Pattern Work, Landing Practice…
I’m a little behind in posting. This flight was just flying the traffic pattern and working on landings, never straying more than a mile from the airport except a couple times I had to extend my upwind or downwind legs. I needed to arrive a little before my scheduled time so that my CFI could […]
Long XC, Controllers, Clouds, and Crosswinds
I love flying! All of it… Even sitting on the tarmac waiting to take off in 100° heat because I know that soon I will be free from gravity and soaring through the skies. (This wasn’t one of those hot days.) Today was my long cross-country flight over places I’ve never flow over to airports […]
One More Before the Long XC
(I am writing this over a year after the flight so it will be less specific than other posts. However I wanted to fill it in to complete posts of all my training flights.) I thought that I was going to be making my long cross country this day… After the night cross country I […]
Night XC, Tailwind TO, and a Race Home
Tonight was the night to knock out my night XC requirement and get in the last four of my ten night landings. I had told my CFI that I wanted to go someplace I hadn’t been so he told me to pick an airport, towered or non-towered. It needed to be at least 50 n.m. […]
A Hazy XC
What’s it like flying in minimum VFR conditions? Not nearly as fun as flying with unlimited visibility. Go snorkeling or scuba diving when you have a 20′ visibility, then go somewhere in the Caribbean or Hawaii where you have hundreds of feet visibility and you get the idea. Both of them can be enjoyable, but […]
Night Flight
Part of the requirements for a PPL are that you have three hours of flying at night, a night XC of over 100nm, and 10 TO/Landings to a complete stop in the traffic pattern. I stayed a little late at work (no sense going by the house for 10 minutes) and then it was a […]
XC Solo
The day is finally here. I went into work early so that I could scoot out a little early and get to the airport. As would be fitting for the first XC Solo, it was an adventure. I’ll warn everyone now that it’s a long post, but if you make it through hopefully you will […]
Diversion, Go-Around, and Stuff
Today was my last flight with my CFI before my XC Solo to Ramona. As such we needed to work on a few more things before he turns me loose. He had told me that we would be working on a diversion this flight so I had scoped out available airports that were far enough […]
Foggles
Today was cross country flight number two back to Ramona, and time to fly with the foggles on. I know those that are pilots already know what foggles are, but for those that don’t know, they are an evil creation by someone who wanted to make you fly as if you were in the clouds when […]
X Country and Checklists…
With the solo flight done, albeit a very short flight, it was time to start some cross country flying. The airport my CFI likes to go to is Ramona (KRNM). Ramona is about 67 nm southeast of Chino and is not a difficult flight to navigate. In fact, you basically follow Interstate 15 south and […]
SOLO FLIGHT!!!!!
Today was the day. It was a beautiful evening for flying. First we went through my pre-solo knowledge test and then my CFI filled out my endorsements in the back of my log book so that I can solo. After that he made copies of all of my documents and license, had me sign a […]
Pre-Solo Check Ride
Back to Back big days… I went up with a different CFI today for my pre-solo check ride. It was different, but good to fly with another CFI. As is the nature of the pre-solo check ride he didn’t give much input at all, mainly just said what we would be doing, which maneuvers he […]
