An Update...

OK, since my last posting, I have flown 3 more times. I am up to 13.8 hours with 38 landings. With that being said, I am not the happiest aviator right now. I understand that you shouldn't get wrapped up with "time until you solo" but I am getting just a little perturbed with myself. In the last 3 flights, I have had pretty much the same scenario...take off, go do some stalls, ground reference stuff and then back to beat up the pattern. So, with 3.1 hours in the last few flights, I feel like I am regressing. Most of the maneuvers are "OK" with the exception of the power-on stall. I am trying to put the airplane in a spin, which in a Decathlon would be pretty fun, but not as much in a C-172. My landings are also sucking ass...for whatever reason, I am coming in crabbed. I feel like I am going down the centerline, but apparently not. I was really hoping to have soloed before going on vacation, but that is not going to happen. As it stands, I am flying on Saturday (the day I leave for vacation) and then will be gone for a couple of weeks. If all goes well (not holding my breath at this point) I will have a last "practice flight" on Saturday, then when I get back perhaps have a stage check. I am not sure if I will get the stage check right after I get back, since it will have been a couple of weeks since I last flew, but I guess we'll see. For all I know, I will need 100 more landings to get them down without crabbing it in. Oh yeah, maybe I will stop trying to spin the airplane too. We all have our bad days, right? Well, how about 3 in a row?!? Grrrrrr.....not very happy right now. OK, I am off to watch some of the Sporty's videos.

Finally!!!

Well after what seemed like an eternity, I finally got to fly again. Let's see...about 2 weeks, huh? Yeah, and I wanted to fly 3 or 4 times a week. The best laid plans, right? Anyway, it looked like they were going to bring in the other -172 from the other school but low and behold they got the broke one fixed this morning. You know what REALLY sucks? They didn't even need a part, it had simply come loose. Well, I can see the advantage of having an A&P now...I would have had that fixed LONG ago. Anyway, after a small snafu during preflight which was a non-event, I was back in the air. Oh man, I think the C-5 has spoiled me with it's great air conditioning. The -172's A/C? Yeah, nonexistent. So even though it is only April, it is Texas and it was a nice cool 93 degrees with about 2000% humidity! Maybe it wouldn't have been so bad, but between the heat, the crosswinds (8G16 knots and variable through 180 degrees!!!) and fighting my tendency to make the approach high, I was sweating my ass off by the time we were done. Anyway, as for the flight...

Well, we took off and went straight into the foggles. We did unusual attitudes which was fun and I hammered right on. Then, did some steep turns under the hood which also was fun and I did very well. Attitude was +/- about 2 feet!!! HA!!! OK, maybe not quite THAT good, but definitely to the standards required. After a little work on ground reference stuff, we came back for some pattern work. We did 5 touch and goes and they were OK. I wasn't really impressed, but by the last one, I finally had the approach picture down pretty good and the high C-5 flare wasn't as bad. I am still fighting the crosswinds, so a couple touch and bounces, but nothing really bad.

So, as it stands now, I fly again Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. I am hoping against hope that I will get to solo on Saturday. Next week is my last week for flying before a long break and vacation, so I REALLY want to have the solo under my belt before I head out. I hate the idea of going on vacation and thinking about nothing but trying to get the solo down.

OK, so total time now is: 9.8 hours in 7 flights. Cost so far: 1574.50...man this ain't a cheap endeavor!!!

Still Grounded

Ughhhh!!!! This is getting old. So I get to the airport expecting to fly in some nice gusty winds...but oh no. It seems as though the plane is STILL out of commission. It's been like this for a week and a half. To say that I am a little bummed out is an understatement. I have been doing lots of studying and chair flying to get ready for today, but I am denied again. I am scheduled to fly next Tuesday, so hopefully that will actually happen. I am going on vacation in May, so I really hope that I am able to solo and take my stage I check before I go. I am really beginning to have my doubts though. PPL by the end of June? I am really beginning to doubt that too. If everything went to plan (yeah, right!) I would be done in June and off doing an accelerated instrument rating around the end of the year, but now I am wondering about that. The one thing that is solidified in my mind is that I AM doing my IR in an accelerated fashion. I know that there is a lot of instruction required if I do it through my current school and I know it would take FOREVER!!!! Ideally, I would like to be able to fly about the country at will without having to worry too much about the weather.

I guess the good side to this is I can work on some of my school stuff for my master's degree. Did I mention that I am doing that too? I am taking two classes now and have three left after I wrap these up. I also hope to be done with that madness in September. My master's stuff is incredibly boring, so I will save you the details. Besides, flying is much more exciting!!! This will probably result in me NOT graduation this fall with honors! HA!!!

Here we go...

Greetings All!!!!

So I have done the blog thing before, but quit early on. This is my attempt to "keep it going"...I guess we'll see how that goes. Well, long story short, as you saw, I am an FE in the Air Force. I love the job and really am lucky to get paid doing such an awesome job. What's so bad you ask? Well, this job is going away outside the AF, so as much as I would enjoy it, I know I need to do something else when my gig with Uncle Sam is over. OK, so my plan now is to go get the training and experience to do part 135 freight when I finish up in the AF. For those who are unaware, part 135 is usually single-pilot airplanes flying at night to small towns picking up boxes to bring back to the larger cities. So, if you live in po-dunk and send a package via Fed-Ex, instead of sending a big 'ole 767 to pick-up a handful of boxes, the job is contracted out. These smaller companies are part 135 (which refers to the aviation regulation section 135) carriers and operate under different rules than Fed-Ex or an airline. If you are curious about these kind of carriers, you can Google "Airnet" and see a good outfit and where they are and what they do.

OK, now with that over, I need to summarize where I am. I have been involved in aviation for many years, so the basics of airplanes I really understand. I REALLY understand airplane systems and have a "general" idea of instrument flight....it's the actual flying part I am working on. So, to get everyone up to speed, I have started my primary training (private pilot) training and have a whopping 8.3 hours and 6 lessons under my belt. So far, things have been OK. I think I am doing very well with my maneuvers (stalls, ground reference stuff) and such, but my landings suck. Since I have been flying on the C-5 for over 10 years, my sight picture of the runway is way messed up. I tend to come in way high and flare about 50 feet over the numbers...well, that doesn't work out too well. In my last couple of lessons, I have only had a couple touch and go's and I told my instructor that I would REALLY like to practice the landings, and he said the next couple of rides we will do that. I am trying to fast track this as much as possible so I can start building time. If I had the time available, I would go to one of the accelerated places and get it knocked out, but that would mean giving up vacation time, which I am not ready to do. The only REAL complaint I have now is the scheduling. I have availability to fly 3 or 4 times a week, but so far it is working out to just once or twice a week. I am hopeful that if I can get the landings figured out then I can go practice the ground reference stuff solo. Really, if it wasn't for scheduling issues with the instructor, I would be flying 5 or 6 times a week!!! But, until then I am stuck dealing with scheduling issues.

OK, guess that is a fairly good introduction. I am scheduled to fly tomorrow and 3 times next week, so I will let you know how that goes!!!

Oh yes, one other thing. The title "Into the distance" is from the Pink Floyd song...you know about learning to fly.