My Affair With the Sky

The big day has arrived!

2009-06-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Talk about a prescription for anxiety... Checkride, nerves and waking up at 5am... I was nervous alright and the coffee was just kicking in as I headed out to the airport. I had to be up in Anderson, SC for an appointment with my FAA Flight Examiner Randy, so I had to leave early to be at the airport by 6:30am. We had about 1 hour of time before we had to fly up to Anderson which we spent going over as much as possible before we had to leave.
My flight instructor Brian pre-flighted the plane for me while I was finishing up the flight plan and checking weather for the day to see how our flight was going to be.
We departed PDK at about 7:30 and headed NNE towards Anderson. The weather was a little hazy and the visibility was really only about 5-7 miles, not ideal conditions by any means, but was still clear enough to fly in. With my experience level I wouldn't had done it on my own, but with Brian there I was fine.
We got to Anderson, SC about 15 minutes before our scheduled time with Randy so I got to detox a little before starting.

The Oral Test:
Well it was here; the start of the Private Pilot Checkride! I was trying not to be nervous, but it was very hard not to be. Randy was great, did his best to make me feel comfortable but still wanted to make sure I knew my stuff.
We started going through the all the questions on airspace, requirements, instruments, maintenance, logs, records, etc etc. He went over the flight plan and a weight and balance form to make sure we were safe to fly.
I got stumped on a few things and Randy made a few suggestions on things to study up on, but overall he said I did very well.

The Flight Test:
I got a small break before we headed out to the plane to begin the preflight. Once the preflight was completed I climbed into the plane got everything organized and dialed the radio to get the weather, set the instruments and prepared to taxi to the runway.
I called up the radio and informed "Anderson Traffic" that I was taxiing to Runway 23. I got to the beginning of the runway and began the runup checklist to make sure everything was running properly. Once that was complete I called up Anderson Traffic again to let everyone in the traffic pattern know that I was departing runway 23. Randy had me do a soft field takeoff which simulated a grass or soft field takeoff. This meant I had to taxi continuously and keep the nose wheel light by pulling back on the yoke and 1 notch of flaps. I had to then take off in ground effect while I gained speed and then climed out at normal airspeed. I turned left to keep in the traffic pattern and turned out to my desired heading as I had planned in my flight plan.
Once I identified my first checkpoint in my flight plan he had me deviate to another airport. This meant I had to calculate the new heading, time needed to fly there and fuel calculations as needed. Once I gave him the ETA to get there he concured with my calculations and had me head to another location to begin my maneauvers.
This was the interesting part as he put me through a series of turns, banks, slow flight, stalls, emergency procedures, unusual attitude recovery. The unusual attitude recovery was interesting as I put on a view limiter so I couldn't see outside the airplane and he put the plane into a set of various banks and gave me back the airplane when it was going into a stall and told me to recover and fly straight and level for a bit. I managed to level it out recover fairly quickly although it threw me off a bit and I had a little difficulty initially maintaining a straight course, but I was able to figure it out soon enough. I think it must have been the nerves as I had no problem while performing the same technique with my instructor. Either way, I'm a perfectionist and it was definately good enough for Randy, so we moved on.
We then went back to the airport and did a few more landings, take offs and a no flaps landing which meant I needed to slip the aircraft to loose altitude and land. This was with a crosswind as well so it was interesting.
After that he had me taxi back to the hangar and park the plane and meet him back inside....

oh boy.. the nerves... Did I pass, did I fail? He made a brief comment while he exited the plane which I thought included a "Congratulations" or something to that effect, but I wasn't sure.
I walked back to the hangar after securing the plane and met my instructor outside the the front door, he had a smile on his face and held out his hand and said...

... "Congratulations, you're a pilot!!"

No sweeter words were ever heard... well a few, but at that time it was the best thing anyone could have told me! I was elated to say the least.
I went back into the hangar met with Randy again who printed out my temporary license gave me his official congrats, went over a few things in the flight that I needed to brush up on, but otherwise said I flew very well and he was happy to grant me my Private Pilots license.

Talk about being taxed, both mentally and physically. The heat that day didn't help either. It was a balmy 95 degrees Farneheit (about 33C) and humid as hell. I was tired and running on adrenaline by this point in time, but we got back in the plane and flew back to Atlanta, this time as an official Privat Pilot!

