Last Flight of 2007

As 2007 comes to a close, I started looking over my log book and was not very pleased with my flight training progress. My job has had me traveling way too much and that in turn has meant that I flew very little this year. What do I do? Well, for starters, I quit my job. That isn't the only reason but it does mean that I am going to make a concerted effort to fly more in the new year. I won't have traveling as an excuse anymore.

We have had fantastic weather here the past couple of days. So I started looking to see if any of the airplanes were available. I wasn't the only one who had these feelings. All of the club airplanes were reserved all weekend. That happens when you only have 1 of the 2 172s in service. Our 160 hp 172 is still out. It was supposed to be down for a month but it won't return to service until Jan 18. 2 1/2 months to rebuild the engine, replace the windshield and rebuild the carburettor, put a new dash cover on and rewire the tail marker light. Finally on Saturday night I was checking to see if any plane might have miraculously opened up and there was a block in the morning open. I emailed my instructor to see if he would be available but got busy and didn't see his reply until midnight. He said for me to call him at 7 AM if I still wanted to go. So I set my alarm for 6:30 and went to bed.

We left at 7:30 AM and it was a beautiful day. Winds were calm, the temp and dew point were 3 degrees C apart so we had a light frost and the temp was about 37 degrees. A great day for flying. As I started the preflight, I did find frost on the parts of the airplane that were not in direct sunlight. After the usual checklist was completed, we pulled the airplane out and pointed the windshield at the sun and soon the frost was gone. I rechecked all of the surfaces and the frost was gone from them too. It didn't take much. As soon as I got the plane started, the air from the prop would have melted a lot of it also. I did have a heck of a time getting the engine started. I have never had to use the primer but this time I did. It took a good 10 minutes for the oil temp to budge a little. I was surprised that during the run up, I was able to get 2200 RPM on a static test.

I finally got my takeoff clearance and we did a simulated soft field takeoff. In this beast, 10 degrees of flaps, shove the throttle to the firewall and it will jump into the sky. We did some soft field landings, short field landings and approaches over an obstacle. I just got clearance for the option and after we were on the ground, Richard said for me to turn off on taxiway C. He jumped out and told me to go play for a while and that he would be at the FBO drinking coffee. He also told me not to crash the airplane. So I went up and did 3 dead center "normal" landings and taxied back to parking. I went through my post flight checklist, met Richard for a cup of coffee and then headed for home.

This was absolutely the best day of flying I have ever had. All of my landings were as good as I have ever done, the sky was clear, my kind of temperature, very smooth air and a grin you couldn't knock off with a sledge hammer. I finished the year with 21.2 hours. I'll do much better in the coming year.

My E-Logbook

Getting Ready For Christmas

Since I haven't had the time to fly like I want, my wife suggested that we do some decorating for Christmas. She shocked me when she suggested we buy an inflatable Santa in an airplane. I was game for it so we went to Big Lots and found one on sale. It's pretty cool. It uses the air from the fan to inflate it but it also has holes in the end of the prop so that the prop turns too. I had to add my own touch to it so we took some white outdoor lights and made a runway for Santa's airplane.

We took a couple of pictures so we could show everyone just how goofy we really are (I think I'm getting a little stir crazy).

Anna wants to help but seems a little tired.

Finally finished getting the airplane tied down.
All of the "runway" lights are done.

A Little Light From The Tunnel

First of all, I didn't bring a camera to get any pictures. I promise that I'll get some soon. That being said, I did get a chance to fly within a 2 week period, which is unheard of for me. I also have to admit that my instructor is correct in telling me that I need to fly more often. I have noticed that my skills are deteriorating every time I go a month between flights. The last time we went up, we did the usual touch and goes and as usual, I had some difficulties but managed to put the plane down. This time several of the key elements to landing were already there. I had very little trouble with wind coming straight at me.

Before all of the landing practice, we did some turns about a point. I haven't done any of that stuff since my first lesson. The winds were fairly strong and gusty so I was having a tough time keeping my distance uniform. It took a while but I finally got the hang of it. As soon as I got the hang of it I started to get a little queasy and backed off for a while. We tracked a road for about 10 miles practicing crabbing into the wind then went in for a couple of touch and goes at SWI. Finally having a good day, Richard wanted to wipe the smile off of my face with a reality check. We headed to GYI for some more crosswind landings.

The wind was out of the south (17k @ 180) so we went to do touch and goes on runway 13. It was a lot better than our last time out there. We got to do about 6 before we needed to head back to SWI to refuel and head to a lunch date. We did get to see a Cessna Citation do a touch and go during one of our rounds. We kept hearing someone on the CTAF doing an ILS approach and never did see him. Finally he announced he was on a 4 mile final and we kept looking, then low and behold, a pretty little Citation flew right under us as we crossed over runway 17.

We finally packed it up and headed back to SWI, refueled and parked the airplane and headed out to lunch.

It felt good to get back in the airplane after only being out of it a couple of weeks. I still need to be flying once or twice a week but this is still better than only twice a month then a one month layoff. Maybe I will get this finished in this lifetime.

My E-logbook

First Flight From Sherman

First of all, I'm sorry for not having any pictures to post. I drove up to Sherman (KSWI) on Tuesday afternoon just to get a feel for the airport and make sure that I wouldn't have any issues with combinations or procedures. I found the airport rather quaint. It seems that the city is behind this airport and would like to make it grow. It has grown considerably since the TFC and NTFC have moved up there. Almost all of their tie downs are in use but I wasn't able to check out the hanger space. They have an A&P on site, J&S Aviation. The city even provides a crew car.

Since my usual trainer, N737TY is getting a complete engine overhaul, new windshield and new cover around the dash, I had to fly N733NB. The last time I flew 3NB was in June. I forgot how much horsepower it has. It is a Superhawk with a gross weight of 2550 lbs as opposed to the Skyhawk that has a gross weight of 2300 lbs. It also has a 180 horsepower engine instead of a 160. The torque and p-factor that this airplane produces is considerably more than the Skyhawk so you need a lot more right rudder on takeoff. I was able to climb to pattern altitude on my takeoff leg before I had to turn. I couldn't do that with 7TY. The down side to this extra horsepower is that it burns 10 gph at cruise. I found myself climbing too much before I had to trim the airplane. It really is an odd thing because I found myself throttling back early because I needed to slow down, reduce altitude and try to trim the plane for a slower speed. The take home lesson is more power means more trimming.

We did a couple of "normal" landings. Then Richard wanted to do some soft field landings. I really like the soft field landings. They are a lot less jarring than the "normal" landings. See my previous post on my feelings. We then did a couple of short field landings over an obstruction. I was closer to the numbers than I have ever been and it was on a narrower and shorter runway. I will be doing more touch and goes up here even after KTKI opens back up.

We then headed to Grayson county (KGYI) to do some crosswind landings. They have 3 runways but one of them is closed, 17L/25R and 13/21 are open but 17R/35L is the closed one. We went to 13 to do crosswind landings since the wind was out of the south. The first 2 were horrible. It is always the last 5 seconds that will get you. Don't get me wrong, a good approach is the key to a good landing but how you finish, after ground effects kick in is the hardest part. I kept forgetting to use my feet to keep the nose pointed where I needed it. One time the wind shifted on me as I was getting my nose pointed and I went too far. I really need to work on crosswind landings. It was starting to get pretty busy dodging all of the traffic at KGYI so we needed to call it a day and headed back to KSWI. I checked the pattern and there was no other traffic in the pattern so we did a straight in approach. I put it down smooth and slow and was able to turn off at the first taxiway.

