

After all I had gone through, I decided to take the airplane back, park it and call it a day. I went back up to the office, and explained the malfunctions to the owner.


Even though it ended well, I was reminded of how lucky I truly was. This could have ended up so much worse. Many people have flown with block pitot tubes, and not had it end so well. I felt truly blessed.

I learned a few lessons on this flight .A few lessons that I won't soon forget.

Signed off to fly Solo!

I feel like I've landed right on the coin.
Cloud 9.
The lost island.
Whatever it is, i'm there.

The culmination of years of dreams, money, time,effort, and help have finally paid off.
I still have a long ways to go as a pilot, but this a major step forward.

I have had many difficulties.
Family problems, personal problems, financial problems, switching flight instructors and many many more.
But now that I am here, it seems to not matter any more.

Last night, Forest and I went on another evening flight after work and had a great time.
I know I say this every blog.. but WOW.
I love flying at dusk and  witnessing the change that defines our days.
For now, I am limited to only flying during the day, or early dusk, so as soon as the sun sets, I have to be on the ground.
The weather that I am aloud to fly in  is limited also, but that is okay. I still get to fly by myself!


My landings are getting better. I have been really working on them. Going through the procedures in my head, and the airspeeds; and just everything that needs to happen in the short time.
 I have really enjoyed the flying and it now it feels like I am making progress. That is exciting.

Final Approach At Mcminnville Mun. Runway 4

Base to Final Approach at Mcminnville, Runway 4

 Well I have compiled a small video to show my progress over the last few months.
A while back I purchased a GO PRO camera and I have put it to good use.
 I have taken a few different clips, and compiled them all into one. So check it out and leave some comments!
 Thanks!

Keep checking back for updates! There is a lot of flying that is going to go into the next few months!


 flying video.. check it out!!
 
Landing Practice- Video

Hand me that flashlight....

 Crazy!
 Here we are again a month later!
 Can't believe that it has been that long since I have flown.
  Lots of time has passed, but lots of preparations have been made to get this training under way.
  I have recently moved in with my Dad.. and out of my own apartment. That means that he will not charge me rent, but instead I can use that money can be used to fly.  Paying to get out of my apartment was a little bit of a headache. But that is in the past now. Looking forward, I am excited for the future.

 James and I have a differing schedule, so we made a mutual decision for me to switch flight instructors to someone that has a schedule that would better mesh with mine. So now I am flying with Forest Fluckey.We are only going to be able to fly weekends for the winter, but when summer kicks up, I will have enough money saved up that I can hit it hard and get finished, and maybe move on to my tail wheel in the cub!!


Last night was my first official flight lesson with Forest. I had flown with him when James was gone one evening, but last night was the first official lesson.
 I just wanted to do a good  refresher flight and get back into the hang of things. So we launched out of Twin Oaks, on a South eastern heading that landed us right at Aurora State.
 On the way, Forest demonstrated a full drag decent for me, to show how quickly and safely you can get down if you had to.  With full flaps extended and the throttle set at idle, you can aim the airplane down about 25-35 degrees and descend, with out the airspeed climbing to an unmanageable level. Once you get to the altitude desired, you just level out and your airspeed just bleeds away and you can make a nice soft landing at the desired point.
 Little did I know, that this technique would come in handy later on in the evening.

 "practice makes perfect"
 Thtats the saying right? Well I am just now starting to believe it. Forest and I went to Aurora to practice landings. And boy were they dead on. The landings were perfect. Right on the stall warning, right on the center line and soft. I was exteremly happy that after a whole month of not flying, I was doing so well. I felt really confident. After a crazy experience at my solo, it was good to have a great practice flight.

Another highlight of the evening, was the transistion between day conditions and night flight. And boy was that a treat. You may have seen many a sun set, but you have not witnessed the true beauty of the world around you, until you have seen a sunset from the sky.
 As the sun dropped below the horizon, the city lights started to penitrate the sky. Highways and streets came alive with the blends of  color all flowing together. Even the airports looked impressive, with the full outlines of the taxiways and runways in full view. Lit with Blue, Red and White lights.
Very impressive.

At first I was nervous to be flying at night. As with driving a car, your depth perception is distorted slightly. However, after being in the air for a little bit after dark, and approaching the well lit Twin Oaks, all nervousness subsided, and I was able to enjoy flying to its fullest extent.
 I look forward to many more flying adventures.
 I am one step closer to completeing my 2nd of three solo flights, so that I can complete my private Pilot check ride.