We got back to the flight school and I got to ring the bell which officially signified that I had passed my checkride. When they heard the bell all the instructors in the building came out and congratulated me on passing my checkride. I closed up and settled my account at the school and I was DONE!!!

When I got home Jan had prepared a small congratulations celebration with the kids and a couple friends complete with a bottle of celebratory scotch.. Now where's that cigar...

This is just the beginning and I'm looking forward to where my pilot license is going to take me. I'm already contacting places to rent planes to keep flying. I look forward to taking to the skies with my lovely wife and kids and taking any of you with me that are daring enough to join me...

Anyone up for a flight???

Pre-Checkride signoff

2009-06-28T08:35:00.000-07:00

With all my flight requirements done and out of the way it was time for the school to sign me off for my checkride. In order to do so they needed to evaluate my flight skills. This consisted of me demonstrating various maneuvers that would be asked of me on a checkride.
I found I had a little brushing up to do and some of my landings needed a little polishing.
I did about 3 flights with my instructor and we worked on all the necessary items I needed. This really helped fine tune my landings and I was able to pull off short field landings/takeoffs very nicely. He threw in an engine failure while we were in the pattern and I was able to land without difficulty. When we got back we scheduled the checkride for the following Saturday and I was done with my flight requirements... now I had nothing to do but to study and be nervous for the next 3 days...

Last Cross Country Solo

2009-06-28T08:01:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been a little late filling my entries for my blog, so here's getting it up to date.
On May the 19th I went on my last cross country solo flight. I took the same route from PDK Atlanta to Anderson, SC, then on to Gainesville, GA and back to PDK. The flight itself was fairly straightforward and I was able to fly my flight plan without difficulty.
Once I landed in Anderson I got my bearings set for Gainsville, took off and flew direct to the airport. (I'll include some pictures I took while flying once I can get them off my iPhone.

When I got to Gainesville the left tank was a little empty so I filled up at the FBO and proceeded on my way back to PDK.
As soon as I gained some altitude I saw there was some light rain falling between me and PDK. The visibility was still good and I could see past the airport to downtown Atlanta so I decided to go for it instead of turning back to Gainesville. The rain I encountered was fairly light and only in a few sections, so my "go" decision turned out to be the right one.
By the time I got to the airport there was a little rain falling and although the visibility was a little less, it was still easy to fly through. I landed on runway 27 and taxied back to the flight school.
I found out my instructors were a little worried as they called me on my cell phone while I was on my way back to Atlanta to see if I had turned around, so they were glad to see that I was able to make it back safely and made the right calls.

And so concluded the last solo flight I needed putting me just over the amount of Solo flight requirements I needed to complete my flight requirements. Now onto the checkride...

Cross country solo flight

2009-05-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

The big day was here... well, one of them at least. There seems to be a lot of big events happening recently.
I arrived to the flight school a little early since the forecast wasn't too favorable for the afternoon. I completed my preflight planning which consists of filling out a form breaking down the trip into segments, so you can calculate distance, time, altitude, wind correction angles, magnetic variation, true course, true heading, estimated time enroute, fuel burn, etc. Not to forget radio frequencies, runway headings, any notices along the way, and so forth and so on. A little different than getting into a car and driving somewhere, but it's worth the time it takes to plan accordingly.

Once the planning portion was completed I was given the keys to the plane which had been topped off earlier that morning. Full tanks for solo = gooooooooooooood. :)
I did the preflight checklist and cranked up the engine (another checklist) and called weather and ground for clearance to taxi.
I completed the runup procedure (another checklist) and was cleared for takeoff to the northeast with a left turnout approved. Shortly after takeoff I was routed to the right instead as there was jet traffic to the left of me and proceeded with my climb out to 5500 feet (another checklist... starting to sound repetitive, isn't it).
I got up to my cruise altitude and proceeded with my cruise checklist, and began my flight out to Anderson, SC. I got a brief tutorial on how to use the GPS system the day before, so this time I had backup, just in case I needed it. I kept the GPS dialed into my destination and used it for verification just in case I needed to make sure I was still on course. Thankfully my preflight planning worked and I was on course the entire time.
I arrived at Anderson, SC and landed on runway 5. The first attempt for landing wasn't shaping up the way I liked it so I did a go around and came back again for a successfull landing. I taxied off the runway and got setup for my next leg of the journey to Gainesville, GA (Chicken capital of the world. You think I'm kidding don't you).
I got the weather report and lined up for an entry into the traffic pattern for runway 23 at Gainsville. The landing went a little better, but I landed a little flat. Still, no harm done. I taxied off the runway and parked the plane while entering in all my data needed to make the next leg back to home base at PDK airport.