We now have to refuel the airplanes ourselves so I taxied up to the gas pump and shut the engine down. KSWI has some of the cheapest gas around at $3.30 gal. We were in the air for 1.6 hours but only used 1.3 hours tach time and I only burned about 10.4 gal of fuel. The odd part was that the left tank took 7.4 gal but the right side used 3.o gal. We then started up again and headed to the tie down area and finished our post flight.

I'll try to get some pictures for the next time.

My E-logbook

Last Flight From TKI Maybe?

I finally got the planets to align and had a voodoo woman come out and scare away the clouds so I could take one last flight before TKI closes down for 30 days. It is all part of a continuing airport improvement that is supposed to eventually include a new parallel runway. For now they are resurfacing the runway which is supposed to take about 30 days.

We went back to doing pattern work as I needed to fly to get the cobwebs out. I always seem to be the one to get the strange instructions from the tower. While on final, I get a request from the tower to do a 360 and then re-join the pattern on final. We had a jet on the runway that needed to do a 180 because of all of the taxiway closures. The next takeoff I had to make right traffic because of a KingAir that wanted to get into the pattern (it is a very fast plane and I was in a slow plane).


It took me a while to get back into the swing of things but I did. I really liked the soft field landings because they were a lot smoother, not like flying a falling boulder.

All in all, I had fun and only used .8 tach hours.

I took a couple of pictures today. It was be the last time I was able to fly N737TY. When we make our move to Sherman it is going in for a new engine, windshield and lots of other work while it is down.
Our new flight line since they want to double the capacity of the north ramp. No more pulling in and turning. We now have to push back our planes by hand.
Update
When I got home last night, I received an email that our move is now going to take place on Oct 28. This means that I may be able to fly 1 more time from TKI. I only hope 7TY is available.

My E-Logbook

Getting Away for a While

I finally got to get away from TKI for a while yesterday. After we did some short field landing practice we decided to head up to our new field where the TFC will be operating out of while the runway gets resurfaced at TKI. We started our flight to SWI (Sherman Municipal) but the closer we got, the lower the ceiling was becoming. About 2 miles out of SWI we saw that there was no way to get into to land because the ceiling was so low. We decided to go to GYI (Grayson County, also in Sherman) on the other side of town. The ceiling was just barely within limits there. According to Richard, GYI used to be a B-52 base a long time ago. Now it has 2 parallel runways (17L - 35R and 17R - 35L, but this side is closed) that are aligned the same way TKI is. The 17R - 35L runway is not in use but it looked like they were towing gliders off of it. There is also a short crosswind runway (13-31).

As I was making my turn to base from downwind, I had a little wisp of a cloud I had to fly through to get to base. That's how marginal it was. I even considered putting down and staying until it burned off but as I put it down on the very rough runway, I saw that it looked great to the south. I made one more lap around the pattern, then headed back to TKI. It was getting late and I needed to get the plane back. So I dialed up TKI on the GPS and flew an intercept course for the ILS to do a practice ILS approach.

I have flown ILS approaches on my simulator many times but this was for real. As I started getting the signal from the ILS, I began my turn at 3000 feet. I was just about perfectly centered left and right and when I hit the outer marker, I was just a bit high on the glide slope. A little throttle back and then pushing the nose over got me to the center of the glide slope. After that, it was a piece of cake getting on the ground smoothly.

The good thing is I got a new endorsement in my logbook today. Part of why we were going to Sherman in the first place was so I could do some touch and goes at SWI so I could get a sign off to do solo work at that airport. The way the endorsement reads is as follows: "Solo landings and takeoffs at another airport within 25 nm 14 CFR - 61.93(b)(1)

I have given _____ the flight training in both directions over the route between TKI and GYI, including entering and exiting the traffic pattern and takeoffs and landings at the airports to be used, and find him/her proficient to practice takeoffs and landings at GYI, subject to the following conditions ______".

Since SWI is only 7 nm away, I can now do solo work at SWI when we temporarily relocate there for the construction.

I think I'm ready for starting to do some cross country work now. After all of this I have 15.8 hours (I really need more) and 128 landings. I need to work on finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so I can fly more. I'm looking every time I see one.


My E-Logbook

Back At It

The last time I flew was August 15 so it has been over 5 weeks since I have been up. After having had my head buried in my computer since I returned from my vacation, I got fed up today and checked the reservations for my favorite 172 and saw that after 4 PM, I was OK. So I called my instructor to see how long he would be out at the airport for some flying. He told me to do some solo flying. After the shaky solo I had and laying off for 5 weeks, I decided to do a day of dual training.

I am really glad I did as we had a cross wind and I was rusty. Finally after about 8 sloppy landings, I was getting the hang of it again. I was really challenged today with people extending their downwind legs farther out than I have ever seen. During one approach, we went all of the way to the outer marker 5 miles out. I made right hand traffic, left hand traffic, extended downwind legs and even thought we might get a wave off because of a slow plane on the runway. All in all it was a good refresher. As we were getting into the swing of things, Richard called the tower and asked for an option. As we turned to final, he said that I needed to do some solo work today. I told him that I just wanted to build up my confidence and get back in the saddle today, not do some solo work.

So we took the option to take off again and this time we headed south instead of staying it the pattern. I told Richard that all I have done lately is work on landings and haven't done anything fun. I wanted to fly over my house. Since Richard lives across the street, he knew the way by heart. We got another bonus as we had to fly over the area where the Plano Balloon Festival had their remaining balloons taking off. I was at 2000 feet and they were at about 900 feet. So we flew around the neighborhood, then headed back, past the balloons, and landed from a right hand pattern again.

All in all, it was a great refresher and I needed it.

My E-Logbook

Vacation Time

I've been so busy with work and then a trip out of the country for business and pleasure, I have not had a chance to fly. While on vacation in London, I found the only pilot shop in London. It was about 2 blocks from my hotel and we found it by accident. I spoke to the two people who were working there (I forgot their names and didn't have my camera) and had a great talk about the problems with GA on their side of the pond. I am very happy to be where I am.

I spoke at great length to them about the user fee crap that they have to put up with. The government in the UK wants to tax everything (and I mean everything) so GA is not immune. The dollar is taking a beating in the world markets, as I can attest to, so $2 US = £1.00. I found a little flying school just west of Edinburgh Scotland and the best they had to offer was a 5 hour block for £650.00 including VAT. That comes out to £130.00 per hour or $260 per hour for a Katana, at least that is wet. The government isn't worried about take offs as much as it is in landings. Even the small airports have a hefty landing fees.

Because everything costs money (weather briefings, landings, BIG fuel taxes and precision approaches) the pilots there will fly past minimums in order to not have to pay for another approach (which can be very expensive, sometimes as much as £200.00). This makes flying in European airspace very dangerous. The sad thing is that our own government has even been considering doing something like this. That is where the AOPA has come in to help with the fight. They have been fighting this hard since the beginning of the year. If you feel so inclined to help out, you may want to consider joining the AOPA. It is more than just a political lobby. If you are a pilot, they have a lot of great information to help you become a better pilot.

