High Flight

Flew again last Wednesday. I flew one hour 50/50 dual/solo time. I really love the solo time now. I flew over the Mississippi again and did some turns about 10 miles south of the airport. I did two crosswind (x-wind) landings when I returned. The second landing was a little tough, a 10 mph straight crosswind, I bounced and twisted a little on the landing, but it wasn't a hard landing at all. My approach was a little high and hot and I had to bleed off some speed when I flared, but I have thought through the whole set up I made in the pattern and I think I know how I would fix it next time.
I'm up to 27 hours now, I've flown 4 times now solo. I really feel I am on my way now...but, of course, I still have a lot of work in front of me. I am doing better and have done more than I ever really thought I could do. My confidence is increasing all of the time and not just in flying. Nothing seems as impossible as it once did. During my flight, I kept thinking of the fighter jet that would come on TV at midnight when TV stations used to go off air for the night. I have always had trouble sleeping and remember seeing this in the mid-70's...it is called High Flight...really cool. I guess I thought of it, because when I was a kid it was never a question of whether or not I would become a pilot...but it is easy to dream when you are young. Now at age 42, with 4 failures behind me it wasn't so easy, but I am making it happen...my destiny.

WX in Festus

Friday after school Ted and I made our way to KFES. We picked up some McDonald's on the way and just barely arrived before the Severe Thunderstorm! We decided to take cover in the airport itself and had the whole place to ourselves. The storm didn't turn out to be quite as bad as it looked. Teddy was especially happy that the airport now has a North Star ice cream freezer from which you can serve yourself (payment on the honor system). Too windy to fly today...hoping to get in another flight tomorrow or early in the week after school.

Crossing the Mississippi...alone!

Today marked another milestone in my quest to Climb my Everest. Today we took off for the practice field, which is across the Mississippi on the Illinois side. We did some steep turns (45 degrees) and then we did a couple of power on stalls. Then we flew back to KFES. My instructor hopped out and then it was my turn to leave the pattern for the first time by myself! It was a great feeling as I crossed the Mississippi and cruised at 2500 feet above the farm fields in Illinois. I did a couple of turns near Rush Island (a large power plant along the river and 10 miles south of the airport). Then I headed back. I worked my way down to 1300 feet and entered the pattern. The winds were about 8-10 mph and I had a pretty good angle of crosswind as I landed...I crabbed into the wind a little and used the rudder to straighten out the plane right before I touched down...not my best landing...I came in a little hot and a little fast, but it was acceptable and not at all a hard landing. This was the best time I have had yet on a lesson. It was really good for my confidence and the first time I have been able to relax a little during a solo flight.

Airport Bum

Last Wednesday (April 6) after school we did a short practice cross-country (XC) from Festus to Farmington. The winds were a little high and it was hot. We took off from runway 18 and proceeded basically south, 26 nm (nautical miles...and a nm=1.150779 statute miles-sm...which is our normal mile). Strong headwind, so a little bit of a slow trip down. We cruised at 2500 ft msl. The ground was rising up to meet us just a little....Field elevation at Festus is 433 ft and Farmington is 946 ft...so 513 ft higher! The runways at Farmington are 2/20 which aren't much different than our true north and south runways at Festus-18/36. Winds were out of the south so we landed on runway 20. We swung out east of the airport and came in at 45 degree angle into the pattern...two things were different right away for me...first was the pattern elevation...I'm used to flying about 1300 MSL at Festus, here we were 500 feet higher, so our pattern altitude was 1700 feet if I am remembering correctly. The next thing that was different was calling in "Farmington traffic" instead of "Festus traffic" which I messed up at least once. Once I turned final, there was a third difference....a longer runway...4222 ft...so 2k feet longer than Festus. It is pretty nice that whenever I go into an unfamiliar field, there is a good chance I am going to have a lot more runway to play with! We did 2 landing at Farmington then headed back to KFES with a 25 mile an hour tailwind....so a quick trip back. I spent most of the trip trying to familiarize myself with the Garmin GPS that is built in. You punch in the airport identifier then press enter a couple of times I think and it gives you a heading and your actual heading...the goal is to match up the two numbers...easier said than done of course! I think you go to the right to raise the # and to the left to lower the #, but I could be wrong!! Also, 123HA has two VOR's so I am working to familiarize myself with those as well. Another thing I learned, which isn't marked on the Airspeed indicator is Va speed, the maneuvering speed, which in our plane is 114 mph indicated airpseed. (Va according to Wikepedia: is the highest speed at which full deflection of the controls about any one axis are guaranteed not to overstress the airframe. At or below this speed, the controls may be moved to their limits. Above this speed, moving the controls to their limits may overstress the airframe and potentially cause a structural failure. It is normally designated as VA in flight manuals, but is not typically shown on most airspeed indicators.) Overall, I felt good about the XC, I only was fighting a bit of airsickness again on the return in the chop and the heat didn't help. Today's picture was from Friday after school. Teddy and I picked up some McDonald's and ate it at KFES. As you can see Teddy is totally comfortable there and he told me several times how much he loves it there. He's becoming a real airport bum! So far, being in airplanes and around airports has been really good for Teddy. He really works hard to act calmer and more mature in this environment. Tomorrow, as long as the WX (weather) holds, Teddy is going to ride along on my XC to Perryville tomorrow. More on that in the next entry.