Check out the video I took with the Go Pro:
 Sped up 4 times, so  I could put it all on YouTube, but it is a transitional flight. With 4 or 5 landings. Good little video. Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ojrNzqcMKVo

 One last sobering note,

 Today, at 4pm  two airplanes collided mid air, over newberg.(just south of Hillsboro by 10-15 miles).
 To what I have heard thus far, at least 1 person has been found deceased.
 One of the two airplanes was able to make an emergency landing in an irrigation field near a state park. The other aircraft was not so fortunate, and crashed inside a highly wooded area in the state park. My heart goes out to all involved. Yet again, another sobering reminder of safety in the air. Im glad I have met a good network of flight instructors.Being safe while flying is the number 1 priority.

 Thanks for reading!
 Leave comments/suggestions if you wish!

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.

"the Sky is yours"

 Well after a long time of waiting and frustration, I have purchased Flying renters insurance, and gotten my medical!
 According to the Doctor Roger Smith, I am set to fly..


                                                                  He looked at me and said
                                                                    "The sky is yours"

Well this was a major relief for me.. Financially, and physically.. 

 I am glad to have it over with, and I am ready to move forward again!

 It has been a long time since I have gotten on here and written so I figured that I would post a short but sweet update!

 Last week, James was able to talk me into taking an hour long ride in the cub..(yeah.. he had to try really hard to do that. ;)..) All I had to say after that flight was.."wow". 

 With the window open, and the sun in the sky, we departed our home field. As we flew westward,we slowly and ever so effortlessly skipped over the hills.After skimming farms and fields, we followed a little creek that led far into the mountains. Flying deeper into the hills of the pacific coast range, we decided to kick it up a notch, and gain some altitude.

 Still flying with the window down, we were able to skim some of the clear cuts on the sides of the hills, and try to spot some elk. Even though we were not successful , we still had fun flying low through the valleys and hills. 

 Turning back towards our home field, we followed a valley down out of the coast range that led us right down to Henry Hagg Lake. Now, I have flown over and near the lake, but I have never experienced flying or the scenery to this extent.  It is such a wonderful feeling to have the warm wind blowing in, and the world slowly creeping by, as if nothing was important.

 Well, we made it back to Twin Oaks, and James demonstrated a few different landing techniques for me. Very reluctantly, we called it a night, and parked that beautiful machine on the grass.

 I can honestly say, that you have not experienced flying until you have flown a cub through the mountains with the windows open. If you ever have the opportunity to do it.. just do it. Trust me, you wont feel like you wasted any time or money.

 Unfortunately that is all the flying  I have done recently. Now that I have the insurance, and the medical however, I will be soloing soon!

 Keep checking back for updates!!

Well that was the short and sweet version.. so don't ask for the long version, unless you want to sit down and hear it over dinner ;)

That't all for now!

Hello again!

James and I have been back in the air the last few weeks, but I have been so busy, that I havent had time to get back on!
  I have worked out a schedule with my boss that I can fly on tuesdays and thursdays in the mornings before I come into work. That works all well and good...except when the weather doesnt want to cooperate.
The last few flights we have been really lucky. The weather is really nice in the morning, and then gets worse as the day goes on. That was definetly the case today.But it has been great learning weather, because you have to control the airplane no matter what the weather is doing.So it is nice to have some different things thrown at me.
 Since I have been back in the air, we started with just the basics and slowly but surely worked our way up to more important things.(Landing with a slip, or short field etc)

           James has been working on getting me to memorize some emergency checklists as well..And in his own special way, he has gotten me to do so!
  We are flying along about 2500 ft or so above Banks or Apple valley, and he reaches over and pulls my throttle out to simulate an engine failure again! Well long story short, I had to scramble for my checklists and v speeds to make a good approach. I ended up aiming for the Apple Valley Airport. The previous home of the famous Ramblin' Rod. Another learning experience in this situation was when James leaned over towards me to look at my airspeed, and casually said "if it was me, I would start putting out some flaps to get us to float and slow down a bit". Well a few minutes previous, he had told me that he wasn't going to coach me any, and he was just going to let me fly in..So i replied.." Oh i think i will wait until i get over these trees". As we come around and line up on final at Apple Valley, I realized one small problem.. I was coming in a bit to high. Because  I was not intending to land, James said it was okay. BUT, if we had actually intended to land, I probably should have put the flaps out a little bit earlier.   ;)
 All in all that was a great experience.
 