Enough of the soapbox. Below is a picture of me in London at the Transair pilot shop (I went back and got my camera but they were closed by then). They were great to talk to but recommended that if I wanted to buy something, get it back in the States.

My E-Logbook

First Solo

I finally did it!!!! After all of the work, I finally soloed. It was a normal hot hazy summer day here in North Texas when we started this morning. The odd thing is on the way in to the airport, I saw a lot of fog in a little valley just to the west of the airport. When I got to the airplane, there was fog on the outside of the window. I knew something was up when Richard handed me a key to the lock box this morning (students don't get a key to the lock box until they have soloed).

We did our usual pattern work and he threw several things at me that I handled fairly well. Our problem was that the pattern was pretty full today with a lot of people in from Addison. They aren't too familiar with the noise problems we have from the city of Fairview and I don't think that they care about being good neighbors. I also noticed very different flying styles when turning to base and final than what we use. They have a tendency to carry their base leg a lot farther out than we do. The majority of the people from McKinney tend to keep their base and final legs inside of highway 380 where the rest seem to carry their's way out past highway 380. The one thing that Richard is teaching me is to be flexible. I can fly that long approach or I can fly the rather short one that the tower guys seem to like a lot better.

I even got a wave off today. I was following another Skyhawk who had an option (the option is to do a touch and go or do a full stop landing) and then stopped on the runway. By the time they would have turned onto a taxi way, I would have been right on top of them. So I got a wave off, got right back in the pattern and finally landed. We made that one a full stop where Richard got out of the plane and said good luck.

The tower guys were great and really watched out for me. The McKinney tower guys are really good to us and are generally friendly and easy to talk to. So I got back out on the taxi way and headed for RWY 17 for my takeoff. I was behind another one of the Addison guys so I waited my turn. When I got my clearance and rolled down the runway, I knew that I had to do this one all by myself. As soon as I lifted off, I knew I had to do this one on my own. I got up in the pattern and was number 2 behind the Addison guy. Because of their odd pattern work, I had to extend my downwind leg across 380 before I could turn to base. I had everything lined up great but I carried too much speed in so when I flared, I flared for a long time and put down a lot farther than I wanted for a touch and go. Since I had the option, I chose to do a full stop landing and to turn onto taxi way Delta. I was going a little too fast for the turn so I ended up locking up the brakes and actually got a wheel off into the grass but was able to get it back up onto the taxi way. All of this occurred right in front of the tower for them to see. The controller told me to get my flaps up and taxi back to RWY 17 and he would get me back in the air again quickly.

So I put my tail between my legs and headed back to RWY 17 and got back into the pattern again. This time I watched my speed, position and attitude a lot better. When I finally flared, it was in the middle and much closer to the numbers than the first one. I got it down, let it settle, pushed carb heat in, raised the flaps and pushed the throttle in and went back at it for number 3. all I can say is that number 3 was definitely the best. On centerline, speed was good, flare was good, but I was still a little long. So I made it back to taxi way Delta and the controller cleared me back to the ramp and said "Good job". I kindly thanked him and went back to get my critiques from Richard.

I'm too excited to remember everything but I am very grateful to Richard for putting up with my erratic schedule, my wife for just putting up with me and to Bryan for getting me involved. Now it's on to bigger and better things.

My E-logbook

And Now For Something Completely Different

I got to do something pretty cool today. Too bad it won't count toward my training. I got to go with my instructor to deliver a plane to Gainesville (GLE) to have some engine and radio work done on it. It had a problem with the glide slope indicator flying precision approaches so it needed to be checked out. During the run up before we left, Richard found a problem with the manifold pressure in one of the engines too. So our trip became a 2 for the price of 1 trip.

The plane we took was a Beachcraft Barron 55. It is a twin engine that cruises at 190 knots so our trip to Gainesville was pretty quick, 14 minutes by the GPS for approx 42 nm. We had one of Richard's students takeoff ahead of us in a Cessna 182 so he could bring us back and so he could get some more VOR work in before he gets ready for his check ride. He did some stalls and then did some work under the hood trying to get ready. At least at 5500 feet, the air was much cooler than it was on the ground.

We got back to McKinney and talked about going back out to Gainesville on Thursday to get the plane back. As long as it is ready, I'm game. Where do I sign up?

Even More Heat

Texas has never been known for it's moderate climate but we finally have summer here. Our official high yesterday was 104 and we had a "cool" front come through. We are expecting 104 again today. With that in mind, I made plans to go up at 7:30 AM this morning to beat the heat. It still was a little warm but not as bad as last Monday. We did the usual "staying in the pattern" but with a twist. Since our cool front came through the winds shifted around from the northeast so we took off to the North (RWY 35).

I can't say we did the usual NASCAR circuit because TKI uses right traffic for RWY 35. So instead of go fast and turn left it was go fast and turn right. We did a lot of the same thing and I am just about ready to solo. Other than the occasional drift off of the center line, I put the airplane down pretty well today. I had a couple of them that were a little too fast but they were smooth. At one point Richard had me pull power at mid field on my downwind leg and told me to practice an emergency landing. I used 65 knots as my best glide speed and turned base then turned to final and put it down, just like I knew what I was doing. I am so much more confident in my landings that I think I could put it down just about anywhere (I'll probably eat these words later).

Solo time is getting closer so I need to start going a little more often. We are going to try Wednesday morning to see how that works. I just have to keep it in my head and make it happen again. BTW, check out my e-logbook and see how many landings I have.

My E-logbook

It's About Time (For the Texas Heat)

We have been spared this year from the Texas heat because of some very unusual wet weather. Beginning in June, we expect 100 degrees to be the norm all of the way through September. Here we are in August and we are finally starting to see the temperature approach 100 degrees. With that as a theme for todays update, I'll start by saying that I try to do my flying in the mornings now instead of around lunch time or later.

My usual flight instructor is on vacation so I called Dick Stephens, who was one of my ground school instructors. I really like Dick as he has a great demeanor and is very fun to talk to. I'm learning that the actual flying is but just a portion of what you will go through during this whole process. If any of you are like me, I like to get to know the personalities of the people I'm around to make this a more enjoyable journey.

Since Dick and I haven't ever flown together, he went through my logbook to see what I have been doing. He noticed that I have been doing a LOT of touch & goes but have never been out to the practice area. So we took off and headed out east. I had already been sweating pretty good but as we got going, I kept sweating and it was getting worse. We had a broken ceiling at about 2500 feet so we really couldn't get up above the clouds to the cooler air.

He then had me do some 20 degree turns and some 30 degree turns. I was a little too "smooth" and he misinterpreted that as being timid. I just started trying to make it easier on passengers after my daughter threw up back in April. So he had me do some dutch rolls to get used to being able to manhandle the airplane. I was still sweating profusely as we were doing this. It was starting to rattle me a little that I was so hot. Dick then took the airplane and we did some 60 degree turns. After getting up at 6 and going walking for 35 minutes this morning, then having a large coffee from Starbucks, that I downed just before we took off , and the rather ease at which sweat was pouring out of my pores, the 60 degree turns were almost too much. Not to mention the fact that I have had some kind of bug for the last 4 days that left me less than hydrated. One more 360 of 60 degree turns was enough.

