Night cross country

Decided to just go ahead and finish up the night time while we waited to schedule another day cross country. I planned a trip to Santa Barbara (SBA), using easily recognizable landmarks. Turns out that picking a lake as a checkpoint at night doesn’t work real good – they are pretty DARK. We headed out around 9:00, towards the Fillmore VOR. Turns out you CAN see that at night – they put a light on top of it. The coastline, towns and airports (those with beacons anyway) all make fine checkpoints. I spotted the beacon at Santa Barbara 20 miles out.

Landed, taxied back for takeoff and came home. Great flight! Kent decided that we’d do one more dual cross country (to Apple Valley, next week) and then he’d cut me loose for a solo cross country. In the meantime, I’m studying every night for the written, and going through a book on acing the oral as well. I’m still probably 6 weeks or more away from a checkride, but I want to be prepared.

Night flying

Tonight we decided to get in some night and hood time. Got airborne and was amazed by how beautiful it is at night. After about 3 minutes of marveling at the beauty, Kent had me put on the hood. Very interesting. It basically takes all of your concentration to keep the plane straight and level. […]

Second cross country

For the second x/c, I had planned a flight from Van Nuys to Santa Maria (SMX), but when I got in the plane, Kent wanted me to divert to New Cuyama (L00) instead. I calculated the new heading and leg time, and off we went. This time the plan was for me to do all […]

First cross country

Today I did my first dual cross country with Kent. It was also my brother’s 21st birthday, so I thought I’d take him along as well. I planned a trip from Van Nuys (VNY) to Big Bear (L35) via the Pomona VOR (POM). Kent and I had gone over the planning earlier in the week, […]

Contemplating a change

I had another solo scheduled today, but started thinking about the state of my training. In short, I just don’t feel like I’m being given the support I need to complete my training at a pace I feel comfortable with. In other words, Richard is too busy to answer questions on the phone when I […]

All by myself

Today was my first unsupervised solo. I just scheduled the plane, went to the airport, and flew. The weather was looking like it might not cooperate – low ceiling in the morning, high winds at noon. By 3:00pm it was all in order, and so I went. Pretty basic, really. Just touch and goes (4) […]

Final supervised solo!

Weather this morning was dismal – 800 foot ceilings – so I figured the last supervised solo would have to wait. Turns out Richard’s schedule was wide open, so if it cleared we could go. By noon it was marginal (according to his minimums for my soloing), but we decided to meet at 1:30. It […]

Second supervised solo

Richard’s training syllabus calls for 3 supervised solos on 3 different days before allowing me out on my own. Since Richard NEVER deviates from his syllabus, that is what we are doing. The reason for 3 different days is to solo in different conditions. It was different today, alright. Wind at 140@12, just left of […]

Solo, baby!

Finally – the day every student thinks may NEVER come! I was pretty sure today would be it – weather was perfect – but you never know until your CFI gives you the go ahead. Pre-flighting the plane I realized that it hadn’t been fueled since the last flight. Luckily a truck came by, I […]

Phase check!

Today I had my pre-solo phase check with another CFI from the flight school – E.J. Fine. A very nice guy whom I’ve seen around but never actually met until today. He showed up exactly on time, and we went right to work. He started by asking questions about the airspace in the Los Angeles […]