         Later the same week, James and I went up again on a decent day .But this time the clouds were just a bit lower, and it was going to be a bit bumpy over Twin oaks..So we decided to fly over to Mcminnville to practice some landings. On the way there, James pulls out the instrument practice hood, and hands it to me..That was interesting!
   I had always mocked the idea that someone could get extremely bewildered while in instrument conditions. The possibility of getting mixed up and ending up upside down or something seemed very unlikely for a guy like me... Well..James proved me very wrong. James wanted me to try this demo to see how it really feels.
 I put the hood on, and closed my eyes. Then James told me to grip my hands together and put them in my lap as he flies the plane through a series of turns, climbs and dives. With my hands in my lap, I was to point with my thumbs which way we were flying. After a few minutes of tossing around.. I realized that it was very easy to get in a lot of trouble quickly.

I am really glad that I have had that experience as well. That is something that I will probably never forget.
 Someday I want to have all my instrument training, and this was somewhat of a reality check. Great reminder!

 This last week James also introduced me to flying at a controlled airport. So we ended up flying into Hillsboro Airport (HIO). This day I also brought my little brother Larry along for the flight. His job during all of the flying was to just take video, and enjoy a good day in the air! Both of which he did very well. I was trying to encourage my brother to get flying as well. He wants to, but is having a hard time getting moving.
Once over at HIO  we practiced some landings and flying in a pattern with other airplanes. I think the most airplanes I have ever flown around was on that day, with 4 airplanes in the pattern to land. We were flying the 172 like always, but the other airplanes were 150's from Hillsboro Aviation. Great landings on my part though.The first one was a little bit flat, but the second and third ones were pretty much spot on.
I have found that the key to landing(as James explained) is airspeed control. Once I figured that out for myself, landings became much easier for me. Also picking a spot on the runway and flying to it. That helped as well. I have been able to put it down on the centerline, or close enough  to it, and right in front of the numbers. It feels great!


 I bought a new headset as well! Today was the first day that I have gotten to use it!
 It is a David Clark H10-20. I got a great deal on it. I found it on Ebay for 180 bucks.
Good Find!








 Well it has been an incredible week! Every time I get in the air, I just love flying all the more!
  I wanted to add one final note on here:
  I have been really researching all the opportunities to fly and achieve my goal of Professional pilot. I have also been talking with different companies and organizations to find out what all they expect for their professional pilots.
 Well I received an email back from a counselor at Mission Aviation Fellowship. He has given me some great information, and some inspiration to continue flying and most likely head towards Missions flying!
 It is very encouraging to know that there are many people that need help in the world, and what i am working on, will eventually be able to help them!

 Thanks all for Taking some time to follow and read my blog! I really appreciate it!
 If you happen to read it, and like it, or have any thoughts, please click on the comment section below and leave a comment! It is good to see how many people really read this!
Thanks!!

john

Finally back!

I'm flying again!!!

 James got back a few weeks ago, but we haven't been able to fly because of weather.. 

 But today it was the most "spring" day possible!

 Well we took advantage of it! And i'm am glad we did!

 

We went up and started with the basics again, because 

I haven't flown in a few months.However I quickly realized that I was picking it up again pretty well!

 James decided to fly over to Mcminville Mun. for our landing practice today..Mostly because Aurora was socked in by some low fog and clouds. Getting over to Mcminville, we practiced some slow flight, stalls, steep turns, etc. Pretty much all of the basics. Then for the first landing, I was a little bit high, and pretty much forced the airplane to land.Which doesn't work. After touch down, we clean everything up, hit the power, and head up again, for another touch and go. The second landing was MUCH better, still a little bit high, but I allowed the airplane to float down. So best two out of three, I decided to try it one more time..However...the third time didn't turn out to be the charm this time.. James had to help me out, because again, I flared to high, and ended up "ballooning" up away from the runway because I had to much speed.So to correct for this, again, I attempted to force the airplane to the ground. Had James not helped me, we may not have flown away with a nose wheel!

 Well...it may not have been that bad..but it would have been a nose heavy landing for sure!