We landed at Caddo Mills (7F3) and turned around to take off again and head toward McKinney. I did my usual flying and we ended up right back at TKI to get in the pattern for some touch & goes. This is where I finally feel more at home, on final at TKI. I think I have finally gotten through my landing problems that I had back in June. We did a couple of touch & gos but were following another airplane in the pattern and he was carrying his downwind leg a lot farther downwind than I like to do. We finally decided that it was time to take it to the house so I requested a full stop landing and was granted one.

We got back in to the FBO to cool off and to let Dick sign my logbook. We talked about what I needed to work on and what I was doing right. I am rather encouraged that Dick seems to think that I am just about ready to solo. Just a few basic things and I should be ready by the time Richard gets back. I'll have to start choosing my attire carefully now that solo time is getting near (the tradition says that you get your shirt tail cut off when you solo).

In the past, I have been posting my hours flown and landings but from now on, I'll just be posting a link to My E-Logbook. Thanks to Tony Philips, a fellow pilot, you can now keep your logbook online so that filling out your form 8710-1 is a lot easier.

Thanks to dick for giving me a different perspective on flying and I will try to relax more, as soon as it cools down and I feel a little better.

My E-Logbook

Dick makes another successful landing with a student.

When Old Friends Reunite

I know this isn't about me flying, directly, but it does pertain to my growing passion for flying. The AOPA has a program called Project Pilot to encourage people to become interested in learning to fly. It has a mentor program that encourages people to find someone and mentor them through their flight training. I am still just a student but I have been feeling so passionate about what I am trying to do, I try to share it with everyone.

I mentioned this to an old dear friend that I have drifted apart from in the last several years and he said that he may be interested too. Unfortunately for all involved, I kind of blew it off because of the reaction I get from everyone else. I usually get the "That's nice dear. Could you get me a drink now?" response from everyone. I sent out an email to several people when I got started in this and got a lot of great responses but haven't seen much traffic through here. I even stated that I was going to keep this blog to chronicle my journey and I do my best to keep it current. About a week ago I got a call from my friend Chris asking me if I had started my flight training and I told him yes. He was very interested in looking into it.

Our flying club has a $59 demo flight where you get to go up for about a half an hour, fly in the left seat and get to experience the joy of powered flight. So I called our chief flight instructor (my neighbor and my flight instructor) to set up a demo flight for him. Everything had been put into place and today at 6 PM, we were going flying. As anyone who has lived in North Texas for any amount of time knows, once we get into June, we won't see rain until September or October. Not this year. We have set records for June and July for rainfall and it continues to rain almost everyday. Today was no exception. Luckily for me we had rain over McKinney most of the afternoon allowing me to get there a little late and no one was harmed.

I won't go into all of the details but Chris did great. He did everything asked of him made a lot of very smooth turns, learned how to control his pitch, throttle, trim, bank and speed. To be honest, I wish I were as smooth as he was. I'm hoping that since he is so enamored with this, he will continue to follow his dream and get that certificate. It makes me feel great that after all of these years, through all of our ups and downs, going our separate ways, and starting our own families and new careers that we are once again able to share something that we have so much passion for. I know that he will do very well at this. He always does.

Not to make light of this but I had another opportunity to introduce someone else to the passion of flying. I have another old friend that I have known a long time who confided to me that he wanted to do something for his son. His son is 15 years old and they are looking for a way to prepare him for a life after high school. He knew I had been going through flight training and asked me how tough it was. Tough is relative at my age so I told him it wasn't too tough for a 45 year old. Once again I went to the AOPA website and found all of the flight training schools near his house in Tarrant county and sent him and his wife the list.

I fixed a computer for them on Sunday and got an email back from his wife today telling me that all was well and she couldn't believe that they were considering letting him do it. I gave them a lot of choices that were within 15 miles of where they live. I'm going to try to arrange something for them to get him a demo flight soon so he can get hooked too.

So for a guy who hasn't flown since the beginning of July, I have been busy promoting the thing I am finding consuming my thoughts more and more every day. As much as I am enjoying this, I really need to go flying myself soon or I'll burst.

Finally Getting It

After a close call with the weather, I finally got a chance to go flying on Sunday afternoon. Saturday was beautiful but I had a date with a hedge trimmer and a tree trimmer. We started by doing the same thing, flying the pattern and doing touch and goes. Since runway 17 uses a left traffic pattern, I like to call it aerobatic NASCAR. The takeoffs have become fairly routine and the climb out too. Where I have been having problems is keeping the plane centered on the runway during the landing phase. I have been setting up properly but as I get closer to the runway, I would start drifting and fight to control it. I finally settled down and started making my landings on the center stripe. If I could just get everything to tome together the next time I go up (which won't be for a while), I may be ready for the next phase of training, which means not as much NASCAR.

I did get to do something different this time. During the climb out phase we had a big jet coming in on the downwind side of the airport so I was asked to make right traffic. So we did the usual climb to 1000 feet and made our right turn towards town and another right over Highway 5 to go north. We were cleared number 2 behind the large jet when I heard the tower say "Caution for wake turbulence." I remembered from my ground school that with wake turbulence you want to stay above the path and touchdown beyond his touchdown point because the vortex sinks. Which means that you never want to take a path below the path taken by the large airplane and you never want to touch down short of where he landed. So we extended our downwind leg way past where we normally turn for base and stayed higher than normal, even when we turned for a long final. I kept the plane higher than normal because I wanted to land past where he did. And that's what we did.

All in all, I had a very good day and I made progress in the one area that I have been fretting about excessively. I just wished I had more time to fly but the weather made us start late and Richard had another student behind me so I wasn't able to extend my time any more.

Total flying this time - 1.0 hours
Total hours - 9.2
(One other Item: Total landings to date - 77)

Kwik E Mart

I know this has nothing to do with flying but I had to put this here. With the upcoming Simpson's movie, 7-11 has teamed up with the producers of the movie and remodeled several stores across the country into Kwik E Marts. We are lucky here in Dallas to have one of them.

Barb and I celebrated 12 years together today and after dinner we decided to go check it out. You can get Crusty-O's, Buzz Cola, pink donuts and even get a Squishee. When we got there, everyone had a camera taking pictures. It was unbelievable. They were sold out of Crusty-O's. We stood in the longest line I have ever seen in a 7-11 for a lottery ticket. Because this is such a cool idea, I had to include it with a couple of pictures.

Will It Ever Stop Raining?

It's starting to feel like we live in Seattle around here. Nothing but rain for the last 3 or 4 weeks. I have been pretty fortunate that I have always found a way to get around the weather lately. My luck ran out today. Here is a look at the local weather radar for just before I was supposed to go up.


The bad part is that the bulk of the rain is moving right at McKinney so there will be no sitting it out and waiting. It has been IFR all morning so I guess I should make good use of my time. My daughter is at a friend's house so it is very quiet around here so I may actually get something done without interruption.

