The low down...

Today was an awesome day for flying! I mean, the clouds were dissipating and before you knew it, the sun was shining and giving me a darker complexion. By the time I get back to San Diego, I'll be as dark as...(insert the name of your darkest skinned friend that you know here, I'll just abstain from inserting someone)

I did a couple of landings at a different airport with more crosswinds. I was blowing from from 250 and sometimes 220 varying 8-10 knots with gusts of 15 mph. Not that bad, but when you're about the land and think that you're about to touchdown onto the runway, the wind just swirls you back up. Add a little more power, stabilize your approach again and then touchdown. I got some great footage too. I just need to convert these little DV cam videos on to my computer and then somehow get it into quicktime, and then...you can watch the flight too! It's all about the crosswinds here in Florida. 28J is a nice Class Gulf airport (www.airnav.com and and search for 28J if you want to see it) but there isn't anything more to do there than just land and go to the bathroom. We are making some progress with our 4th class tomorrow on slow flight and stalls. I need to go review again.

And yes, flying still makes me sick sometimes especially when I'm in the back seat doing all the callouts and observations. I don't get sick flying, but man, when there is wind turbulence, I'm just hurting!!!

Flying in the Haze

Here's is the type of weather that we flew in today. Made a nice Cross Country (>50 miles) to Gainesville Airport. It was a nice trek. My flight buddy flew for 1.7 hrs and I took the plane home in about 1.6 hrs. Got landings in, even some w/ cross wind action. Got some rain too. Did a little "scud" running back into the airport with overcast being 800 feet. More to come on Monday.

WX Outlook

Wow, yesterday and today, it's been up to the last minute to decide whether we'll be up in the air or staying on the ground. The only thing that I find frustrating is the fact that we wake our asses up , get into uniform, check the weather, call up our instructor to get his final say, when I walk out the door, he calls me and then cancels and then says we'll fly up on saturday, and then I call him and the outkook is marginal VFR because of ceilings...yada yada yada.

Should be fun today. I'm about to step out of the door and head to class. Looks like we'll just be doing some ground again today. Umm....I see a pattern here.

To top it off, my right ear is still all messed up from I don't know...fluid congestion or pressure build up. I can't hear out of it. Stinks but oh well, what can I do?

Call me if you click on this link and you see some adverse weather.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/latest/DS.p19r0/si.kjax.shtml

and another

shouts to Corrin-eeeee and Mar-c-ella
The one on your left is single and a taurus. Leave some comments and I'll forward them.

this is a...

SHOUT OUT TO MY BABY!!! HI A-DLE!!! :-) I Dove YOU!!!

1st day of flying

It's great to be back in the air! I was able to do great takeoffs but my first landing was pretty bad. :-) Of course, I came back around with the proper correction and nailed that sucker. Flying the DA40 with 200 pounds extra in the back (my stick-buddy) changes the dynamics and I should have known that. I powered off and just thumped back to the ground. Wasn't that bad, but not good enoung to pass my standards.

Recap of Last night:

Got home and needed to get rid of this pressure crap that is making me partially deaf in my right ear. Something about getting sick and getting all clogged up back there. So, I took some Nyquil, and ate some dinner. Laura told me that that always makes her pass out about 45 minutes after initial digestion, I wanted to prove her wrong. I just about started feeling really whoosy right there and then. I decided to go to bed and I passed out!!! --> there goes my studying that I thought I was going to do for the Physiology Final today.

I woke up a couple of times during the night just feeling kind of weird but I was able to get some good rest (the best ever) and woke up early to get ready for my first flight. After the flight, we (as a crew) went back home, ate some lunch, headed back to school, had a Red Bull and a Nerd Rope, and then took the test. I passed w/ a 94%. I tied once again with the Indian dood who spent the previous night watching 6 hours of the O.C. Man, I guess I still have it in me!

Going flying tomorrow...of course, if that SoCal storm doesn't get in the way.