This leg got a little interesting as I took off south I noticed the weather system that was forcasted was defiantely covering the area I was supposed to fly back to. I could see that the visibility was still pretty good considering the rain in the area so I made the call to proceed. I passed through some rain which cleared up a bit and I was able to continue my flight without much difficulty. The rain only posed a small issue with visibility, but wasn't enough to force me to turn back.
I radioed PDK for airspace clearance and permission to land and requested runway 27 as the alternate as it lined up with the winds better. They granted a right base entry onto 27 and cleared me for landing.
This was the first time I had ever done flying in rainy weather, much less landing in it, so I was in for an experience. The visibility stayed fairly decent and the rain was light, so the landing went well. I had my hand on the throttle in case I needed to apply full power for a go around, but thankfully that wasn't needed.
I cleared the runway and taxied back to the ramp and parked the plane. Mission accomplished!!

All in all a good flight, I was much more confident this time around than I had been for my local solo flight, so I was able to remember most of the things that I needed to and most important of all, I made it back safely.
Talking with the flight instructor afterwards he commeded me in my choices and choosing the alternate runway. I think they were a little worried as well as they called my cell phone and had the radio on listening for my return to the airport.

What's left?: 3.8 hours of flight time. So I'll probably do another cross country, then finish up whatever local solo time I have and then I'll start prepping for my checkride (Final test). Once I've completed that I'll have my license. Very much looking forward to that.

Local solo flight

2009-05-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

After my initiation into solo flying, I went out again on a local area solo flight. A local area solo means that you have to remain within a 25 nautical mile radius of the originating airport, it also means that you cannot land anywhere else.
The weather that day was forecasted to be raining and thunderstorms in the vicinity of the airport, so I had some trepidation about flying out of my comfort zone so to speak and loose sight of the airport. I'd been in the area numerous times during training flights and know my way around, except this time I was flying solo with no one else to rely on.

I honestly felt like a 15 year old driver behind the wheel of a car the first time they're taking it out on the road. It didn't help either that the visbility wasn't that great and I hadn't quite figured out how to to use the GPS system effectively, so it was all relying on my pilotage skills and situational awareness. I have a tendancy to initially underestimate myself but I kept on reminding myself that I had done this countless times before and could do it with no problems this time around as well.

Needless to say, my local area solo was a success. I headed back to the airport as the weather was moving in and landed on runway 27. Not the perfect landing, but it was a safe one nonetheless.
I added a total of 1.1 hours of solo time, only 7.9 hours to go.

First solo in the bag!!

2009-05-04T08:22:00.000-07:00

After long last, it finally arrived! The day of my first solo flight. Well, Dejavu actually... I'll explain.
I was initially scheduled to do my first solo last weekend on the 26th but since the original instructor who signed me off wasn't able to work with me, I was scheduled with another. Since he hadn't signed me off on the previous flight he had to take me through all the basic maneuvers needed to sign me off himself.
Initially all started out well, but after completing a series of stall maneuvers I wasn't feeling too well, so we heading back to home base.
Once we got there the winds started picking up and since my stomach still wasn't doing too well we canceled the solo flight for the day. I was a little bummed, but hey, better not to fly when you're not feeling well.

Fast forward to May 2nd.... I showed up for my scheduled flight time at 9am Saturday morning and met with my flight instructor who went up with me for 3 times around the traffic pattern to make sure I knew what I was doing. He thought I did excellent so we taxied back to the flight school where he hopped out, endorsed my flight log and wished me good luck.