I'm going to see what tomorrow will bring with this crazy weather. I really want to get at least an hour in before I leave for the Bahamas on Tuesday. I won't be home until the 25th so I would really like to do this while I have it fresh on my mind. Of course I'll have to learn it all over again when I get back but I can say I have tried.

Keith on the Wagon

Today we went to Kaboom Town in Addison. It is their annual 4th of July celebration. The flying club I belong to made arrangements for us to be the guests of the fine folks at Aero Restorations. So we set up on the ramp, cooked a lot of burgers and dogs and watched Keith get pulled around by my daughter.

The city of Addison usually has a big fireworks show that a local radio station broadcasts the music for it. This year they added an airshow to go with it. There were a lot of airplanes from the Cavanaugh Flight Museum. They have an impressive private collection of vintage aircraft. To find out more, visit them at http://www.cavanaughflightmuseum.com/ and look around.

The airshow was pretty cool. My daughter decided to be the center of attention when she told everyone that she wanted to do her flight training there because they had the coolest airplanes. That wasn't the only reason she was the center of attention. She took to Keith Gutierrez immediately, taking him for a ride in her wagon several times.

I want to once again thank the fine people at Aero Restorations for their fine facilities and hospitality. This was truly a 4th to remember.

The pictures above are some that Keith took of the airplanes and one of Keith getting a ride in his chariot.

Sometimes You Shouldn't Push Your Luck

Here in North Texas we are having the rainiest June in history. As I write this, we are just .5 inches shy of breaking a record that has stood since the 1920's. At the rate we have been getting rain, we will break this by tomorrow and still have Saturday to increase the record. So why in the world would I want to go flying in weather like this? I'm not quite sure but as I sat at my desk, encoding video on one computer and watching the radar on the other (doesn't everyone have several computers at their disposal?), I was looking for a slight relief from the rain when I spotted a hole in the action. I called Richard and asked if his radar showed the same thing I was seeing and he said that we should give it a try. So I made some changes to the time I had reserved (no one else wanted to even try to fly today) and set off to the airport.

When we got there, we made our pilgrimage to the lock box and went to get the key for N737TY and it had a grounded tag on it again. My luck with this airplane is not going well. So I run back up to the FBO, look up the squawks and find out that the flaps are stuck but it is flyable. Seeing what the weather is doing, I opt for another airplane seeing as I may be tested harder than I am ready to be tested without flaps. So I change to N733NB since it is wide open most of the day. To be a good club member, I make sure that I change the reservation on the website to reflect our shift in game plan. Unfortunately, 3NB is a lot heavier, had more horsepower, burns more fuel, sinks faster in the turn to base and final and still has that strong fuel smell during descents.

I'm surprised when I find that the weather is cooperating fairly well but I see rain all around us. Richard brought along his tablet that has a moving map GPS, approach plates for every airport in the US, current sectionals, a very expensive solitaire game and near real time NEXRAD radar service. The GPS antenna and the XM antenna (for the NEXRAD) all talk to the tablet via bluetooth. It's really pretty cool. So here I go, buzzing around the fine folks of Fairview (that's a joke unto itself) while Richard keeps track of weather. Of course it is still pattern work for me because of a "stubborn" streak, according to Richard, so we never get more than a mile and a half from the airport. You would think that even in that close proximity to the airport you could get on the ground pretty quick and avoid any potentially difficult weather.

So we are watching some rain coming up from the south and it looks like it is growing in size and strength. It starts closing in on us and while it is just a rain shower (not a thunderstorm) it is dumping a lot of rain quickly, bringing visibility down to under VFR minimums. We just outrun it and get on the ground when Richard keys up the mic and tells the tower that we are going to make one more lap around because it doesn't look "too bad". He is the instructor, who has a LOT of experience, my neighbor and the PIC. No time like now to test the student. By the time we get airborne and I make my left turn at 1,000 feet it's really raining hard and I'm being blown pretty hard to the north. I quickly turn for my downwind leg, get my clearance for the option (No option for me, It's down to stay until this blows over.) and I start setting up to land. I start my base early because of the wind still blowing me and I have to keep power in longer than usual, once again because of the headwind. I can barely see the runway but I can see the numbers and the stripes at the end of the runway so I know I can line up with the stripes for my correct angle. By the time I get to flare height, I can see the centerline so it isn't too scary.

We get down without too much of an incident and taxi to the ramp to wait it out. While we are there waiting, we both realize the we have just landed with special VFR, even though the phrase was never spoken by us or the tower. My heart rate finally started to come down. It only took about 15 minutes before the storm blew over, we did our preflight, taxied back out, did our run-up and were cleared for more abuse by the weather. All in all I got a lot done today even though I am still having problems using my ailerons for drift control and my rudder for runway alignment. My last landing was the best of the day so we stopped there. After today, I think that Richard has some reservations about soloing me (I do too).

As an added bonus, since it was so slow, I asked the tower what the possibilities were of getting a tour of their facilities. I was told to just go up and knock on the door. So I spent the next hour in the tower talking to the fine people who are always watching out for us as we travel at high speeds and keep us safe. A great afternoon even with the trying conditions. Maybe we can do it again tomorrow? With our current weather situation, it is very possible.

Total flying this time - 1.3 hours
Total hours - 8.2

Twice In One Week

I actually got to go flying twice this week, once on Wednesday and once on Friday. Both days were challenging. We got a late start on Wednesday because Richard was helping a new member with an airplane. Friday was a little different. I had N737TY reserved from 10 AM - 12 PM. When I got to the lock box the keys for 7TY had a grounded tag on it. I found out that it had a vacuum problem from a repair that accidentally knocked off the vacuum hoses attached to the vacuum gauge. Of course the gauge won't work but it also affects the instruments attached to the vacuum system. Art was there working on it when I got there and he thought it might not take too long so I should be able to fly today. I know he felt like a fish in a bowl with me there looking at him while he worked on it.

True to his word, he got it finished in about 30 minutes so while he was playing under the dash, I did an extended pre-flight. I spent my time checking everything, even admiring the new tires on the plane. I got my headset put in and took a picture of everything all in it's place.

We got to do more pattern work and I am really getting the hang of landings. I really did a lot better and even felt better (not so nervous or having a death grip on the yoke). All in all, I did 13 more touch and gos. Richard thinks that I may be ready to solo very soon. I really hope his confidence is better than mine. I still need to get better on my radio work but it is even getting better. In my last post I was complaining about needing a change of scenery. Well, I think I'll be getting that done pretty soon.

Below is a picture of 7TY after it is repaired. Funny, it looks just like the one from before it was repaired.

Richard closing Art's trunk so we don't blow the lid through the window when we start the engine.

Total flying this time - 1.0 hours.
Total hours - 6.9

Back in the Saddle

It has been over a month since I have been able to fly. I can't tell you how much I have been looking forward to doing some flying. It seems like I am spending more time landing than flying these days. I finally had a day with very calm wind. Only 4 knots from the south (actually 140 degrees) and it felt good. I am getting my approaches down and staying centered during the landings. This was the most relaxed I have ever been. I remember the first time I did a bunch of touch and gos, I was exhausted after I got finished. My left arm was tired and sore, my legs felt like I had run a marathon and I must have sweated a gallon. Now I am trimming the airplane better and I'm not having to muscle it so much. When you hear the phrase back pressure, I never dreamed that I would have to pull so hard during a landing. Trimming the plane during the approach helps out more than you can ever realize.

