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Looks like this week will be a short flying week. Took yesterday off to do some personal things. Today it ended up being stormy, overcast, and windy. Pretty much a crappy day to fly so this week I will only get 2 lessons in. I hope it does not set me back too much. I think I should be able to make it up by flying a few fridays and maybe a few two a days depending on plane availibilty and Will’s availability. The other bugger is that the plane I have been training in will be down for annual service sometime in October. Right now it is blocked out most of October. I hope it does not really take that long. I may have to figure something out for a few weeks to get it done. Here’s to a nice long weekend!

As fall approaches I can feel the shift from the warm lazy days of summer to the cool breezy days of fall. Those days that you can just enjoy sitting down on the couch with a good book and listen to the sound of the breeze through the trees for hours. Take a lazy afternoon nap or just enjoy the warm sun through the window. Today is definitely one of those days after a day of windy flying I enjoyed a nice afternoon nap. Something I have not really treated myself to much since I have been home. Today the wind was really whipping along at KMIC if I remember right winds were out of the NNW at 16 gusting to 22. Today was a great day to learn about taxiing in the wind and how the wind impacts the plane as it rolls along the ground. It was also a great day to re-enforce the ground reference maneuvers concept. It just makes so much sense with a stiff breeze. A bit too breezy today to work on landings but our landing at KMIC gave me some valuable experience especially at KMIC. Being able to feel how the wind coming up off the trees when you are on final for 32L and 32R effects landing was a lesson only taught and learned through experience. Will asks before and after each flight if I have any questions. I have a few that I do ask and I feel like I should take advantage and ask more questions. In all actuality I think most of the things I am shaky on clears up the next time we work on things. Just gaining that confidence and experience really takes the questions away for me. So today I took a nice solid nap though I should have been out mowing the lawn and doing those types of things today I really just wanted to enjoy a nice lazy nap. Now it is time to finish up studying a bit about Federal Aviation Regulations and then start some dinner. Tomorrow is a day off of flying but, I am looking forward to Thursday. Hopefully it is a nice calm day so I can work more on takeoffs and landings.

Great day to fly today a bit cloudy around 11,000 which was nice to keep the sun off the plane.  I was a bit rusty on my pre-flight today, good thing for checklists =D  Normal takeoff on runway 32R to the north on the way out we practiced some more slow flight and power off stall recoveries.  That all went pretty well.  The plane was much easier to keep in straight and level flight today since it was not so windy out.  Once we got up north to Cambridge (KCBG) we entered the traffic pattern and started working on full stop landings.  I did 3 full landings with Will talking me through any issues but I was pretty much flying the plane the entire time.  The first two went as well as could be expected, on the third I came in a bit fast and bounced the plane a bit but had a decent recovery and landing.  All were great learning experiences.  It’s also that progression from downwind to base to final that I want to get down.  After the third we headed back to KMIC for one more landing shot which went all right.  Looking forward to working on more landings. Each time I fly I just feel more confident and confident and learn more and more every day.  Getting that touch down…  

After last nights storms and waking up to overcast skies I thought for sure that I would not be flying today.  When decision to fly time came up it turned out to be just a little on the windy side.  Winds from the NNW at 16knts gusting to 19 at takeoff time.  Which was okay because we were using runway 32R  I remembered to keep some right rudder today at takeoff but just a bit too much.  Today I think my biggest challenge was keeping the plane within 100ft of my target altitude.  The whole trip was very bumpy due to the wind and just kind of nasty bumps.  I think I did all right though. We reviewed some slow flight which was well interesting with the wind.  We went on to work some more ground reference maneuvers, today starting with turning around a point, S turns and finally a bit of traffic pattern work.  Here the wind was actually a great training tool as it really helped me to understand exactly what kind of bank needs to happen in relation to the wind.  Once we finished up our ground reference training we headed back for the Barn.  Since we were flying north of the cities and the active runway was 32R we got to put the traffic pattern stuff into practice.  Did my first landing with a downwind leg, base and final, not just a straight in landing.  Coming in was not too bad and again I needed some help from Will to get the plane squared off right before we touched down.  Taxied back to the hanger, fueled and called her a day.  Sounds like next week we are going to focus on some stalls, reinforcing what we did this week and working on takeoffs and landings.  I can’t wait!  I am really really enjoying this and it is a really great feeling every time I fly.  I am so far always looking forward to my next flight!  Until next week!