I climbed in the plane, did my pre-start checklist and fired up the engine. I then checked the local ATIS (Weather) and contacted Peachtree ground control. I told them I was a student pilot on first solo and was staying in the traffic pattern.
They cleared me to taxi to runway 20 right and I began to move the airplane, this time as "Pilot in Command" as it's officially called.
I taxied to the runup area (side location to the runway used for preflight checklists) and began to go through the runup checklist. I then called ground again and confirmed preflight was complete. I got clearance to taxi to and hold short of runway 20R and to contact the tower.
Once I contacted the tower they cleared me for takeoff and I proceeded onto the runway. I lined up with the stripes, paused, took a deep breath and increased the throttle to full and began my takeoff roll.
Shortly thereafter I was moving down the runway, picking up airspeed and passing the standard 55 knots and started pulling back on the yolk. The aircraft responded and started taking off and I was on my way towards the sky for the first time completely in control of an aircraft with no one else sitting beside me. This of course put a little smirk across my face as I was realizing how F*&%^G cool this was... :)

I continued my climb to traffic pattern altitude or slightly below as some cloud cover had rolled in and continued on my right turn to downwind. The tower contacted me and told me to extend my downwind leg and they would call when I could turn to base. So, I continued my downwind leg for a while and started wondering if they'd forgotten about me... Soon I saw why they did when I saw a jet coming the other direction for a landing. When it passed by the tower called and cleared me to land on runway 20R.
I turned back, lined up with the runway, put in flaps at the appropriate intervals and airspeeds and completed my first landing, not perfect by any means, but a landing nonetheless.
I received clearance to taxi back for another round and proceeded to taxi back to the other end of the runway for another go. The next 2 rounds were fairly standard and no major deviations to note.
Once my 3 required rounds were complete (my landing on the 3rd round was pretty darn good, my instructor confirmed the same) I went for another 2 rounds and then taxied back to the flight school for a total of 5 rounds in the traffic pattern and a successfull first solo flight!!

Back at the flight school I was congratulated by my instructor and the other instructors in the office and got to ring the bell which signified a completed solo flight. A nice tradition for the flight school. I got out my first solo t-shirt for them to cut the shirt tail on (old pilot tradition) and had everyone sign it. They asked to keep it for a little while to get the other instructors who were not present to sign it as well.

Over all everything went very well and I had one major accomplishment in the bag. I proceeded home to share in the celebrations with my lovely wife and a couple neighbors and was finally able to smoke the Montecristo cigar I'd been saving for this purpose.

This weekend (weather permitting) I should be able to complete a few more hours of solo flight time as I have to complete a local area solo which means I can fly around north of Atlanta area for a couple hours and rack up some solo time.
After that I can continue on my cross country flight which should take me up to Anderson, SC and back.
Once I have my 10 hours of solo flight time then I'll be going for my final check ride and I'll be DONE! Somthing I'm very much looking forward to....

FINALLY!!!

2009-03-31T05:08:00.000-07:00

Well, it's finally here despite months of waiting for what seemed to be an eternity, my first class FAA Medical certificate arrived in the mail yesterday. (Dances and jumps like maniac...) A refresher for those who are asking; a first class medical certificate is the highest medical certificate you can get and has the strictest requirements.
Now I can finish what I started out to achieve, my ever so sought after and longed for Pilots license.

There were a few stipulations to the medical such as I have to go in annually and meet with my AME (Airman Medical Examiner) and have them renew my license after the proper documentation has been given by my other doctors saying I'm good to go for another year.
This can go on for another 6 years before I need to resubmit all the documentation again to the FAA so they can give me another extension.

This of course gives me some incentive to get my a$$ is gear and start loosing weight, getting in shape which will get everything (hopefully my sleep apnea as well) in shape so I can forgo the tighter restrictions imposed due to my less than perfect health.

Plan of action so far: Call flight school and get on the books again for my solo flight time which I'll need 10 hours of prior to my final check ride (Test). This should be fun, my first opportunity to fly an aircraft with no one else at the controls but me. :)

I think I hear a few of you asking, ummmmm... buddy, you haven't flown in a while, your last post was a while ago.... Have no fear my family and friends, I've had a couple flights while waiting for this medical process to come through and was in the air just this past Sunday.
It's amazing how much you forget when you're not using it, but the rate it comes back to you is equally as amazing.
Sunday I felt very relaxed in the aircraft, knew where I was, was able to control the aircraft to the satisfaction of my instructor who had overall good remarks about my piloting skills. Encouraging to say the least.