  After those three landings, we decided to head back. On our way, we passed the Newberg VOR at about 2500ft msl. This is my favorite area in all of the Portland area. I love being able to look out one wing, see mountains, look out the other, see more mountains, and see valleys on either side of bald peak.. it is just gorgeous. I will attempt to get a picture next time I am up there.

My final landing was back at the home field of twin oaks. Flew the pattern well, and ended up putting it down right on the center line. A little bit bumpy, but all in all it was a good landing I believe.

 Things I need to work on:

     1) following a flow, on the checklists, and in the cockpit

      2) Maintaining altitude and heading..

      3) V Speeds. Need to remember what the airplane is going to do and where!

I heard that this decent weather is suppose to continue through the weekend, so I have scheduled a flight with James tomorrow as well.. so I will post again tomorrow evening.

 Thanks for reading!

Almost up and Running...

Hey Guys!,
 Been a little bit since I have written, and I thought I would get on and do a quick update. Just to let people know what has been going on for the last few months.

To tell a long story short,my instructor James had a knee injury a while back.He had been waiting for an opportunity to have a surgery to repair that injury.Fortunately  for him that opportunity had come. However, it required him to stop flying for a few months, and return home to England to have the surgery.

 So James gave me two options;
1) quit flying for the winter, and wait until I return to start again..using that time for studying and money saving etc.
OR
2) continue flying with a friend of mine, and train under him for your private license.

 Well,  after Christmas I got another jeep, and my financial status was not going to allow me to keep flying, so I opted to wait until he returned to continue my training.

 Fast forwarding a few months(now current) he is scheduled to get back and be ready to fly the first week of April!  So that means that within a month or so I will be flying again!

 I have had some major changes in my life that I think will ensure a better learning environment.
 One of those changes that has yet to be finalized, is my moving back in with my dad, so that I will not have to pay rent. The idea is that money will go directly into my flying and I can focus. The other change, is I have taken a new position, working at American Extermination. That means that my schedule will be a little bit more flexible, and again I will be able to focus on flying.

 I have been studying a lot this winter, looking forward to James getting back so that i can fly a few times a week.

 My goal this summer is to have at least my private pilots license. If i can get everything to work out in my favor, i would like to have my commercial as well.

 I have also been thinking positively about the future, and what my plans are as far as my career. I have really been drawn to M.A.F. So if anyone has any thoughts on that, pro or con, please don't hesitate to share with me. I would very much like to hear your input.

 Well I guess that is going to be all for now,
 I'm going to sleep for a few hours, then get up and study for a bit!
 see ya in the Skies!

Delivery flight!

James and I had a great day flying yet again today. We have been battling the weather, as it has been stormy and rainy for the last few weeks.. but today it was forecast to be nice..for at least the morning. So right after i got off of work at 6 15 am, I went home, took a shower got cleaned up, ate some dinner, studied for a few minutes, then went flying! Betty Stark, the owner of the flight school, asked us to do her a favor and fly out to scapoose industrial to pick up a magneto for one of the other airplanes.  Taking advantage of some nice weather, James and I took off from twin oaks and made our way to Scapoose!
 Now i know i say this every flight, but what a gorgeous flight. In the morning, there is still some frost on the ground, the sky was mostly clear, and it was very very calm.Just a great day to fly. On the way out there, James had me practice some steep turns again, some stalls, (both power on and power off) and some slow flight.

 The steep turns i was having a little bit of a problem with today.. i'm not exactly sure why. I was having a lot of trouble keeping the plane at altitude. OH well! Great practice day.
 Also got to land at scapoose.. that was interesting! on final i was a pretty high, so James took over for a few minutes, and showed me how to land with a forward slip! Very interesting! That is definitely something that i am going to have to practice! He got the airplane into a slip, then gave the controls back to me so that i could feel it.. But he wanted me to come out of the slip and land the airplane.. Well,.... coming out of the slip didn't work so great i kept to much rudder in, way to late, then let it out really fast, so we set down kind of angled to one side..and just a tad bit hard. That was only the third or fourth time that i have ever landed a plane however so i wasn't going to complain.
 After we visited Trans-western to pick up that mag,  we headed back towards twin oaks. This time, we cranked in the power so that we could get back.  We had been practicing some steep turns, to try to get a handle on them before we landed, and realized that we were a little bit over our time so we got set up to land. We were extremely close to the twin oaks, so James, with that wonderful sense of humor that he has, reaches over and pulls my throttle to idle again!Says to me "there, you have had an engine failure, now fly the plane to twin oaks and lets land" Well, we were at about 3,000 feet, so i had plenty of time to maneuver towards the field. when we were abeam the numbers, James decided i had enough engine off practice for the day, so he stated "ok you have your motor back, lets get in"
Well i was a little bit relieved at that point, until i turned final, and saw the sidewalk i had to land on!
Compared to landing at aurora or scapoose, twin oaks is a very very small strip.I felt like i had a lot of room to land and make corrections..but when we got to twin oaks, I didn't have that room! I guess you really learn how to land an airplane!
 Great flight. A little bit frustrated with the rust that seems to be after a week or two of not flying. But i am excited to just be progressing.
 I am going to start looking for an aviation related job also.. so that may help.
 well thats all for now!

