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!!!

Flying in the Haze

in

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

in

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

1st day of flying

in

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

in

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]

in

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

in

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!