FAA Test #1

I passed with a 98% (59/60) on the test today which only took me about 30 minutes. It was great, but I really thought that I got a 100%. I came so close. Oh well, I tied with Manoj. I'm happy. Things are going well. I'm so tired. We start flying next week on Thursday. In the mean time, we have two finals next week. One in communications and one is flight physiology. Should be a fun weekend!

[time]

Time is of the essence. I have no time at all (of course besides this time that I'm putting away writing again). It is not hard to keep this updated, but I've been studying. Learning just about everything and anything that I can take in during my Private Pilot Course on Weather while learning more and expanding my knowledge knowing that I will have an upper division course on weather once I get to commercial and jet training. Right now, we are doing Weight and Balance of an airplane in respects it and our capacity. It was a funny thing because after doing all this, I got worried that my trip to Vegas in the DA-40 was over weight. I did the computations and boy, we just slid right under the Normal Category for operation. I mean I did it before hand, but I felt that I might have missed something. It was a great relief to me that I didn't. It's just way too crazy how much you really have to plan out before you actually attempt to go anywhere. I can't wait to get back home and start flying to Vegas. Who's coming with me?!

I have a quiz tomorrow on airplane performance, have the final stage 3 exam (QE 3) and the FAA exam next week. I'm going to take it home! Oh yeah, and I scored a 95% on my last QE. I fell down to second in the class out of four...but I WILL REDEEM MYSELF!!! MUUWAH HAHAHAHHAA!!!

Superbowl Party

What a party I had today. It was great! I guestimated that about 15 - 20 would show up and I was right. I was right that the Pats would win, but they didn't make the spread. Oh well. Anyways, I had a great time cleaning up and now I'm done. Back to sleeping and studying! My girlfrien is coming this weekend! I can't wait! Oh yeah, and my roommate's car, which is the only means of transportation around here, broke down today. I had to push it around the corner. It was exciting!

so get this...

My morning went schedule was as follows:

-Went to bed around 12:00 AM.
-Woke up at 5:00 AM but got up at 5:10 AM to start studying for my first QE (qualifying event = final / midterm) while listening to Sirius Channel "The Beat" (kind of like electronic / dance music)
-Got dressed around 7:45 AM and packed a Red Bull and a Nutri-Grain Bar
-Got to school very anxious to download all my knowledge at 8:15 AM
-Downed the Red Bull in a matter of 10 seconds
-Got WIRED and I mean WIRED for the test
-I received the test and answer sheet and started backwards form question 50 (my anxiety really gets to me so I just play along with it and do things weird)
-I finished all 50 in about 8 minutes

The bad news is... I did not get a 100%. I missed two questions, one of which was just marked incorrectly by yours truly and the other I completely missed. Stupid me. But, if you count all the quizzes and this QE, I'm still ahead. But then again, if you only count this event, everyone missed two except my Crew Buddy Minoj who missed only 1. Oh well, I got another exciting day like this one on Tuesday. Apparently, we will be flying within the next two and half weeks making our way into the final parts of the Private Pilot Ground Course. I can't wait to get my wings.

testing in...

So the test was postponed for today, February 3, 2005, and I'm awake at 5:00 a.m. studying. It really shouldn't be that bad, but I'm studying all I can so that I can ace this exam. I need a 90% but I want that 100%. Stay tuned! Check back at 12:30 EST and I'll post my results. This test is only on the intro stuff to the Private Pilot Course. I've learned it before but now I know it much better. I can't wait!

I also start flying in about 2.5 weeks which means I have a total of 3 QEs and 1 FAA Exam within this time period! It's going to be insane!

Qualifying Event #1

As the days grow nearer until my first Qualifying Exam, distractions get larger! It's always convienent that my computer (HP Pavilion dv1000) doesn't want to talk to printer (Photosmart 2610) and causes Windows to crash. So I've been working on that instead of studying for a while.

This exam covers quite a bit. It shouldn't be that bad, but I have another QE next week and then week after, then my FAA Final, and man...its going by so fast! I've been in Florida for about 4 weeks now. I can't believe it. I guess its okay and its working out great. Anyways, I'm going to get some of that sleep that I need.

Oh yeah, I'm still running too!