Things were going well until Richard decided to have me do slips instead of using flaps. The idea is to use a lot of right rudder and then use left aileron to offset the rudder. It causes a lot of drag and will get the plane down pretty quick without increasing airspeed, much like the flaps do. I personally think that using flaps is a much smoother way of landing because you aren't constantly fighting the opposing forces, then trying to transition into a "normal" approach for landing. Maybe after I "master" the slips and get a lot more comfortable landing in higher crosswinds, I may change my feelings.

We got a late start so I didn't get to do much flying. Plus, after we were air born, we had to go help one of the other club planes that had a radio problem. We were only on the ground about 10 minutes but we had to preflight all over, do our runup, talk to the tower, yada yada yada... The good part of this is that I am going up again on Friday morning. Richard said something to the effect of flying to Lake Texoma for lunch one day so I am going to suggest it to him. I love the flying but the scenery is getting old at McKinney, (In my best Rodney Dangerfield voice) no offense.

Total flying this time - 1.0 hours.
Total Hours - 5.9

Finally. A Day With No Wind.

I have been so busy (and broke) that I haven't been flying in a month. Beside the obvious, we have also had some pretty bad weather and the flying club had one of those rare occasions where both of the 172s were due for inspection at once. Even if I was light enough to fly a 150, only 1 was on-line while the other one was having a major engine overhaul done. Out of 5 club airplanes, only 2 were on-line. So naturally I have been dying to go flying.

We finally got the 172s back on-line so I made a reservation for Monday at 10 AM. When I got to the FBO, my instructor was already there waiting and I was ready too. The winds were absolutely calm. We were going to do more pattern work so I prepared myself for another day of getting beat up. I realize now that I need to spend more time working on coordinating my turns but that was an afterthought doing touch and gos. I finally got a lot more comfortable with my landings after a couple of really dumb mistakes. I had to find a way to relax some because I had such a tight grip on the yoke that my fingers were turning numb. I'm learning to trim like crazy now instead of fighting the back pressure all of the time. The high back pressure has been causing me a lot of problems as I try to flare on landings. It gets to a point where I'm having to pull so hard that I actually pull too hard and the next thing I know, I'm rising. This is bad because by the time I get settled down for another decent, I've bled off all of the energy I needed to make a smooth landing. Chalk it up to why you need a lot of flying time to get your license.

Total flying this time: 1.5 hrs
Total Hours - 4.9

Put One Step In front Of The Other...........

I finally did it! I got my sign off from my ground school instructor Thursday night after class. So what did I do? I made an appointment on Friday to go take my written test. I called the Dallas School of Aeronautics and asked if they had an opening on Saturday afternoon. Their response was an astounding no but she did ask me if I could take it that day. I have been saying that I was ready to take the test for the last 2 or 3 weeks so I just said yes. An hour later, I jumped in the car, drove to Addison and took the test. I probably should have taken my time a little more because I only scored an 80. I missed 11 questions out of 60 (actually 81.666666 but who's counting?) so I know I could have done better. It probably didn't help that I finished in under an hour (you are given 2 1/2 hours to finish).

I am very happy that this hurdle is over. The problem is that when I finally get to the check ride part, the examiner will look at the results and grill me on them for the oral part of the check ride. I won't be able to put up the books just yet. I have to stick to working on the parts that I had problems with until I get my certificate.

Thanks to Dick, Hank and all of my fellow classmates who did a fine job every Tuesday and Thursday evening for the last couple of months. It has been a great journey.

Now on to the next phase.

The End Is Near

As we get closer to finishing our ground school class, I have come to the realization that I have been ready to take my test for about 2 weeks now. So this Thursday night will be our last night and some of the other students have commented that they want to do a pre-flight and and plan a cross country. It's funny because several of the people in the class haven't even started flying yet. I plan to go take the test within the next week and a half, while I'm home. I have taken all of the sample tests we got with our training package but to be safe, I also signed up for 5 more practice tests online. You can go to www.prepware.com and sign up for 5 test at a time for about $15.00.

The good and the bad of it are that I'm ready to take this test. I never thought I would be able to do this with my schedule.

Here's to good study habits.

Groundschool - Aircraft Performance

We got into all kinds of gooey math problems last night. It was really a lot of fun. We had an interesting time calculating weight and balance problems. It woke up brain cells that were hibernating through the difficult translation of METAR, TAF, PIREPS and............. I can't go on anymore.

Some of the problems are pretty straight forward but every now and then they would sneak in a trick answer or two. If you read carefully (really read the whole question), then it is usually easy to figure it out. My problem is that I would get in a hurry and think I knew everything but ended up doing something wrong. I'm learning.

There will be no more flying for a while. I have to go back out of town next week and I'll be too busy to get any flying done for about 3 weeks. At least I got a lot more done than I expected this week.

Crosswind Training

I booked some time today in N733NB because it was going to be a beautiful looking day. When I booked the time, I knew that it was going to be windy and the wind was going to be a cross wind. I didn't realize that is was going to be so hard. We had a 15 knot direct crosswind. My instructor said that we would do crosswind landings today and a "little baptism by fire." It was quite a busy time for a guy who only had 2 hours of training before this.

To show how windy it really was, here is the METAR data for today:
KTKI 120053Z 33003KT 10SM CLR 17/01 A2981 RMK AO2 SLP098 T01720006
KTKI 112353Z 30013G20KT 10SM CLR 21/M02 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP094 T02061017 10222 20194 51009
KTKI 112253Z 30016G22KT 10SM CLR 21/M02 A2979 RMK AO2 SLP090 T02111017
KTKI 112153Z 29014G26KT 10SM CLR 22/M02 A2978 RMK AO2 PK WND 28026/2150 SLP087 T02171017
KTKI 112053Z 26015G24KT 10SM CLR 22/M01 A2977 RMK AO2 SLP083 T02171006 56012
KTKI 111953Z 30014G19KT 10SM CLR 22/M01 A2978 RMK AO2 SLP084 T02171006
KTKI 111853Z 29013G18KT 10SM CLR 21/01 A2979 RMK AO2 SLP089 T02110006
KTKI 111753Z 31012G19KT 10SM CLR 20/01 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP094 T02000006 10200 20089 50007
KTKI 111653Z 30007KT 10SM CLR 19/04 A2981 RMK AO2 SLP093 T01890039
KTKI 111553Z 29011G15KT 10SM CLR 17/06 A2980 RMK AO2 SLP092 T01720056
KTKI 111453Z 30007KT 10SM CLR 16/07 A2978 RMK AO2 SLP088 T01560072 52025
KTKI 111353Z 31009KT 10SM CLR 13/07 A2976 RMK AO2 SLP079 T01330072

Once we got going, it was a lot of work. The crosswind on taxi was tough. I remembered the quartering tailwind lessons for the DVD's where you dive away from the wind. When we got to the run-up area, I did the usual turn into the wind and run-up to 1700 RPM. When I killed on mag, it was running rough so I leaned the mixture and it seemed to settle down. Of course after leaning the mixture I tried running it rich again and it had settled down. The other mag was fine.

