Around the Corner

in

So, I have about three more lessons before the Oral Exam for Private Pilot and the final Checkride. It's getting intense and my review sessions still aren't going that well. I keep on getting distracted and end up baking cookies and eating them with ice cream. Now, I have this crazy headache and things are just going bust! Wish me luck. It should be right around the corner either this week or next. I'll keep you guys informed.

BEAR!!!

oh yeah, I want a piano now too. I think that is could ease my pains a little bit. I'll aim for 1 song a week or maybe a month. We'll see. Any recommendations around here in the Jacksonville Area for piano distributors? Not looking to spend that much, but shoot, I got quoted $38,900 and I want it! <-- Baby Grand Model S Steinway and Sons. I know that I don't deserve it cause I can't play jack crap. Someone come here and give me some lessons again. How can I get better?

Stage II

in

My Cross Country Flight was amazing! There were P3s circling Runway 11 while I was entering the final leg for Runway 6 at Gainsville. Good stuff. I landed safely, took a breather and then head to another airport for a landing and then back home. This was all yesterday (April 6th). Today was a review of cross wind, soft field, short field landings. The first one of each was rocky, but after that, it was all good from there.

So where do I stand now? I'm awaiting a time slot for my Stage II exam. This consists of the Cross Country Checkride, diversion and emergency procedures, then I'll only have about 1.5 weeks till private oral and checkride. Kind of scary how fast we are moving but this is the pace that I wanted back at home. Wish me luck!

To top it off, I have a presentation due tomorrow, a final in CAPT Safety, Stage II check, Adelle is coming into town, and the oral that I have to get ready for! Should make for an interesting week!

Are we in San Diego?

in

This is probably the best picture of us caught in the act of being dazed and confused in Florida! I was confused about what the heck I was doing here and Du was just having fun. This candid was just a misunderstanding! Honestly!!! Duong came out for her Pharm. Conference and I was able to round up some people that just finished some testing at CAPT to come out w/ us to Pleasure Island which was convieniently on our way home from Tampa Bay. You might be asking what I was doing in Tampa Bay? I got to meet some of Manoj's family and have authentic Indian food. It was amazing. To say the least, the house was incredible and the family was more than accommodating. The food was amazing! (did I say that already?) But now, off to studying. Dancing was fun and for the first time since being here (3 months and counting) I was able to let go and have a little fun again. I can't wait for Adelle to come out here again now that I have a car! Miss you babe!

Not the best pictures of us eh?

to Saint Petersburg or to Not St. Petersburg

in

I put on a new tie, I iron my shirt and got out of the house feeling good about tonight's flight. I look up and see clouds beginning to gather. Not a good sign. To top it off, we are assigned N807ER which was just bashed up by the other crew on a botched short field landing. They hit the tail of the airplane really hard on approach and cancelled the rest of the flight. I decided that for tonight's cross country, I wanted a plane that was without recent incident. We got N802ER. Excited, we continue to plan along.

So, after preflighting the plane, getting my course VFR Plan all precise, I sit in the back of the plane and get ready for flight. I call out the checklists and we're off. Forrest is at the helm. We begin to make for a Left Downwind Departure after taking off on Runway 11, a low and behold, the front moves in. We notice some bright lightning bolts straight off to Daytona Beach and up north to St. Augustine. So, we stay in the pattern, do a go around and try to climb higher and circle a bit to get a better look at the oncomming weather. Before you know it, while facing towards 210 (our intended course) we see a myriad of bolts and flashes. In conclusion, we ground ourselves and are forced to watch the skies above until we get another shot at the night VFR Cross Country flight on Monday.

I'll update ya till then.

Thanks mom for understanding about letting me get the V6. I love you so much and I know that you are supporting me in everything that I do.

Grass is good!

in

So the latest and the greatest. It's been quite a while since I updated my journal thingy because we haven't been doing anything new. But in other parts of my life, I've totally started up on fishing and got a whole rig and everything! It's been great going out. Definitely passing time and I get to study a little bit too. Good times at the Intercoastal. I'm in definite need of a car. I don't know what to get out here. What do you guys suggest? I'm looking at a TL. I'll probably keep this one too for the rest of my lifetime until I can move up again.

"I love you baby!"

Well, the weather here is crazy. I've experienced two of the worse storms in my life. They were just short of hurricane status due to slow winds at 40-60 miles an hour. Thunder, lightning, the whole works. It was outrageous. One minute, its sunny, then next its pouring. So as of now, my class has fallen a bit behind, but not to say that people who are also in the VFR stages are a little behind too.