Not my picture, just wanting to diagram a slip landing.

 cheers!

Mayday Mayday!

 "Mayday Mayday Cessna 734KU Engine Failure,  Flying 3500 feet, putting it down in field north of Banks, north of highway 26, Request Assistance, 734KU"



 James, on our way to banks, asked me to climb from 2500 ft to 3500 ft for a safe cruise altitude. As he was explaining a few maneuvers that he was going to have me do when we got to banks, he casually reached over and pulls my throttle out..and states "Engine Failure". He told me quickly to find an emergency landing field. I thought it would be okay to just point out a field and say that i would land there.. But nope. From about 3200 ft, we picked a field, and glided the plane all the way to 500 ft, picking an exact spot to land. At first, when he made the announcement, I didn't think much of it, but, when he told me to fly the plane all the way down, it became a little bit more real. Starting with a radio call, we informed everyone around that we had experienced an engine failure, and that we were attempting to put the airplane down in a farmers field.

 " Mayday Mayday Cessna 734 Kilo Uniform,experiencing an engine failure, cruising at 3500 ft, will attempt forced landing in field north of banks requesting assistance, Cessna 734KU"

 Next we moved to passenger briefing.
 " We are experiencing an engine failure. Nothing to worry about, however we may be forced to land.. Please Fasten your seat belts. If we are forced to land, please be aware that the exits are here and here. As we come in to land, the door will be unlatched. When we come to a stop please exit the aircraft as soon as possible. Also the windshield kicks out if there is a big problem.Again, there is nothing to worry about. should be just another landing!"

After we made our radio call, and our passenger briefing, we move to the emergency checklist, where we check things that could have made the engine turn off. Such as bumping the fuel selector, or the mag's,or leaned the mix to much etc. After we have diagnosed the problem, we make an attempt at restarting the engine. If the engine will not restart or you can not diagnose the problem, you move to forced landing.
 Simulating the worst possible situation we made as if we were going to land the airplane in a farmers field.
 As we made our base turn,  I realized that i would have over shot the area that i was intending to land. So it is a good thing that i didn't loose my engine, because it may have been a bumpy landing.
 Practice makes perfect as they say. Hopefully when the time comes if it comes, i wont have any problem putting it down safely.

 Once we had descended, we climbed back to a safe altitude, about 1500 ft msl, and started reviewing ground reference maneuvers. We started with turns around a point, at the turning tree. This time i did much better maintaining altitude. Still a little bit rusty because i only get to fly once in a while, but over all it was much better. We also did some s turns over a strait road out in the same area. This maneuver was a little bit rusty.. I attempted to chase the turn and ended up turning to far to be lined up. But again , practice makes that perfect. I really enjoy practicing these ground reference maneuvers because I feel like it is developing skills that i want to use in my future profession.. Bush flying!


 Worked on some stalls as well, getting some power off stalls in. They were a little bit rusty as well, but Im getting a lot better at flying in general..When we get to altitude I am getting better at leveling off, getting the pitch set, the power, and then the trim. Also being able to control the airplane on the brink of stall. James says that a good pilot is good at controlling the airplane even in super slow flight, on the brink of a stall. So that is what we worked on for a while!