We taxied up to the hold line and asked for permission to take off. As soon as another Skyhawk landed we were able to take off. I got in the pattern and did about 8 crosswind landings. Just when I though we had finished, Richard asked me if I was in a hurry and I said no. So he asked me to turn to 150 and head for Rockwall to do some more touch and goes.

McKinney (KTKI) has a 7000 ft runway that is 100 feet wide. Rockwall is 3373 feet long and 45 feet wide. It has just been repaved and is very easy to spot from the air with its new markings.

We did several more touch and goes into a crosswind and finally needed to head back to KTKI. So we contacted the tower about 10 miles out and were given a direct in approach. So one more crosswind landing to go and I get to rest my weary left arm and legs. We got in, taxied back to the North ramp and did our post flight check list before we shut everything down. I'm still tired.

Before we left, I wanted to have some fun with Richard so I showed him my new gadget I got for flying. Everyone needs one of these. Maybe Cessna will start offering it as an option (see below).


I also found out that my increasingly expensive cheap headset finally works like it is supposed to. I was quite impressed at the noise reduction from a passive noise reduction headset and how good the mic, that I thought would be questionable, sounded.

Total flying this time: 1.4 hours
Total Hours - 3.4

Ground School - Weather Services

This one is even harder than just pure weather. The average person may see their local weather guy give the weather but did you ever wonder where he gets it? There are several places a pilot can go to get weather. The FAA wants you to get your flight briefing from them. There are 3 different kinds of briefings.

First you have a standard briefing. It covers everything you should want to know about weather. Next is an abbreviated briefing that is used to update an earlier briefing. Finally, there is an outlook briefing. This is used when your departure time will be more than 6 hours in the future.

The things contained in a weather briefing are pretty cryptic unless you know how to interpret it. It's also acronym soup (in case you are hungry for this kind of thing). There are METARs, TAFs, PIREPS, ASOS, AWOS, AIRMETS, SIGMETS, DUATS, DUAT, Winds Aloft, TWEB, HIWAS, Weather depiction charts, Radar summaries and last but not least Low-level Significant Weather Prognostic Charts. That's enough to tongue tie the best auctioneer.

As a side note, I decided to take a practice test. Since I'm only half way through, I thought it would be dismal but was pleasantly surprised when I scored about 78%. To score 80% or better, you can't miss more that 12 questions out of 60. I missed 13. I'll go over the ones I missed and go back and work on those sections (and even the ones we haven't covered).

I'm Finally Legal

I got a call today from my doctor who said that he finally got an OK from the FAA for my medical. I can legally fly now. The only down side to it is that my certificate is only good for one year. If you are over 40, your certificate should be good for 2 years. Because of my medical history, they want to watch me a lot closer. So I have to go the the neurologist for a consult next year and have another EEG done. The doctor said that the FAA will probably not put any restrictions on me after next year if everything turns out like it did this time (I don't see why it wouldn't. I've been seizure free for over 16 years.).

As soon as I got home, I got my log book and made my first medical entry into it. I really can't wait to see when the weather will turn good again so I can go back up before I have to go out of town again.

I also got another surprise today. I have been fighting a headset issue that I thought would be easy to fix. I got a headset from a friend who got it in a garage sale. A Dave Clark H10-76. I looked it up on their site and it said that it was a Military headset. OK? I knew it had the same plug on the end of it that helicopters use. I looked around to see if I could find an adapter for it and I went with the cheapest one I could find ($48 from Aircraft Spruce).

Since I don't keep a general aviation intercom system handy, I wasn't able to test it until I got to the plane. Of course I had problems with it. You know, Murphy. So I get home and start researching this headset. I didn't read very close but upon further review, it seems that the mic element can't have a DC bias voltage on it. If it does, it won't work. Guess what GA systems have in them? DC bias voltage. I was about to order a new mic element when I thought I should call Dave Clark and speak to someone in customer service who may know this thing a little better than me. I'm glad I did.

It seems that not only will the mic not work but there is an impedance mismatch in the earpieces too. They just happen to make an adapter that will fix everything for $126.75 plus shipping. I go to the website and try to order this thing and it won't let me order it. I have to call someone back at customer service and get them to enter it for me. I can't wait to get some extra cash and get me a new ANR headset. Unfortunately, that will cost me about $500 - $600.

I also updated my picture for the flying club website. I tried to find something that was so far away from what the other guys do for their pictures so I gave them this one.

Strange Easter Weather Means No Flying

What a strange bit of weather we are having. It's kind of ironic that we have been studying weather in ground school this week and we get snow in Texas for Easter. The last time it snowed here on Easter was over 40 years ago. I always wondered if the Easter Bunny was hot with all of that fur when we have our usual spring temperature.

Another weird fact is on Saturday the high was 44. The high temperature one year earlier was 88.

I'm going to be looking at the weather forecast and see if I can get some flying in on Wednesday as I have to go out of town the next week. I need to get more hours flying. I also tried to contact my doctor on Friday and see if he got my medical certificate on Friday. He was out of his office and working in the ER in Allen. I left a message for him and hope to hear from him on Monday. I'm a little nervous because he and the neurologist were very optimistic but they aren't the FAA. Anytime you have to trust the logic of someone who works for a government agency, you usually lose.

The Hard Part About Ground School Is...........

We finally got to the part I knew I was going to dread, weather. What makes it so hard is the fact the even the professionals rarely get it right. There are a lot of areas that the FAA covers in the test and it is a lot to digest. They cover everything from types of clouds to inversion layers, temperature, dew point, wind shear and even lenticular clouds (they are cool to see but stay far away). Most of the other concepts of flight make a lot of sense but this one is a little tougher to comprehend.

Next week we start on weather services. If you think weather is tough, try to get an accurate weather briefing. Where do you go? Who do you call (don't call your local TV weatherman at home and ask him for a briefing)?

I haven't studied this hard in a long time. I actually am having a lot of fun doing this. It gives me something different to do on Tuesdays and Thursdays without staying out too late and not in a smoky bar somewhere (that is for Friday nights).

Ground School Week 2

I didn't get a chance to write about ground school last week. I was a very late starter and didn't have my study material until yesterday. I had a King Schools study course but it required me to go back to Monarch Aviation all of the time and take tests there before I could advance through their course. The material was great but the production quality was less than desirable. It looked like it was shot on VHS. I did like the ability to take tests at the end of each section but the ASA course I'm taking now does the same but looks a lot better. I really liked the quality of the Sporty's stuff too.

I found out that in my first class, they went over a lot of material that I didn't know so I really paid attention. My second night was informative (I still didn't have my material) but it did cover material I already knew very well. I joined this class to try and get something more out of it than just what was in the study material. I can study this material on my own and probably ace the test. I wanted some interaction with other potential pilots and to see how I stacked up against them. I do enjoy talking to most everyone but I made the mistake of trying to catch up to where the class is and surpassing it. I did it all in one night. I ended up going 3 sections ahead of where we are. What we are doing right now (Procedures and Airport Ops), I have already covered in my old material. I am caught up until we get to weather, even though I think I need to do the weather all over again because it is really hard. There is a large amount to cover in weather and it is always changing.

Tonight will be a short post as I need some sleep. I'm too worn out from work today and helping Anna get over being sick. Here is to Thursday.

