Flight Lesson 9 – First Solo!
WOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
hah... yeah, my first solo went extremely well 
Brian and I took off about 11:30 this morning and did one touch-and-go and one full stop landing. He hopped out and I called ground to get taxi instructions. I taxied to runway 21R, called tower, and waited for takeoff permissions.
The first thing I noticed when I was in the plane by myself was the weight difference. I had heard from many other articles that you notice the plane is much easier to hand and everything, but feeling it is completely different. The plane while taxiing was so light and moved very well.
I took off and was in the air, by myself... I made a right turn to the crosswind following the Ohio River and then made a right turn to downwind. I leveled off at 1500 feet and set flaps to 10 degrees when at mid-runway. When abeam to the numbers I incremented the flaps. Turning on base I called tower and reported... was cleared for landing on 21R. I turned onto approach and descended to touchdown.... FIRST SOLO LANDING... haha... I was excited... It's a good thing I have to push the button to call tower and they couldn't hear me cause I was sure cheering myself on 
I did the pattern about 6 times and finally brought it in for to park.
At Lunken today they were having a air race... so there were lots of other airplanes around that were from all over the country. As I landed they were all taxiing to their respective runways. The race is something where you estimate your time and whoever is closest to their estimated time wins... or something like that, I wasn't completely sure how it was working. So when taxiing back to the terminal I slowed to let all the super fast looking props planes taxi by... it was pretty exciting.
Once back, Brian met me out at the airplane and congratulated me with a handshake. We got a few pictures taken in front of the plane, which I will post once they are sent my way. The office folks, Sharon and Captain Dave were also there to congratulate me. I got a certificate which I will have to get a nice frame for.
So Brian is leaving, off to the airlines, I am very glad I got to do my first solo while he was around... very exciting. I'll meet a new instructor probably sometime next week and continue with lessons.
Yay for me! Time to go celebrate!
Later!!
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Flight Lesson 8
Post 40... going on 400... wow, thanks to all who read
This lesson was quite stressful indeed. The thoughts of flying solo looming in all areas reminding me to be thoughtful of how I would do the current procedure if I were there alone... are there any more questions I need to ask? What if this happens? Did I just do that wrong?
We did a lot of touch-and-go's while also practicing soft field landing/approach and short approach. Short approach gave me the biggest scare yet. We were coming in for landing and I was going slower than usual with thoughts that I needed to slow down quicker. I wasn't completely sure what this exercise was and that was my big mistake.
There was quite the wind blowing, and it was tossing my little skipper around quite a bit. It was also a beautiful day out, which in turn brought lots of traffic around our continuous pattern. These elements along with the repetitive action of take off, pattern, land, take off, pattern, land, got to me and I made a few mistakes.
As stated before my biggest mistake was not questioning further our current exercise. My brain was telling me, well if you ask more about it, he won't think you know what you're doing and get upset with you... but in hindsight that is exactly what needed to be thought about me. We were coming in slow, nose pointed about 10 to 15 degrees above the horizon and descending at 500 feet/minute and 65 knots. That last note was the issue, we were about 15 feet above the ground when Brian jumps to life, grabbing the wheel and telling me to go full throttle, we were going to belly flop the ground, and not softly either. The full throttle helped a little but not enough to keep us off the ground. Our wheels touched and the entire plane jolted under the shock. With full throttle still we accelerated working the flaps up, and me trying to not let my face get too red.
I was completely humiliated. I should have asked for further instructions on our procedure... never again will I make a mistake like that. The feeling of that landing, and the embarrassment that followed didn't leave me for the rest of the night. I finished with a picture perfect landing, but that isn't the feeling I left with.
------------
So this morning I went to get my FAA Third Class Medical Examination Certificate, which doubles as my student pilot certificate. Over in Western Hills I went and completed everything just fine except for a past medical history field of my Physical Therapy a year ago. The Doctor wanted a fax from the PT saying I was fine and discharged properly. I leave without my certificate and head to the PT office... unfortunately, sometime in the past year they have closed their Clifton office. With my phone being dead and no pen to write the number on, i started scraping numbers with my stylus into a paper until a nice old lady came by and let me borrow her pen. Once back to the house I gave the PT a call only to hear that my file, since old, is in storage, but she should be able to fax it to them by tomorrow.
So much for flying solo this afternoon...
