KENL

I flew yesterday again...it was my hottest flight yet...101 degrees. This time it was a local flight...first we went up and practiced steep turns and power on stalls...both skills are a challenge for me and make me fear the checkride....part of the problem on power on stalls is that I can't see anything unless I have a cloud to know if I am turning or not. Then I went up solo and flew around over the practice field...it was a little windy, but my landings were just fine. I am planning 2 more cross countries at the moment. I plan to go back to Centralia and then my long XC to Springfield, MO. If I get lucky, it looks like I might be able to be ready for my checkride in 14 hours of additional training. Also, I need to take the written. I plan to work on the written this weekend. I did all of the practice questions for Ch. 1 in my Gleim's today and got all of them right...but of course, that is the easiest chapter. The video above is from my trip to Centralia last week...this was on my way home and you can see Nashville, IL coming up on the left and highway 64 below.

Luke, you switched off your targeting computer. What's wrong?

One of the many days I have dreamed of and dreaded on my climb up my Everest: My first "legal" cross country. So many things to think about and so much to learn...plus actually fly the airplane...all at the same time! What a hot day too! It was literally 100 degrees when I landed, but at 3500 MSL it was 78 today...not bad at all...

When I first took off, the crazy GPS in the plane just wouldn't work, I messed with it for a bit and after some choice words, I decided to just turn it off. I had the two VOR's, my map and my trusty handheld $89 GPS "yellowjacket" that at least pointed me in the right direction and told me statute miles to my destination, so I used it to confirm my position along with the DME radio. Amazingly, and to my surprise, the VOR's pretty much worked perfectly, especially I was impressed with the triangulation along the route...not a hitch. I was also surprised that I actually flew right to the VOR and actually saw it both when I was coming in to KENL and when I was taking off back for KFES.

This was by far the best day I have had in the air so far and one that I will never forget. It was a also a great reward for fighting through a couple of really tough weeks in this climb.

How do airplanes fly?

According to Bournoulli's principal it has something to do with the shape of the wing and forcing air molecules to travel further over the longer top surface compared to the lower part of the wing. When the molecules have to travel over a further distance than their friends at the bottom of the wing they spread out, which causes lower pressure...the wing of course, finds it easier to go in the direction of the lower pressure, which is up, which in turn causes lift. There is a cliched joke in aviation that states "it is money that makes airplanes fly!" So beware of asking this question around any of the "geezers" or "airport bums" you may find here in small mid-west airports! Of course, flying isn't cheap...and this has been a stressful element of climbing my Mt. Everest. Today, however, I was proactive and followed one of my tenets of climbing an Everest...if you don't know something ask an expert. So, since my stress was money, I went to my bank...within a few minutes I had everything I needed! The interest rate on my old 2nd mortgage was much higher than the rate at which I could refinance. So, by adding a few years and lowering my interest rate, I found the money for my flying with just a barely noticeable increase in our monthly budget! What a relief and now I have a real chance of summiting again! Now, it is back to actual flying challenges...such as how do I turn on my VOR's? I am looking at this picture of my cockpit trying to figure out the difference between voice and ident...I guess voice is on? Ident I am guessing is just for the morse code identification to make navigation off of a VOR legal? Also, I am hoping it says voice, because you can talk over a VOR to Flight Service or ATC (not sure of the difference totally...maybe FSS is anywhere and ATC is airport specific? Beats me?) Of course, to talk over the VOR, I think I need to move down one of the those 8 silver little knobs to do it...but really I am not sure. Then there is the whole E6-B issue and that I don't know how to figure out what heading I should take on a chart or how to do a time or wind correction heading or whatever it is called...true course vs. mag course or something...and then correcting for magnetic ________....not even sure of the word, but there are these weird lines on charts and you can correct for something that is inherently wrong with compasses...so yeah, my hands are full! The scientific, engineering folks have it made on these particular items...even though I'm no Bournoulli I will get it eventually, but it is going to take a while...and I just need to get comfortable with that.

Navigation Blues

Been depressed all day trying to figure out the navigation/flight planning for my cross country (XC) this week. Now I know why we accidentally bombed Switzerland during WWII...it's a lot tougher and has turned out to be my most challenging technical part of my flight training so far. This truly is like climbing Mt. Everest for me personally. A lot of people claim to love flight training....I am definitely not one of them...I have enjoyed myself maybe twice for maybe 5 minutes....this is all about summiting the peak for me...I'll worry about enjoying it after I get my license if I have any money left. Some people ask "why I'm doing it?" But, it would take a team of psychologists and maybe even a few psychiatrists to answer that question. After I'm done maybe I'll know why. I know it has a lot to do with my Dad. It also has a lot to do with my son and not being able to put this dream of mine on him since he has special needs. A lot of has to do with starting it 5 times and not wanting to quit again. Some people will tell you that getting a pilot's license is easy or inexpensive...I guess if you are a rich engineer with plenty of time on your hands that could be true...it certainly isn't for me...this is the biggest challenge I've ever purposely put myself through since I taught myself German at age 24 and then became a German teacher. Maybe someday this will all look easy...that is hard to believe. Part of me would love to quit...be reasonable with my life and live within my budget...but then there is the other side...I don't want to be on my death bed thinking that I almost got my pilot's license once...man that sounds terrible...OK...enough crying, time to catch my breath, eat an energy bar, forget that the horses are all blind and load the wagon!

Airshow!

This morning Sue and Teddy came out to the airport and watched me do a couple of solo landings and takeoffs. Teddy considered it his own personal airshow! Above is my 2nd takeoff.