Anyway, these next few weeks are going to be interesting. I have the kids coming in this Thursday, working on the bakery, getting married the weekend after Easter and many other interesting things happening. But, I shall keep you informed.

Till then....

Passed my pilots written exam!

2009-01-12T14:03:00.000-08:00

Well, as you can see from the title I passed my FAA Private Pilot written exam last night with a score of 82%. Not too shabby. I needed 70% to pass, so I had a few over what I needed.
This was after a 3, 8 hour + days that surprisingly went quite by quickly. That's a huge weight lifted off my shoulder and now I can focus on getting my 10 hours of solo flight time out of the way before I get my final check ride.

I'm still a little rusty when it comes to some of the radio navigation in theory, but in practical I haven't had a problem with it yet.

Otherwise I've been greasing the landings. I've managed to get quite proficient with my airplane handling and can do very smooth landings (Weather depending).

now just to get my medical out of the way which is another story. That's the only thing holding me up at the moment...

Getting close to Soloing

2008-12-17T11:12:00.001-08:00

My how time flies.... I feel like I've just started but feel like I've been flying for a long time already. After my last entry I took a week off flying for a business trip to New York where I got engaged and back to Georgia again.
I started flying that weekend again on both days this time in the afternoons instead of early morning flight time which is a HUGE lifesaver. It really helps to get a little break on the weekend and have some mental reserves when trying to maintain all the information thrown at you during a flight lesson.

Anywhays... it's been 2 weekends of flight time this month and at last count I have about 23 hours of flight time, completed about 37 landings/takeoffs. So it's moving along.
I had my "mid term" exam this last weekend which consisted of my demonstration of all the maneuvers I've learned so far which consist of things like slow flight, ascending turns, descending turns, high bank turns, turns around a point, traffic patterns, power on and power off stalls, short field take offs and landings, soft field take offs and landings, etc etc....

My instructor(s) tell me I'm doing very well for the amount of flight time I have so far even though I'm still very critical of myself and every maneuver I perform that isn't what I would consider "perfect", but, I have to cut myself some slack every now and again.
At this rate they believe I can finish my flight time with the minimum amount of hours required by the program which would be very cool, not just from a proficiency standpoint but from a financial standpoint as well.

At the moment I'm working on my navigation skills and learning to plan a flight and calculate for wind speed/direction and how to adjust to track a straight path to my destination. There's also fuel considerations as you can't just pull off the road and fill up somewhere, you have to be able to make it to the next airport that has fuel, otherwise you're going to have to find a nice little field somewhere to do an emergency landing.

I have a few chapters left in my flight manual that I have to finish up a few chapters in my flight manual and I'm done with that portion. Next task is going to be my ground manual which is going to prepare me for my written exam. As long as I can pass that at 70% I believe I should be good to go.... since I'm only flying on the weekends I have all week to study, so we'll see how it goes.

More to follow......

Past 2 weeks of flying summerized.

2008-11-25T06:24:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been a busy past 2 weeks. So far I've logged about 16 hours of flight time and about the same in ground school.
It's going well, I no longer get motion sickness while flying which was a great hurdle to overcome, more of a relief really. I'm more comfortable with the steep banks and maneuvers that I have to do for training and am becoming overall quite comfortable in the plane.

I've cut back on the ground class time and spend more time in the cockpit flying, usually about 3 hours at a time performing all sorts of landings, takeoffs, etc.

Landings are definitely the toughest part and I'm working on making them much smoother. It's all about the approach. You have to begin slowing down before you get to the traffic pattern otherwise it messes up your entire landing. It's been tricky but I'm getting the hang of it.

Cross wind landings are interesting as you have to steer into the wind but compensate with rudder pressure to keep the plane lined up on the runway. You can't land sideways (crabbed) like you can with a larger passenger jet as the wheels are fixed in a small aircraft and would create a bad situation if you landed in a crab.