I am starting to think it is a good thing though. I've been getting extremely stressed out with the thoughts of going solo, and the events of this morning didn't help in the least. I need some breathing time. I have my whole life ahead of me to fly, no need to rush into something I'm not completely mentally prepared for. So I talked to Brian on the phone, and we rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon. Dan will drop me off, and Brian said he could drive me back home after the lesson. He's a nice guy, it is a shame he is leaving and tomorrow will be my last lesson with him.
So my hopes are that I am able to get my medical certificate tomorrow and maybe fly solo tomorrow evening. However, I don't know if the right doctor is in tomorrow, so I might be putting solo on hold until I meet and fly with my new instructor... instructor number 3 that is. I'm averaging 5 hours of flight per instructor, kind of annoying, but they do what they gotta do.
I'm not 100% sure when this solo flight is going to happen, but keep your fingers crossed and maybe say a little prayer tomorrow around 530 to 800 pm.
Remember to breath... I've been forgetting to do that a lot lately... Later!
Flight Lesson 6 and 7
Two days of flying in a row, crazy fun!
On Wednesday, we flew for 1.1 hours practicing slow flight, stalls, steep turns, the hood and a few touch-and-go's. I wasn't very happy at all with my touch-and-go's. The first two Brian had to grab the controls to help me onto the ground, but the third and final landing, I did completely on my own. I think that was the first one that was completely on my own without any hands on any controls from the instructor side of the plane. It was a rough one though, and then I could get enough right rudder down to keep us on the center line and we were veering quite badly onto the far left of the runway. Must have been quite the sight from the tower... but hey, they know I'm a student. Leaving my lesson on Wednesday I was feeling kind of disappointed with the way my flight ended with the bad landing... Thursday would quickly change that.
Neither Wednesday or Thursday were the clearest of days. The air was nice and smooth and the sun was sure out full in all its glory shining brightly right into my eyes (I really need to find my sunglasses). Yesterday, Thursday, we were just going to repeat our maneuvers from the lesson on Wednesday. We took off 21L and went up to 4000 feet to do our maneuvers out a little east of East Fork Lake. Nothing too exciting, more stalls and other fun things. The stalls aren't nearly as scary as I expected. Flying on the computer, the nose of the animated plane violently flings itself towards the ground, but in the real plane, the plane starts to shake with the stall and loses altitude, nothing to take your breath away. The lesson was going well, we were up at 4500 feet and further east than we've ever been. I tell you south-east Ohio... not much there. It was great for our emergency landing practice. Brian reached over and said, "Guess what... you just lost your engine..." then he pulled the throttle all the way back and I picked a field to land in. About 500 feet AGL we went full throttle back up to 3500 for a nice trip back to Lunken.
Back at Lunken after an expert conversation over the radio, I brought us into the Left base of 21L and soon after turned into Approach. "Full Throttle, go around..." Huh? Ok, Brian says to do it so I do it. We get past the field and I ask "Did they tell us to do that or did you decide?" "I decided... you were going to land on the wrong runway..." Whoops! haha... I felt pretty stupid, especially when we radioed in to tell them we were going around, the ATC responded with "Skipper 2-9-Delta Proceed to right patter for 2-1-Right, that's Right, 2-1-Right..." Yeah, I think she got her point across We went around the right pattern for 21R and came in for a touch-and-go. I was a little high above the glide slope and set the throttle to idle and descended at 1000 ft/min to find the red over white. Once proper, pushed the throttle and aimed for the beginning of the runway at a descent of 500 ft/min. About five feet above the ground, I pitched the airplane up for its flair bringing its tires to a light screech on the runway... "Perfect! Very well done!" were the words from Brian. He flipped up the flaps, I throttle full and we raced down the runway rotating at 65 knots gliding up over the trees, and turning right over the Ohio River to follow the pattern. The following touch-and-go and the final landing were just as good, if not better. I was feeling very good about my success for the day and couldn't keep the smile off my face.
While in the office after our flight, Brian surprised me with saying "So one or two more lessons and you'll be ready to solo..." WHAT!? I thought I had to do 20 hours with an instructor first. Apparently not... 20 hours eventually, but you can solo whenever your instructor feels you are ready and you can pass a small open book test. I am crazy excited about this now. I have a lesson next Tuesday and then on Thursday hopefully I'll solo. I want to invite my family and a few friends over to witness my first solo flight, maybe get some pictures and video So next lesson we are just going to do touch-and-go after touch-and-go... I'm looking forward to it! I also have to get a FAA third class physical done before I can solo, so I have a few doctors I need to call today.