Smartt Field

I haven't been able to fly for a few weeks now. Conflicting schedules, bad weather, including more snow and the starter going out on "Hotel Alpha" has slowed me down, but I am flying again Wednesday and ready to get things going again. But, even though I have been really busy during this down time, I have been spending a lot of time on the FAA written test and Saturday afternoon on our way home from a fishing trip we stopped by Smartt Field in St. Charles County. Talk about a busy airport...this is the absolute opposite from Festus! We were there for about 90 minutes Saturday and probably watched 30 takeoffs and landings...as much as Festus gets in a whole weekend...and this was with high winds! I am happy that I am learning at Festus and not dealing with all of this traffic, but I plan to fly into this airport periodically. I had actually taken two lessons here back in September (failure #4 as I call it), but I wasn't comfortable with the long drive, the high volume of air traffic and the fact that the instructor there was very unconcerned about looking for it and finally it was a flying school that was truly there to make a profit...I didn't dare ask any questions, because I was "on the clock"! One really cool thing about Smartt Field is the Commemorative Air Force wing that is based there. They have a lot of nice old warbirds, especially the B-25 you see in the video. Teddy, especially loved our time at Smartt Field and couldn't believe the number of planes we saw flying. He is really enthusiastic about me getting my license and is really helping me to keep motivated during this small lull.

AOPA Project Pilot

Nobody really climbs their "Everest" alone. Even if you are literally alone and literally climbing Mt. Everest...there was a team of people who taught you, supported you and mentored you. In my case, when I soloed, I was physically alone in the airplane, but I also had a support team. Of course, in flight training, the most obvious member of your team is your flight instructor and luckily for me, Paul is very experienced, patient and makes safety priority one at all times. I have tried other instructors and they just weren't the right fit.

Another essential member of my support team is my AOPA Project Pilot Mentor, Diana Richards. Diana actually found me on Pilots of America. I was on a forum asking for help with seeing over the cowling of the 172 since I am 5'6" and have struggled with this in some aircraft. Diana and a few other pilots, including my friend Lynn had a lot of good advice and encouragement for me. Now that challenge is luckily behind me. Diana it turns out is from Southwest Missouri, which is the area in which I grew up. We started to figure out that we might share some connections and it turns out that Diana's flight instructor, Tom Richards, was one of my Dad's (yes, my father is a CFI more on that in a future entry) students years ago. Long story short, Tom and Diana were later married and so now things have come full circle: Dad was one of Tom's instructors, who then taught Diana how to fly and now she is my mentor...small world!! Tom also taught one of my uncles how to fly as well and I have often heard my grandfather (also a pilot) speak about Tom. So far Diana and I communicate regularly by email. I always write after each lesson and share what went right and if anything went wrong....she has been especially good at keeping my confidence up during this challenge. Since my mother and grandfather live very near to her, we plan to visit in person in April and do some flying in her Citabria!! Amazingly, Diana is an acrobatic pilot now and I never thought I would say this...but I'm looking forward to doing some spins and going upside down for the first time in my life soon!! I am very lucky to have Diana as my mentor!

My 2nd Solo!

This morning, I passed another milestone in my mind...my 2nd solo. After my first solo, it just never felt that real, like maybe it wasn't really a solo...but today was a little different. I was still really nervous, but my 2 landings were smoother and I executed a go around when I saw that I wasn't going to be able to touchdown until about midfield (and our field is short 2200ft!). I guess, because I've been in airplanes since I was a baby with my father and grandfather, I just assume this should be easier, like driving a car...but it isn't easy at all...if it were, then everyone would be doing it I suppose. Had a north wind blowing right straight down runway 36 this morning of about 8mph...and other than speeding up my downwind run, it was pretty smooth and didn't affect me much. Over the next few lessons we are going to work on getting me out of the pattern on my own for the first time. So anyway, which is often the case with me, I am struggling with confidence, but I've learned already, that it is just a matter of sticking to it, working through it and talking issues over with my instructor and my mentor (more on that in my next entry). And finally, on a related note, I won a Toastmasters International Speech Contest at the Club Level giving a talk about my first solo and all of my failed attempts to get to that point and what I learned from the experience.