So anyway, it's coming along. I've completed my night flight requirements which include 10 landings/takeoffs, and 3 hours of night time flight.
Night flying is very cool. I enjoy it immensely. The fun part is being able to fly into an airport after hours when the runway lights are off and while approaching the airport you can turn on the runway lights from the plane by click the radio for different brightness of the lights.
It's a cool sight being able to see the runway lights light up, not to mention it gives you a good idea of where to land... minor detail.

Some of the maneuvers I've had to perform are turns around a point, s-turns over a road, steep 180' turns at a 45 degree bank angle. Cross wind landings/takeoffs, Power on and power off stalls (quite fun) MCA flight which is flying the plane as slow as it can possibly go without dropping out of the sky, i think we got it to under 40 knots which was kinda fun.

Have some more flight time this evening which I'm looking forward to. Seems to ve a little windy today so I have a feeling it's going to be more cross wind take offs and landings.... fun fun fun.

First flights and ground school

2008-11-10T12:36:00.001-08:00

Day 1:

Well, the day finally arrived and I arrived at the flight school to begin my first day of school. I'm still very excited thinking about it.
I got all the paperwork out of the way and proceeded to my first class where we touched on basic flight maneuvers, concepts of lift, instruments on the aircraft and over all basic info that would get me started in the great world of flight.
I learned some very interesting things on how lift is created (think vacuum) air pressure systems and how they effect the planes instruments and how the plane flies.

Once we finished class we went up in the plane. The wind was gusting from the west which would mean 270 degrees (have to learn my cardinal directions) which meant for a bumpy ride.
We practiced flying around a certain point in a circle while maintaining a fixed banking turn (turned out to be more like an oval due to the wind blowing so hard). We then practiced holding a traffic pattern and tried to stay on course in spite of the wind.
I learned about radio controls and how to communicate with the tower. Since I'm flying out of the Atlanta area which has one of if not the busiest airports in the world it helps to know how to communicate with everyone in a very busy sky. It's a little intimidating until you start understanding what it means, then it makes a whole lot of sense.

Day 2:

Today started out with more ground school at 8am in the morning (early for a Sunday). Different instructor this time around. We went over the next chapter in my book and went over the quiz which I got mostly right.
There's an immense amount of information to learn with all this and it's hard sometimes to keep up, but I'm getting there. I'm fairly exhausted (mentally) when my 4 hour session is done as there is an information barrage that I constantly have to organize, process and act upon. But it's going well and I'm having fun doing it.

Today we went over more instruments, basic load/weight characteristics of the aircraft and how it behaves in different types of situations depending on the load, bank and other factors.
lots of emphasis on taxiing the airplane and navigating through busy airports.
If anyone wants to get an idea of some coursework I'm doing right now, go to: http://flash.aopa.org/asf/runwaySafety/
This will give you a course and then run you through a test to see how you did. It's like learning all the road signs for driving without ever really having seen them before.... let me know how you do. :)

Anyway, the flying portion that day was much easier on my stomach or I'm getting used to it faster than I thought I would even though some of the flight maneuvers we did would have sent me hurling previously.

We tried some steeper turns, banks, and overall flight characteristics of the plane my. my instructor was very keen to show me how a plane can more or less fly itself once you have everything set right. He proved this by putting the plane into a vertical stall, yes, pretty much straight up until the plane lost air speed and started pointing down to the ground... kinda cool really. It felt like a roller coaster ride, just without the screaming people all around you. heh heh.
The point of this was to prove the plane would right itself, which it did after a series of bobbing up and down for a while. Think of it as a big wave that gets smaller every time it crests.

We did some climbing turns, descending turns, turning to cardinal bearings, more radio communication.

We found a few planes out there while we were flying around. One guy was performing aerobatics, hanging on the prop, spins, hammerheads, etc. Very cool to see from the same level or above. Needless to say, we stayed clear of him.

after almost 2 hours of flying around we headed back to the airport, radioed for landing clearance and began our approach to runway 27. Overall a great flight and a great experience. I'm looking forward to the next flight. Next class is Tuesday evening where I will most likely cover ground school. All the instruction so far has been 1 on 1 which has been great.

More to follow soon........

Starting flight lessons this weekend!!!