 The last few minutes of the flight was fairly eventful. We flew back towards home field of twin oaks, and made our radio call to let people know that we were entering the pattern on the 45. Responding to our call, was a lady on the cross wind in a Mooney. As we approached the  field, where we would make our turn on to downwind, I noticed a plane directly above us about 500 ft flying in the opposite direction. With out taking a good look at the airplane, we figured it was the lady in the Mooney, that was just overshooting the approach. So we started to make our turn onto the down wind for our approach, to also avoid conflict with that plane. Right as we started our turn to downwind, I looked right out the windshield.. and low and behold a Mooney about the same altitude as us, and flying directly at us! With one swift movement, James took control of the airplane, punched the throttle, and made a climbing left turn to avoid the lady, who apparently did not see us. Apparently the airplane that i had spotted above us, was not the person that had made a radio call.

 After that close call, James made a radio call, to let all other people know we were out of the way in the pattern, and rejoining for the downwind. As we thought back on the situation, both James and I wondered what the other aircraft was doing, and how come he had not made a radio call to let people know he was intersecting the pattern, around pattern altitude! All in all however, we followed the Mooney for a big pattern, to give each of us time to breathe, and made a safe and uneventful landing.

A Mooney Bravo similar to the one that James and I encountered.

 Over all it was yet another amazing flight. With lots of lessons to learn. Both in and out of the lesson plan.

Till next time!

Happy landings

watch out below!!!

"Aurora state traffic, Cessna November 7 3 4 Kilo Uniform, Making left downwind for runway 35, full stop landing. Aurora State"


yup thats right full stop landings!
 The flight yesterday was a tad bit short because James and I were both a little bit short on time, however i think it was one of the more productive flights that I have had so far.
 Starting at the home field of Twin Oaks (7S3) we flew south for a few minutes and  practiced a few power off stalls, just to refresh, and then worked into a power on stall. Once we got over towards the river, we started descending from our cruise altitude of 3000ft msl towards Aurora State Airport (UAO) to practice some landings!

The stalls that we practiced before were very helpful when it came time to land because i already had an idea of how the airplane would react at the slower speeds. It was really fun getting to land a few times at Aurora because the runway is pretty big compared to Twin Oaks, giving lots of room for forgiveness. Which, for the first time landing a plane, is very useful.
 The flight was fun.. very very cold, but fun. At one point out over Newburg it even snowed!
 Great fun and great flight. I am really feeling like i am progressing.Such a great feeling.
 It is so pretty to see the ground  from the sky with snow cover. Very pretty.
well thats all for now.
 Tailwinds and happy landings!

The 5th Hour

 Wow what a flight!
 Today the weather was a little bit questionable. we had about a 4500 foot ceiling, with wind that made most of the maneuvers a little bit more difficult.  We worked on some more ground reference maneuvers, including turns around a point, rectangle patterns and s turns. Also threw some stalls in there like last week, and we actually worked on some power on stalls too!
     Power on stalls are to simulate taking off with full power, and stalling the aircraft while you are very close to the ground. So practicing these is important, because if it happens, you need to be able to recover quickly to avoid a problem.
    In "The 5th hour" it was cloudy and overcast, but we were able to find clear spots to do some training in. However the sun liked to poke its head out every once in a while.It seemed to shoot right through our field of vision every time we found a clear spot. Oh well! the ground reference maneuvers went a little bit better this time, because i understood ahead what we needed to do.

   When we went for the turns around a point, the wind would play with the airplane, and i had to learn to correct for that with the bank angle. This was also the case with s turns and rectangles too, but i could really tell when we did the Turns around a point.

 Today James and I had a special passenger with us...my mom! She wanted to ride along, so today she gave me a ride to the field, and in turn got to ride along for the lesson. I didn't know for sure what we were going to do during the flight, so i invited her to come along.. Little to my knowledge James had planned on working on stalls more.But mom enjoyed them a lot and we had a lot of fun flying! I guess this means that some day she wont worry about my flying in Alaska!

In all it was a great flight.. but today i was a little bit rust from not flying in two weeks. ( James was gone to England and the weather was not that great) The rust will be kicked off for sure when i start memorizing the checklist, memorizing the maneuvers and things so when he says something, i already know ahead of time what to do and expect.

 Well, short post for now, but i have to head off to work, maybe ill ad some later.
  Sunny skies and tailwinds!

Up...Up..And Away!!!

Today's Flight was great!
 I was really worried about the weather, because we had a very low ceiling and some fog. However, by the time we finished the preflight, and the ground lesson it had burnt off into a beautiful day!

This is the 1946 J-3 Piper Cub that Bob and Emily had out today. Such a beautiful majestic airplane!

