Polishing those landings
The weather was very marginal today, so we decided to just work on polishing my landings. Sounded great to me – they are the hardest thing to do if you ask me. Very focused today. Besides being a bit long (maybe 200 feet past the numbers), my first landing was PERFECT. RIGHT on the centerline, […]
A bit farther away
The weather was forecast as rain and low clouds in the morning, and was COMPLETELY wrong. Clear skies, but very windy. No problem – I need the crosswind practice anyway. We got a clearance out to Camarillo airport (CMA) for today, and actually got to fly there. CMA was reporting calm winds, with Van Nuys […]
More landings, but better now
The weather sucked again, so we had to stay in the pattern. Richard showed up as I was midway through my preflight, and said he had a conflict with another student. Unsure as to why it was ME that should get bumped, I BEGGED to go up. He pushed the other student back an hour, […]
More landings
The plan today was to fly out to Camarillo (CMA) to get still more experience at another airport. I took a bit longer than usual to preflight the plane, thanks to a nav light that was out and needed replacing. By the time we got airborne, there was a layer of overcast over the entire […]
Out to lunch
Today was an early flight – 7:00am – to see if I could get back in to the office by 9:00am. Turns out that was no problem – with a 300′ ceiling and less than 1/4 mile visibility, I was in the office by 6:30am. I monitored the ASOS (pretty much every 15 minutes, I’m […]
Class Charlie, here I come
Still waiting for the medical, Richard and I continued to work through the syllabus as if I had already soloed. Plenty to do, really – I just want to go up alone because I know I can. Patience. Weather was perfect today – clear, no wind, visibility 10 miles. During my preflight I found something […]
Fun in the wind, and a new location
Weather was much more accommodating today. Clear skies, light wind. The skies stayed clear, but the wind picked up pretty significantly. We started off with three trips around the pattern at Van Nuys. Each landing was better than the last – I’m really getting the hang of it now. After that, Richard suggested we head […]
Around the patch – in the rain
Started ground school with Richard this week. Not because I’m not learning well on my own (I really feel like I am), but because I think it’s good to talk with other pilots, get their perspective, and learn the subject matter from a live person. It’s $139 for about 30 hours of training, which is […]
Back in the saddle
After 2 full weeks of no flying (the first because the plane needed its 100 hour inspection, the second because I was out of town), I finally got back in the air. The lesson was scheduled for 8:00, but by 8:30, Richard hadn’t shown. I paged him, and he apologized for the confusion and headed […]
Out for a spin!
Today I decided to do my spin training as required by my CFI prior to solo. One word: WOW! I went up with a CFI from a flight school on the field near my flying clubs planes (more on that in a moment). We took a Citabria 150, a tandem (meaning the CFI sat behind […]