2008-11-05T12:10:00.001-08:00

Well, I finally got the call from my flight school saying that I have been cleared to start my lessons.

I spoke to my doctor this morning who said that since I have been asked to take a blood pressure medication to keep my levels down, they want me to be on the medication for at least 30 days to make sure everything is fine and there are no side effects. Once that happens I can get a letter from my doc stating that everything is fine and under control with no side effects and I'll finally get my medical certificate.

Since I won't need it until it's time to solo on my own (very nervous about that, but excited at the same time) I can go ahead and start my flight lessons and before I'm ready to solo I should have everything under control and ready to rock, or fly....

Anyway, I'm thrilled about this and can't wait to get started.

I thought this was a cool picture of aerobatic maneuvers.

Cleared security check and Sleep Apnea test

2008-11-04T15:50:00.000-08:00

Good news day!! I got my all clear from my ENT about my sleep apnea. As far as their tests are concerned Sleep apnea is 100% controlled and there are no issues there. Hopefully the FAA will accept the test results and allow me to continue from there.

I also heard back from TSA who had received my fingerprints ran them through their system and gave me the all clear to start my flight training!!! YES!!

Now just one more issue to clear up regarding my slightly elevated blood pressure and I'm good to go. Checking with the flight doc tomorrow to see what my options are.

Sleep studies and fingerprinting

2008-10-30T13:34:00.000-07:00

Neither sound too attractive, do they? So there I was back at the sleep clinic for a "titration" which is what the doc is calling it.

This means I got to take another sleep study to ensure the first diagnosis of sleep apnea is correct and the CPAP machine I've been sleeping with is doing what it's supposed to.
So imagine me, sitting in a chair, getting wired to whatever machine they're hooking me up to. I have about 20 cables attached to various parts of my head and upper torso to monitor various levels of sleep, heart rate, breathing, etc. Then you get in bed and they tell you to have a good nights sleep....... what's wrong with this picture.

Thankfully falling asleep has never been too difficult for me considering that I had a short sleep the night before and had helped replace the transmission on my jeep and various other forms of activities that fill my regular day.

Overall the night wasn't too bad, a little restless due to the contraptions I was hooked up to, but I managed to get a number of good REM sessions throughout the night... No, not the band...
I was actually woken up about 40 minutes late as I was in "a very deep sleep" and the technician didn't want to wake me up.
Once I was woken up I was told that everything looked good and I will get the final report from the Doctor on Monday. So fingers crossed...

Fingerprinting process:

I picked up my fingerprinting cards from my Flight school and went to the local police fingerprinting office to get my 2 sets of print cards. I paid my 15 bucks and got all my digits printed and sent off.

I'm still getting a chuckle out of the AFSP or Alien Flight Student Program as the thought of Aliens flying through the sky brings a few cool t-shirt ideas to mind...

Anyway, once that's done I should be cleared by the TSA to begin lessons, now just to finish up the medical portion and I'm good to go.

Medical and TSA updates

2008-10-23T09:28:00.000-07:00

Good news... I PASSED!!! Went to get my Aviation medical exam this morning for Class 1 pilot certificate and passed with flying colours. One more thing out of the way.

The medical exam consisted of your basic physical, vision, movement, coordination, balance, getting groped by the doctor an coughing a couple times....
The only thing I still have to clear is my sleep apnea issue. The doc tells me that I need to get something from my physician stating that my sleep apnea is not an issue and that I no longer have issues with hypertension or elevated blood pressure.
Once I get this I should be good to go.

(See link for details on this: http://www.avscholars.com/AvScholars/Channels/Learn_to_Fly/medicals.htm)

TSA finally emailed me back stating they have accepted my application and that I can now take the next step to get finger printed. Kinda like saying "oh, I trust you... but we want your finger prints just in case..." oh well, what can you say, It's the government, you can't blame them for being paranoid.
I can't be too hard on them, they did respond in a decent amount of time, for a government organization that is.

In any case, once I get my fingerprint cards from my flight school, I can go and get inked and then I can officially start my flight training.

More to follow soon... hopefully.

TSA has 2 gears; slow and neutral.