 About 1 o'clock, airplanes seem'ed to sprout from the woodwork as the clouds parted, and the sun showed its face for the first time all morning. There were lots of R.V's ( Kit built sport planes), Cessna's, and Emily and Bob Stark even got out the 1946 J-3 Cub! I tell you, on days like that, I could just sit and watch airplanes come and go all day and be so satisfied. On the other hand, there is nothing that can come close to comparing to the powerful feeling of stepping into the cockpit, closing the door, firing it up, and giving it full throttle as you fly down the runway just waiting for Vr, or rotate speed.( the Speed you take off at) You find that rotate speed, and everything that you had worried about the whole day, everything that was upsetting you just sinks with gravity, and it is just you, and the airplane. When there are so many things weighing you down mentally,and physically, it is an incredible feeling to lift off, and fly and be free, away from all of that. Such an amazing feeling, i cant even begin to describe. It is also great to being flying with a good instructor. Being friends and having similar interests really helps that we can just relax and fly the airplane.

    Due to cost, and some maintenance issues, the Piper Cherokee is being taken off line for the winter! Some what disappointing because i really enjoy that airplane! But that's okay because we transfered into a Cessna 172 today. N734KU, or November 734 Kilo Uniform. Very nice plane actually. It is a little bit newer I believe and it fly's very well. I enjoyed the flight very much. The c-172 feels like it is a little bit more stable than the Cherokee but that could have been just because it was a very calm day out in the valley.
 
Today the maneuvers that we focused on were a little bit difficult for me.First off, because we were transitioning into a different airplane, second because i haven't flown in two weeks, and third because they are completely new maneuvers to me, so i was not sure how to complete them correctly. The two GRM's( Ground Reference Maneuvers) that we did practice were "Turns around a Point", and "S-turns". The  "turns around a point" were fun. What we do is pick a tree in the middle of a field, and turn our airplane around that point, staying an equal distance from the tree at all times, and fly a complete 360. Referencing the ground to make sure that we are indeed where we need to be. We do this maneuver at 1000 feet, so there is not much room for error either. You have to keep your airspeed up, stay at altitude, and stay around the tree. Multitasking!

  The other Maneuver is  "S-Turns". For this Maneuver  you pick a long strait line on the ground  that you can reference, and fly strait towards it. When your wings line up with that line on the ground, you start a bank, still maintaining your airspeed and altitude. When you have turned 180 degrees, and roll out, your wings should be again lining up with that line on the ground. As soon as they do line up, you start your bank for the next turn, being careful all the time to remain aware of your altitude, airspeed and where you are in reference to the point or line that you have chosen. We fly low(1000 ft agl min) over the town of banks, where there is lots of farm land that we can use as reference points. Great training terrain.

 After we got some good practice of ground  maneuvers, we climbed to 4500 ft and headed out towards Yamhill on the other side of the hill to practice some slow flight. During slow flight, you slow the airplane down to just inside your Vfe (Maximum flaps extend speed) and start extending your flaps. As you slow down, you extend more flaps until they are fully deployed.By the time your flaps are fully deployed, you can adjust your trim settings, and your throttle settings to maintain your altitude, and keep the airplane just above stall speed. This is the configuration that you will land the airplane in.That is why we practice while we are at altitude, so i can get a good feel of how the airplane reacts prior to actually trying to land on my own. After a few minutes, James asked me if i would like to have a stall demonstrated. As nervous as i was to be in a controlled "Drop", i said yes.
           For a stall, all you do is when you are in slow flight(flaps down, throttled back, carb heat on and pitched  up) pull the throttle all the way out to idle, and hold the pitch of the airplane, so that you loose the airspeed that the power was helping you maintain. As you slow down, keep the nose of the airplane pitched up to burn off the excess airspeed. When that airspeed is gone, the airplane will stall, and momentarily loose lift. As a result of loosing the lift, the nose of the airplane will pitch down slightly. To recover from a stall, all you need to do is "punch it" as they say. Let the nose of the airplane pitch down slightly, give it full power, reduce flaps to 20 degree's, turn off carb heat, and give the control yoke the back pressure to pull the nose back up after you have gained some airspeed back.
 After feeling it when James did it, i decided that i would give it a  go and see if i could do it. I was very nervous the first time i tried it, because again, your falling, but after a few times of doing it, i wasn't scared at all. It was actually kind of fun.
 After an hour a a half of flying we decided to head in and call it a day. Getting late in the afternoon, and it was  time to land under the supervision of the sun, which was still out! We came over the top of chahalem  mountain and dropped into the pattern. I have yet to land, but James wants me to "ride the controls" so i can feel the inputs that he is making.