Lessons - Day 2

What a day. Today was probably the best weather we have had here in over a month. It has been overcast with threats of rain for the last month. When I got up this morning, I checked the weather and all I saw was 10 miles plus visibility with no ceiling at all. What a great day to fly!



I was scheduled for 3:00 to 4:30 in N733NB (see picture above). To begin with, I had to help my brother move some furniture from his old apartment to his house this morning. At first it was a great idea but as the day started to wear on, I was getting concerned. We finally got the last load to his house at 1:30. I had not even had breakfast or lunch. I had to get something to eat quick, get to the house, grab my bag and head out to the airport (it is 15.5 miles away). I made it to the FBO at the airport by 2:45 and sat around waiting for my instructor to show up for the next 15 minutes. I knew he was somewhere because I saw his car outside but I couldn't find him. So at 3:08 I called his cell phone and sure enough, he was on the North ramp so I went out out see him.

We just had a lot of bad luck today. My headset is not working (I found the problem this morning) so I needed to use one of his. Of course his spare was in his car at the FBO. So I started the preflight. Luckily he had a key for the airplane so I could get started. I checked the fuel and it was low so we had to have the fuel truck sent out to us. By the time we finished the preflight and finished our checklist, it was already 3:42. We started our taxi and called the tower and asked for permission to taxi to the north end. This was my first time talking to the tower and it is a little intimidating. We got our clearance and ended up number 3 during an extremely busy period at McKinney. By the time we started our takeoff roll, it was 3:54. I only had 36 minutes left before I had to turn the plane over to the next person on the list. Nothing like rushing a little.

We finally got airborne and flew to Murphy and did some more turns around a point. I flew around that water tower circle 5 times. Next we did some S turns following a road. As we were heading back Richard said that he was getting bored that I was catching on so quickly that he wanted to do a couple of things before we landed. I got to do a low level pass across the runway then back to the pattern. We got a curve thrown at us as we applied power to go around. When Runway 17 is the active runway they use left hand traffic (all left turns). The tower asked us to follow another plane for right hand traffic. OK, whatever the tower wants, the tower gets. This time we do a touch and go. After this one, we followed the normal left hand traffic pattern. To tell you how busy it was, we were number 4 for landing behind a Lear jet and 2 other Cessnas. We got in and taxied straight to our spot, did our post flight inspection and was walking to the FBO and the guy who had the plane after me, was walking toward us and we just handed off the keys.

What a great start and a beautiful weekend. I'm trying to get my friend Bryan interested in flying also. He is starting to sniff the bait but he hasn't bit the hook yet.

Total flying this time: 0.9 hours
Total Hours - 2.0

First Flight

Well I finally got to go up for my first official lesson. To make it official, I got my logbook signed. I was even allowed to bring my wife and daughter up with me, which was quite a surprise. My daughter wasn't scared and just jumped right in the back and put on a headset and wanted be a part of the flight. The good and bad news to come out of that was that my microphone on my headset quit working so I had to swap headsets with her. At least my instructor and myself were able to communicate without any interruptions. Here is a shot of my daughter ready for action:

I have been sweating whether we would get to go or not because of some very bad weather the day before. Parts of Dallas/Fort Worth received as much as 6 inches of rain the day before. In our little piece of the world, we only got about 2 1/4 inches. As luck would have it, the forecast I had been looking at for the past 3 days said that Saturday would be good weather behind a cold front. Since most weather men in our area can't seem to get much right lately, I was very worried. Saturday arrived and it was gorgeous.

We did our preflight and finally headed to the Runway 35 run-up area to finish all of our pre-take off procedures. Now the moment of truth. Looking at the wind sock, it said we had about a 10 knot crosswind directly from the west and we are heading north. I was hoping my first flight would have been a little less demanding. My surprise was that the wind sock is on a hill east of the runway. The west side are where all of the airport operations and hangers are. They blocked the wind so I had a very smooth takeoff. I say it was smooth but that was only the first 30 or 40 feet. Then we got hit with the cross wind and I started having to really fly then.

My wife was in the back taking some pictures until my daughter took the camera away from her. At least I got about a dozen usable shots and about 4 dozen shots of the floor, her foot, the back of my head and anything else you can think of. Here is a shot of us heading east away from the McKinney airport (KTKI):

After all is said and done, we were up for about an hour and got a lot done. I practiced coordinated turns, flying around a point and crabbing into the wind to follow a path. My instructor told me that he doesn't usually push that much onto his students but I handled everything so well that he just kept pushing.

As we were heading back on a straight in approach we flew over the town of Fairview where they have noise abatement rules that require us to be at least 1500 feet and throttled back. I have a friend who lives there and tried to show my wife and daughter but my daughter decided that she would throw up instead. She did so well until we started our descent. When we got on the ground (a pretty good landing if I say so myself), we taxied to our parking spot and I had to run down to the FBO and get some towels and some water to clean up the mess. My wife jumped in and knocked it out before I could even get the first towel wet. I really hated to dump the post flight checklist on my instructor but he understood the extenuating circumstances.

All in all, a I had a great day. I just needed to get home to a quiet environment to replay everything back to remember all of the little nuances that are needed to fly an airplane correctly. After all, the end result is to get my license so I have to do this a lot more and get it right on my check ride.

As a side note, my instructor informed me that I was on the front page of out flying club website. We had someone come out to one of our ground school classes and take pictures last Tuesday night. The photographer chose to use a picture that had me and my girth prominently displayed in the foreground of the picture. Maybe the flying club will change the picture and gain some dignity again.

Total flying this time: 1.1 hours
Total Hours - 1.1

I Can Fly

For the last several years I have wanted to get my private pilot license. I made a promise to a friend I lost to cancer that I would pursue it. My problem was that I had a medical condition that prohibited me from ever getting my license (or so I thought). The fact that I hadn't done anything about it was starting wear on me. I had promised that I would see if there was anything that I could do to get cleared for a 3rd class medical but I just kind of blew it off. As time went by, I kept getting a nagging feeling that I was not living up to a promise I had made and it was really starting to bug me. It would be so easy to just blow it off and go on with life like nothing happened. So at the end of last year I sat down with my wife and let her know that I thought I needed to explore the idea of talking to a CME and see what my shot at getting through the process would be.

To be honest, I really didn't want to awaken any sleeping giants but I did make a promise. So I went against my procrastinating ways and made an appointment with the guy that everyone told me was the best at finding solutions to difficult medical conditions. I barely passed the basic portion because of my slowly deteriorating eyesight. I've been blessed with amazing eyesight but after turning 45, they are starting to go. Once we got through the easy part, I asked what it was I needed to do to satisfy the FAA.

So here we are 3 months later and I have passed all of the tests required by the FAA. I'll find out some time during the first week in April whether or not I have to jump through anymore hoops. The one thing that has happened is that I have now joined a flying club, started ground school and on Saturday March 31, I take my first lesson. So it is no more simulator for me. I'll be going up in N737TY a 1978 Cessna 172N for a couple of hours with my instructor (who happens to be my neighbor).

We'll have to see how things go after Saturday (if the weather holds) as to whether I'll have a future in this. From everything I've done already, this should be somewhat anti-climactic but I won't bet against it.