2008-10-20T13:42:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally heard back from TSA. They've received my application but state that I didn't clearly list the type of plane I was going to be training in. Since my school uses Cessna 172's I updated the application and sent it off again.

I also scheduled my FAA medical exam today for this Thursday. I'm going for a class 1 medical which is overkill for what I'm working with right now and is only needed for captains flying passenger jets.
However, since I want to do that one day I want to make sure that there aren't any complications going on at the moment that would prevent me from moving in that direction. I'm hoping the sleep apnea I have doesn't interfere, if so I may have to rethink my goals, but being optimistic for now.

Security Clearance

2008-10-16T12:46:00.001-07:00

A quick update on the process so far. I've submitted my security clearance request and it's currently under review and my "Alien flight fees" have been paid... Yes, I thought the same... this post has just set off buzzers and sirens at SETI (google it) now that there are aliens flying through the sky.
But... back down to earth (pun intended). The process costs about $130 dollars and I still have to get finger printed and all that, so it's not over yet. As I was reminded in an email I got with the go ahead to pay for this process "THIS EMAIL DOES NOT ALLOW YOU TO BEGIN FLIGHT TRAINING, NOR DOES IT INITIATE ANY WAIT PERIODS"

Amazing!! I get a notification that I can officially wait on the waiting and that I'm not in a wait period.... needless to say, I'm waiting...

more later.

The Journey Of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step

2008-10-08T12:36:00.001-07:00

In my case, the first step began about a year or so ago and after many thought intensive bouts of pondering the meaning of life I finally decided that I wanted to fly; both for fun and for a career if I could pull it off.

After spending about 40 minutes in a P51D Mustang last summer (eternal thanks to my dearly beloved girlfriend Jan) I was hooked! I had to do this. I had to be a part of aviation and part of the world that has captivated my imagination for as long as I can remember.

This is the Mustang I flew in

Needless to say, life gets in the way every now and again but now I was ready to begin. The waiting was killing me.

The next step in this process was picking out a flight school.
After much research and looking into the available flight school options in the North Atlanta area, I finally decided on a school based out of PDK airport, the busiest General Aviation airport in the south from what I'm told.
There are some benefits to this. The first is that it has a control tower which means that you get very good practice at working with a control tower and coordinating your flight with everyone else trying to take off and land at the same time. Undoubtedly this will come in handy should I when I become ready to fly for an airline or just flying out to another airfield somewhere.

So anyway, Jan and I showed up for our scheduled intro flight on the 5th of October. I met my instructor for the day, Tom, and he got me situated in the flight simulator to test out my skills at the wheel... or yoke... before entrusting me with control of the aircraft. I don't blame him, I would probably do the same thing.

According to Tom my hours on the Microsofts Flight Simulator X had paid off and I seemed to have a knack for the simulator portion at least and could take off and fly around without too much difficulty.
The landing was another story... I had gotten familiar with the controls at home, but these were a little different. After about 3-4 tries and a little more education on approach angles and tips on vectors for the approach and bleeding off airspeed by pitching the plane up, or increasing airspeed by tipping the nose down or increasing power if I didn't have enough altitude, I was able to successfully land the aircraft. I did this a couple more times simply because it was fun. :)

So that portion was done and Tom felt confident that I wasn't going to be a problem for him in he cockpit, so we went out to the plane.

The trainers the school use are Cessna 172's. Fairly standard planes and "very forgiving" according to Tom. I'm going to be needing a lot of forgiveness while learning this, so I'm glad this is an option...
We went over the preflight check, ran through all the checklists and cranked up the prop. Got a brief class on communicating on the radio, taxiing to the runway and all the fun preflight stuff you get to do.
We then rolled onto the runway with the appropriate clearance, pushed the throttle in and off we went up to 2500 feet, or as close to it as I could keep it.

From there on out it was me at the controls. We took a flight up north, circled lake Lanier and headed back.

I'm definitely going to have to get my stomach used to the turbulence as it does get a little bumpy in a small plane. It was a nice flight, but after 30-45 minutes I was ready to get back on the ground again.
From what I hear this goes away after 3-4 flights, so fingers crossed...

Now just to get TSA clearance and a medical Certificate. Once I have that, I'm on my way to my Private Pilots license.