 Over all a wonderful lesson. Great fun as always. I think a stressful day flying beats the crap out of a good day at work anyways. ;)
 Being able to forget everything and just float and fly is something mankind has dreamt of for hundreds of years. I am glad that i am able to fulfill that dream, because believe me it is worth it.
cheers.

weather...what a buzz kill. ;)

 Huston we have a problem,

 That's a no go for launch, repeat thats a no go.

 Well that was my third lesson, but not my third flight.

 The great thing about learning to fly in Oregon is you finish your training with experience in a wide variety of weather situations.. However the annoying thing about learning to fly in Oregon is sometimes you are hindered by that very same weather..actually a lot of the time. During the winter of course.

 Even though we did not get to go flying, James and I had a good time hanging out and talking about airplanes. Granted we spent more time talking about how they worked, but hey, talking about planes is talking about planes right? 

  The book work is actually really interesting. Knowing how the airplane works helps a lot when your in the air and feel something thats not quiet normal.You can quickly diagnose a possible solution, or if need be, you can foresee a larger problem, and make it to a landing strip before something bad happens.

 When i get discouraged about sitting and just doing book work instead of being able to fly,  I think of  Captain "Sully" Sullenberger, and how he knew exactly what to do because he was able to figure out exactly what was wrong. He was able to diagnose the problem, and decide on a solution before it became a disaster that could have ended to tragically for so many people.

 We talked about fuel system, the oil system, the instruments, the construction/structure and the landing gear.

We also talked about some of the problems the some the instruments can have, and how to avoid, or correct for those problems.

  Lots of information to take in all at once, but i'm glad that we can make good use of the things that good Ole Oregon has to throw at us!

  Huston...we have Preflight done, we are ready for take off when the weather clears!

Okay so we may have sidetracked to some talk about snowboarding and stuff like that, but hey, give a guy some slack ;)

Second Flight!

    I went out last Tuesday for the second flight!

 Great flight! Went up about 4:30 in the afternoon,so it was getting to be dusk about the time we were heading back in to land, making beautiful light on the terrain.

    During the flight, my instructor felt like i was progressing well through the basic turns, climbs and descents, so we moved to steep turns. Which, for those of you who don't know, consists of banking the airplane 45 degrees, giving it full power, and a little bit of back pressure, so you can maintain the correct altitude. These turns are really fun, because you get turned around 360 degrees in very little time.

This is the airplane I will do my training in! It is a Piper Cherokee 180
or PA-18 with a 180 hp Lycoming 0-360 a2a

This is my instructor James Boughen.
He is a great instructor, I have learned a lot just in the few lessons we have had.
 Very fun to fly with and great sense of humor making the flying pretty awesome!

Starting Pre-flight check, filling the fuel/ check for moisture, checking the Pitot tube, and the landing gear /breaks for any leaks, or abnormal wear etc.

Next we Check the oil, break fluid, and inside the cowling for any leaks or wear etc.
 The great thing about the PA-28 is the entire cowl folds back so you can see the entire engine.

 Then we finish off the Pre-flight checklist in the cockpit and get rolling down the runway!

Off the left wing en route 

Henry Hagg Lake- Big lake Looks pretty small from 4500ft!  

Rivers also look pretty small from up there!

  Over all the training is going well. The flying is super fun!

The part that i am having the most trouble with is the studying and book work. A lot of the concepts are somewhat difficult to understand while sitting in a recliner drinking coffee. However the saving grace, is they make way more sense when we get into the airplane, and i am actually able to experience them.

   I have not had much experience in poor weather, because the days i have flown have been really nice! However I am sitting down to study up for my third flight here in the next day or two, and there is a large thunderstorm outside.. So I am really hoping that it will clear up enough to make a good v.f.r flight!

  Then again I don't really mind if the weather is bad, because the next flight we will be working on stalls! 

Actually stalls sound really fun. I'm looking forward to getting more hours and experience, and it will actually be good for me to learn to control the aircraft in windy or rainy weather.

check back for the third flight update!

Tailwinds and happy landings!