So, get this! I did an actual soft field landing today on a real grass strip. I have to say that it was surreal. Felt like we were back in time. All the planes in the pattern didn't have radios either and they were all tail draggers. We didn't fit in at all. Doing the approach and take off was ridiculous. On the ground, we had about 19 inches of manifold just to taxi. You really have to hold that stick up too and get that front wheel off the grass. The roll out to take off is nutty. I can't say that I did that bad though. I have the video but don't have a DV cam yet. Hopefully I'll be able to put it up sometime on quicktime or something. But, it was a blast. I think that everyone who gets their private pilots license should actually get a chance to do this too! I really want to go back and do more practice landings.

My friend Andy always impressed me when he could land on a dime. I would point out a place on a landing strip and he would just hit it like no other. I'm learning, but still have a little bit more to go. But I'll hopefully be able to do in no time.

Here is a picture of the "runway."

First Official CAPT Solo

in

Well, I just finished my solo on Friday, March 11, 2004 and earned my wings. I'll take a picture of them later. Here is a picture of me before I took off in the Diamond DA-40. It was great. My landings were on the money and I definitely feel as if I have learned so much more than what I did while in San Diego. The environment here is so filled with others aspiring and dreaming about flying, it really helps to talk and be surrounded with that everyday.

You guys like the uniform? Adelle asks me what I wear everyday. Being that we have a uniform, I rarely am in "street" clothes. I am just in between my uniform and pajamas everyday. Even on the weekends, not having a car and all, I'm just at home, in my pajamas studying.

So, this upcoming week, we're going to be concentrating on the cross country flying parts of things. I'm actually the first in the whole group to solo and am the only one with the wings. Hopefully my partner will get his this Tuesday. I can't wait to finally get my Private Pilots License!

manuevers

in

Today was a good flight to St. Augustine. I really got my landings down and got to check out the local Aero Sport Restaurant. That airport really has some money too. There were Citation X, Cirrus' (like about 12) Gulfstreams, just so many other types of planes just "hanging" out.

When I got inside the FBO, I saw a pilot lounge but I didn't feel worthy enough to enter so I just decided to kick it in the planning room for a bit while we just relaxed a bit. Flying is getting a lot better and I'm almost 100% use to it now. That is that I'm getting use to sitting in the back writing and calling out stuff without feeling nauseated.

Can't wait to go back to St. Augustine. Oh yeah, flying in the rain was fun too. Check out this radar from 5:00 EST. Yeah, we were flying in some of that.

We are right in between St. Augustine and Daytona Beach. Nearer to the green section.

Steep Turns and a Cancellation

in

So, I was going to fly first today, but I decided to chill. Next thing you know, while we were ramping out of the CAPT Facility, our instructor gets an emergency phone call cutting our time together down to just one lesson for one flyer. That means that Forrest got to do the steep turns and I just sat in the back doing the Secondary Piloting stuff which does include a slew of items. It's really neat to do all the callouts and readbacks, etc. But, so having a lot of time on my hands, I decided to be an artist. What do you guys think?

Side by side. My illustration and a real photo.

It was such a nice day too to go flying. We already made plans to go to St. Augustine (KSGJ) and I was on top of the weather like always. We had a busy traffic pattern and Forrest executed his lesson in an excellent and tremendous effort. So, till tomorrow. I hope that our instructor is alright. :-\

3.1.2005

in

The first day of March started off with me reading the forecasts for today's flight. Everywhere that I intended to go, winds were forecasted for gusting 10-25 knots. Some places even had METARS reporting gusts of even 40 knots. With that in mind, we wanted to make the day short. So, we just flew around 5000 feet, did some maneuvers and then headed back to Flagler to switch out.

Forrest flew first and while we were in the pattern, more specifically, on the 45 degree for an entry on the left downwind from runway 24, there were two planes converging. A Seneca was calling out that he was on a short final (almost to the point of landing) and some Seminole from Main Campus decided to hold short on the runway. Not only that, but right when you thought that the Seminole was going to hold short, it decided to take off. The Seneca had to "go-around" but at the same time, the Seminole had already begun to get airborne. It was crazy! I just kept looking behind my window and kept thinking that they were going to collide. I should have taken a picture. But, so the Seneca finally got back into the pattern and right when it landed, the Seminole was right behind him calling in on final for runway 24. The Seneca never got off the runway and called out that he had a flat. So, Seminole went around and the other 3 people in front of us had to change pattern for runway 29. Runway 24 was closed for about a good 3 hours. It was all hectic. I mean there were about 7-9 people all together.

We landed and it was all good. I got in the pilot's seat and flew for a bit executing the needed maneuvers in near perfection. I finished and went home. Enjoy this pic.

The low down...

in

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!!!