Today was really a great day to fly.  It was a bit warm but cooled off quickly as we got some air moving into the airplane.  Things are starting to get fun now, each lesson I am picking more and more up.  Like I talked about yesterday though I don’t want to forget what I have done so far.  One big thing was to remember right rudder on takeoff, not a big deal I corrected for it but still it was not very smooth.  Today we spent the day moving out again working on the fundamentals and slow flight.  We also added in power off stalls, which is basically slowing the airplane to the point where it will not fly and the air basically spills off the wings.  The plane basically starts a decent to the ground with no forward momentum, a bad thing for an airplane to do when it is not expected which is why we do it in training to be able to recognise the signs and feelings of a stall and how to correct for it.  After some stall training we went into some ground reference maneuvers.  Basically flying a box around a fictitious air strip and correcting for wind to stay on course.  This mimics flying in the traffic pattern of an airport without the traffic.  That was actually pretty cool and helped cement a bunch of concepts in my head.  From here we started our brief flight back to KMIC, where I called the tower and brought the plane in for landing.  Once we had clearance to land on runway 14L  Will had me bring the plane all the way to a full landing.  Though he did help a bit to keep us out of any big trouble he said it went pretty well for a first attempt.  So I have a new thing to start working on and looking forward to.  It is nice to be able “baby step” into it.  Actually it was not all that bad, it was actually pretty damn cool.  All in all another good day in the air.  Tomorrow I will fly again so I can “make up” for next Wednesday that I will not be able to fly.  Though the weather is not looking too good for tomorrow it is still to early to make a fly/no fly decision.  I guess If I wake up and it is still storming I won’t be going flying.

I am going to have to come up with a better way to name my posts because first flight, second flight…. 48th flight is going to get a bit old so I will work on that.  Just returned home from my second lesson.  Today was a much more relaxed day for me, much more comfortable with the airplane and being in the air.  Today we worked on the four fundamentals of flight which we will pretty much do every day we fly as we move about the countryside.  Today’s focus was slow flight which was practiced at altitude but still gave me a good feel for the slow control response at slow (landing) speeds.  All of this is in preparation to start landing the airplane.  Today I started into doing the radio calls and did the full pre-flight.  I think the pre-flight will be second nature pretty soon as well as the ground work.  I know that is one place that I will not let complacency get me, after all complacency kills.

I think that is one of my not worries but at least things that nags at me a bit is getting complacent and forgetting something important.  As long as I stick to my checklists I should be okay.  Skies were pretty hazy today so it was tough to get those good sight pictures but it was good practice to get down the feel of how things should feel.  Takeoff went much better today because I was actually relaxed and knew what to expect.  Taxiing was a breeze since runway 14 left is only a few hundred meters from our hanger.  Again today just brought the airplane in close getting the feel for a slow flight decent through the bumps and Will brought it in the rest of the way.  All in all today went well, tomorrow will be more slow flight and some power off stalls.  Man an hour goes really really fast when you are flying.  Looks like I am going to pick up an extra lesson on Friday to make up for next Wednesday since I will be tied all day.  I think today I am going to do some studying for my written test, I want to get that out of the way soon. But now its nap time since I ran 3 miles this morning.

N13329, originally uploaded by 5igmund.

What a beautiful day!  I had my first lesson today and it was everything I thought it would be and more.  I met up with my Flight Instructor Will Outlaw at our flying club hanger around 10:00 to start going through things.  For about an hour and a half we went through the cockpit and did a step by step pre-flight of the aircraft.  From there we did a flight brief and saddled up to go.  The purpose of this flight is pretty much to get up, have fun, and do a bit of work on the four fundamentals of flying, but mostly just to get comfortable with the aircraft.  Will had me taxi the aircraft to the runway which is totally counter to everything we have ever delt with driving vehicles.  This is because steering with your feet is an illegal thing to do in a motor vehicle.  We did a straight out take off from runway 24R and off towards Lake Minnetonka.  What a surreal feeling… We have all been on a big old airliner and have flown before.  Heck, I have even been on some sketchy little Army planes (yes the Army has planes.)  But, this was just something totally different here you are in this little tin can with wings, accelerating down a strip of road that keeps getting shorter and shorter.   Before you know it you are flying over the treetops.  Then I was kind of thinking to myself, what the hell have you gotten yourself into?!  That was only a few seconds though, a few bumps on climb out nothing too bad.  Will did a great job of keeping me relaxed and talking me through the takeoff.  Now that we were actually flying Will wanted me to start getting comfortable with sight pictures and how things should look and feel as we are flying.  We leveled off around 2500 ft and made a big right turn towards Monticello and HWY 94 on this leg I quickly got over the oh shit factor and started to full appreciate what I was doing and was able to start looking around a bit.  More importantly I was able to relax my kung fu grip on the controls.  Will did a little demo about adverse yaw and why the rudder is important for a coordinated turn. Once we got up towards HWY 94 we did a 180 turn south and did some big right and left 360 degree turns, a figure 8 and a few descending and ascending turns.  From here we went back to HWY 94 and followed it back towards KMIC.  Will did some calling into the tower and we maneuvered in for a straight in approach to runway 14L, decreased power to around 2000 RPMs and began our descent into KMIC adding flaps as we approached.  Will let me get a good feel of the more exaggerated controls of slow flight until we got closer to landing.  Once we were a bit out Will took the control of the aircraft and set her down on the runway.  We taxied back to the hanger, went through shutdown procedures and had the fueler come top us off, we finished up our lesson at around 1300.