Wow, long winded post... if you made it this far, congrats! I'm very excited about soloing if you can't tell. I'll keep you posted as always... Cheers everyone, my hopes are that next Thursday calls for a drink!
Later!
Flight Lesson 5
Not much of note today really. I was kinda tired throughout the lesson, which may not have been a good thing, but still I got compliments, so I think I was alright. The winds were at 15 knots from South West, with a few gusts here and there getting up to around 20 to 25 knots. Week took off from 21L and Lunken with wind slightly coming from our right. I over compensated with the ailerons and made us turn sideways a bit after rotation. I wore the 'hood' as they call it for a lot of the flight today. It is a pair of shop glasses that are frosted over all the lenses except for a small portion on the bottom which allows you to see your instruments. No outside visuals, only Instruments. I didn't like the glasses very much, I could fly fine without them since I have spent so much time on my computer on the simulator, but between me wearing my own glasses instead of contacts today along with the added glasses, I got a headache. We practiced S-Turns, Steep Turns, Turns around a point, and the flight pattern with a landing on 21R. We spiced up the flight pattern today when we were asked to do a fly over the airport and enter the 21R pattern, which I have never done before, and I will say the right pattern is a little more difficult than the left pattern. Something to get used to. And we went through emergency procedures again of engine being cut out, this time I took the controls and went for a field to land in. Brian didn't say anything, but I don't think I really picked all that good of a field... better work on that for next time.
I have flown for 6 full hours now. I asked Brian whether he thinks I'll be soloing after my first 20, and he was very confident and quick to say definitely!
Dan and I went back to Lunken after I came home, changed and ate a quick dinner for a run. We did the 5-mile track around the airport. It's the furthest I have ever run... it felt good. I have a little more knowledge of what to expect this Saturday now as well. I am excited, it will be a lot of fun.
I register for Fall classes tomorrow morning at 6AM... can't believe we're already looking that far ahead... eh, good night... sweet dreams.
Flight Lesson 4 – and an amazing weekend
Today's flight was spectacular. The weather is amazing (wind was gusting up to 16 knots near Lunken, so it did get jerky during the pattern). There was a showcase of airplanes new and old out at Lunken today which drew a huge crowd. Although, it also brought a delay in my lesson departure.
I met today my new instructor, Brian, who is a very fine person. With Richard's overly busy schedule, I was asked if I minded switching instructors since I'm still new, I'm flexible and obliged. We flew for 1.5 hours today, practicing S-Turns, Turns around a point, steep turns, Traffic Pattern (including takeoff and landing), and a few other items. One of note being emergency landing.
Brian brought the throttle back to idle while we were at 2,000 feet after a decent and we went over the details of finding a field to land in, which instruments to turn on/off, how to call the ATC folks, and such. We were about 500 feet AGL when he finally gave full throttle and brought us back to altitude. It was fun. He said we'd have fun later with other emergency procedures such as steering the airplane with the doors (in case of control loss) which should be fun and terrifying all at the same time.
I was very proud of myself for this flight. I maneuvered very well, bringing questions from the new instructor such as... you don't happen to have a flight simulator at home that you've been practicing on... I sheepishly nodded Or other comments about how well I was keeping altitude during steep turns, or also in the approach, finding the right altitude and keeping good heading. After our flight he was talking to Sharon, the lady who runs the 'business' side of Flamingo Air and he made the comment, "I can't believe Jason's only been up three times before this". I was very happy with how things went. All the reading and review is helping out a lot, and I hope to be right on top of finishing lessons without too many extra hours of paying a flight instructor.
Also of note this weekend, well last night, the family and I went and saw Broadway's Lion King downtown. The show was amazing, the costumes were brilliant, and the singing was spectacular. We were all astonished with how well the show was done. With risk of sounding cliche or well... stupid... it was really magical. When Mom and I went to New York City to visit colleges we saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway there, and it too was amazing. We've also seen Music Man on Broadway, but I think the way the Disney productions are brought to life is just amazing. Highly recommended from here.
OK, this post is long enough. I'm very excited about this weekend, its been a lot of fun so far, and to top it off tonight we're going bowling! My all time favorite sport.. hah, yeah, you heard me. My ball has been getting dusty since we haven't been going every Tuesday night anymore. If you're in Cincinnati, enjoy this beautiful weather, if you are elsewhere, hopefully it is as beautiful as Cincinnati.
Later!