OK today I’m simply giddy with excitement! I got to do my third cross country flight, my longest time in the plane yet, 2.3 hours. I haven’t spent the time to total up my log book yet, but I’ve got to be closing in on 20ish hours of flight time. Today, our route was from KPLU (Thun Field) to 0S9 (Jefferson County Airport) up on the Peninsula. The way I planned it was like this: Take off out of KPLU and head pretty much due west, crossing over McChord AFB (KTCM). Which means I’d have to contact their tower and ask permission to cross over. Once we were past McChord, and over Harstine Island, I’d turn us just a little west of North and follow one of the designated Airways (Think Highway in the sky) using the Olympia VOR pretty much all the way up to Jefferson County Airport. Passing … Read More
Great Flight Lesson Today!
Today, as I posted about earlier, I found out on the FAA’s database, my 3rd class medical is in the mail. With any luck it will be here Thursday or Friday. I had a flight lesson scheduled for today and when I arrived, Meg, my instructor, had a present for me. My presolo written exam. Fortunately it’s a take home test, and there is no time limit. So I’ll be hitting the books over the next week or so making sure I get this done. Can’t solo until it’s done and I’ve passed it. That “S” word is coming up more and more lately. I’ve really got to work on my landings before I’m going to feel comfortable soloing. I don’t know if ANYONE feels comfortable soloing?? But it’s an incredibly special thing and I’m super excited that Meg is even HINTING at it!! I mean what percentage of the … Read More
Time To Start Wearing Shirts I Hate to The Airport!
Last week I called the FAA office of aerospace medicine here in WA State and inquired about the status of my 3rd class medical certificate. The guy I spoke to, Shawn, was really helpful and told me that he could see all my medical records were received, they were scanned in, and a letter had been written with a special issuance 3rd class medical attached. It was just waiting for a signature. So I put a note on my front door telling the letter carrier I was waiting for a VERY IMPORTANT letter from the FAA and if she could, pleas call me when it arrives. (All of their communication thus far has been sent registered mail). Nothing all week. So yesterday I called again. The nice lady that picked up the phone gave me the same story that it was there (In Oklahoma City) just waiting to be signed. … Read More
2nd Cross Country Flight and A Lot of Firsts…
So today, I had a flight lesson scheduled and we decided yesterday to make it a cross country flight. So last night I planned a flight from Thun Field (KPLU) to Arlington (KAWO). A distance of about 66 nautical miles. I was up until about 11PM making sure I got everything filled out on the flight planning form that I could do without a weather briefing. I had a hard time sleeping last night in anticipation of the flight. I think I finally went to bed at 12:30 and I swear I woke up every 1/2 hour and looked at the clock. When the alarm went off at 6:00AM, I was already awake for a good 15-20 minutes. I got up and retrieved the latest weather from Foreflight and Aviationweather.gov and then I called Lockheed Martin Flight Services to double check the information I got was accurate. Finished filling out … Read More
Just a Couple Random Notes…
Personal – I weighed 275.7 pounds this morning. That officially puts me lower than the lowest I got after lap band surgery. It also means that when I walk into my office on Monday morning, no one there has ever seen me this “thin”. The next milestone to fall will be when I hit 266 pounds. That was the lowest my weight was in 2002 after a few months and losing 50+ pounds on Weight Watchers. When I hit 265 and change, it’s a good bet that no one in the past 18ish years has sen me at that weight? I think I was around 270 in 1997 when Teri & I started dating. There was a lot of working out then, but I don’t think there was much weight lost at that time. I have 12 or so weeks to go on 3010 Weight Loss For Life. If I … Read More
Density Altitude – Flight Lesson 07-02-14
After a week in California helping my dad recover from his Pacemaker surgery (read: laying in the 105° sun), I have been itching to get back in the air and continue my flight training. I called the FAA on Monday to make sure they had received all my medical records and letters from doctors, etc. I was told that everything was received and scanned in, a letter had been written and it was just waiting for a doctor’s signature. It sounds like FINALLY, the wait for my 3rd class medical certificate might be over! According to the person from our local office of aerospace medicine, I will be given a “special issuance” 3rd class medical. Which means simply that in addition to my regular flight physical every couple of years, I’ll need to provide them with additional information. Specifically about my sleep apnea and usage of my Cpap machine. No … Read More
My First Cross Country Flight
Today (Sunday) I hit another milestone in my flight training, my first cross country flight! As I’ve mentioned before a cross country flight is a flight more than 50 nautical miles from your home airport. The plan today was to fly from KPLU (Thun Field) to KHQM (Hoquiam). My flight lesson started at 9:00 AM, and I booked 4 hours of time. I got up at 7AM and started plotting my course on the Sectional Chart and filling out my flight plan. I quickly realized I hadn’t allowed myself enough time to plan this flight! It’s crazy that a 2 hour flight, takes that long to plan. I’m sure as I get better at it I will be faster, but today there definitely was a steep learning curve. I called Lockheed Martin Flight Services for a standard weather briefing. Told them we’d be cruising from KPLU to KHQM at … Read More
$1,000 Worth of Hamburgers…
There’s no question that flying is the most expensive hobby I’ve ever undertaken. The cost of getting my private license alone will be in the $10,000-$12,000 range. Then of course the question is: “Now that you HAVE your license, what do you want to do with it?” Of course I want to remain proficient, so my goal after getting my license is to fly a minimum of 5 hours per month. But I’m not going to spend all that time in the traffic pattern around my home airport. What’s the fun in that? I DO plan to get my instrument rating as well, so that’ll take a fair amount of time. I’d like to also get my multi-engine, high performance and complex airplane ratings as well. Seaplane would be a lot of fun too. But keeping current with all of those would require a whole lotta time and extra money. … Read More
Learning Plateaus Suck…
“More Right rudder John” “Don’t let the ball slip out John” “I feel like we’re a little fast John” “It seems like we’re a little high let’s fix that” “Let’s not do that again shall we?” “No more that 20 degrees of bank John” “More right rudder John” (Yes, I know I already said that, pilots know what I’m talking about). I’ve hit, according to Meg, a “learning plateau”. It feels like I’ve never been at the controls of a plane before. Yesteray was supposed to be a day that we just practiced takeoffs and landings. We got all of two takeoffs and landings completed. Yesterday I was frustrated, Meg was frustrated, even the plane seemed frustrated with me. I expected to get at least four takeoffs and landings in yesterday, instead I got two. The first takeoff was one of my better ones. But climbing out I was pitching … Read More
A Couple of Flight Lessons and Cpap Update
Last week I flew a couple of times. Once on Wednesday and again yesterday, Sunday. I scheduled both lessons later in the day so as not to have to deal with the low clouds. Wednesday at 3 PM was great! We took off from Thun field (KPLU) and headed to Tacoma Narrows (KTIW). Meg told me she didn’t want to do anything that day but be in “Toad Mode”, meaning she wanted to just check my proficiency and listen to me talk to the tower at KTIW. KPLU is a non-towered airport so the pilots just talk to each other to let one another know what they’re doing. At KTIW you have to talk to the tower and ground control to get instructions on what to do. We took off from KPLU without incident, I think my takeoff was better than most of them. A bit of a crosswind, but … Read More