All in all a great flight, I am still a bit weak in the knees from the adrenaline rush of my first flight!  Tonight Will wanted me to look over the four fundamentals of flight, Normal Take-off’s and Slow flight procedures.  I think I am also going to familiarize my self a bit more with the airport diagram and the Cessna 172 operators manual.  So tomorrow starts another training day!  I can only imagine how exciting this gets if this all was just the first day! So I am looking forward to my wife coming home tonight so I can bore her to death with all of the the details!  

I would like to get started with a brief chat of what I have done so far in studying for my Private Pilot license, what I have purchased and my expectations for my first lesson tomorrow.  

Lets start out with what I have purchased so far.

FAA Airplane Flying Handbook

Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge

Rod Machado’s Private Pilot Handbook and Workbook

Private Pilot Practical Test Standards from ASA

Oral Prep Guide from ASA

E6-B from ASA

Logbook from Jeppesen

Minneapolis VFR Terminal Area Chart and Twin Cities Sectional

David Clark H10-13.4S

So this is everything I have purchased so far.  I found the FAA books very dry and they read like a textbook.  So I picked up the Rod Machado books which are quite good and easy to follow along with.  I am really tired of reading textbooks from college and it was nice to get a book that puts the concepts into scenarios that are easy to understand and just fun to read.  While I was in Iraq I read as much as I could the end of March, April and part of May.  I have not had a chance to study too much between now and then so I am starting from the beginning again this time with the workbook for my Rod Machado book.  All in all the studying process was my initial push to learn the lingo and know a little bit about everything so when I actually started flying it would not be the first time I saw the material.  I got to the point where I just needed to see it in reality for it to all make sense.  I am so excited that tomorrow I will actually get to start doing what I have been reading about for so long. I am indeed very excited but I am also a bit nervous kind of like the first day of school.   So here we go, I will take a few pictures of the plane I will be flying and file a full report for tomorrow.

Welcome all to my new website, blog, web journal etc… If you are looking for a new flight students journey towards aviation fame and fortune you have come to the right spot.  In the coming months and years I plan to detail my journey from Aviation Novice to Pilot.  Some of you may remember my last electronic journaling endeavour which chronicled my journey through the sandbox of Iraq and home again has been lost temporarily to the digital ether.  Hopefully I will be able to recover it and bring it back to you sometime soon.  During my deployment I wanted something good to come of the free time I had, something other than all time high scores on Madden 07 and Halo bragging rights.  So I reached out, researched and found some great books to study and get a flight instructor lined up so when I got home I would be ready to start flying.   Now that I am home, it is time to fly which is where this journal starts.  Today I will get down what I have studied to this point, what I have purchased so far, my thoughts, feelings and setbacks on the what I have done so far.  Tomorrow is my first lesson so sit back relax and enjoy reading my aviation escapades.  

A few quick notes….

1.  I will not pretend to be an expert on many things, I am a student.

2.  This will contain things besides my Aviation experiences, for instance I am also planning on learning how to play the bagpipes, I will chronicle those experiences as well.  

3.  My spelling sucks, though I will do my best to spell check.

4.  I will try to keep things light and fun but from time to time I may feel the need to get on the soapbox for a bit.  

5.  I am no longer deployed nor am I on federal active duty, this blog is my opinions only and I am exercising my freedom of speech.  I do not fall under any general orders limiting my posting of whatever I feel like.  This site does not need to be submitted to my chain of command for review. My Iraq experiences will not be addressed in this blog/web journal.  I have closed that chapter of my life and these “hobbies” and skills I am learning is part of my healing process to help bring me back to a healthy and normal civilian life.  This is all C.Y.A. stuff but I feel necessary to say just in case.  If I am wrong please let me know.