All posts by tom
Fickle Weather
It has been just over a week since my last flight. I missed a couple lessons because of the cold weather. Last Thursday it was too windy for me to go out solo and too cold for dual landing practice. The winds were gusting to over 30 knots and the temperature was about 10 degrees […]
Continue readingLesson 57 – Winter Is Here
Waukegan got over 15 inches of snow on Friday. The snow storm was followed by a major temperature drop over the weekend. I got in a short lesson on Sunday but, it was sure cold! The thermometer in my car showed 18 degrees as I pulled into the parking lot. I was scheduled for my […]
Continue readingThe Go – No Go Decision
Sometimes, the decision to make a flight or stay on the ground can be a tough one. Other times, it is an easy call. Today was one of those easy ones. I had planned my long solo cross country to go from Waukegan to Oshkosh then to Baraboo/Wisconsin Dells and back to Waukegan. Today was […]
Continue readingLesson 56 – Finishing the Hood Time
I need 3 hours of simulated instrument time for the private pilot certificate. I had only done 2.1 up to now so, the goal was to finish it off during this lesson. I put the hood on while we were still climbing out of the airport and didn’t take it off again until we were […]
Continue readingLesson 55 – First Solo Cross Country
After weather, aircraft maintenance and scheduling delays, I finally flew my first solo cross country yesterday. I went from Waukegan to Janesville, Wisconsin and back. Only 53 miles each way, but a big step in my training. I ventured away from the familiar training area and navigated to a planned destination all by my self. […]
Continue readingLesson 54 – Night Cross Country
My first night flight got me 1.5 hours of night flying and three night landings. I need a total of three hours, ten landings, and one night cross country to qualify for private pilot. Last night, we finished off all those requirements. I chose Rockford as the destination because it satisfied the cross country requirement […]
Continue readingLesson 53 – A “Passenger”
Yesterday looked like a very nice day – from the ground. In fact, when I got to the airport, I learned that it was very hazy above the ground. I wouldn’t be doing a solo flight today. Instead, Sandy asked me to pretend she was my passenger and we were going to take a short […]
Continue readingLesson 52 – Some Hood Time
I was planning on making my first solo cross country flight yesterday but the weather didn’t cooperate. The winds were gusting as high as 30 knots in the area and occasional snow showers were popping up along my route to Janesville. Instead, we decided to make this a dual flight out to the practice area […]
Continue readingLesson 51 – More Overload
A week ago, Sandy and I made a trip to the busy Class D Palwaukee Airport. The object of that lesson was to put me in a heavy workload situation where I had to stay ahead of the airplane to keep up. Yesterday’s lesson was more of the same but even more extreme. We flew […]
Continue readingLesson 50 – First Night Flight
Thursday is one of my usual flying days but, the weather forecast for this Thursday wasn’t very good. I checked with Sandy and we decided to switch to Wednesday night. We have been trying to get my first night flight done so this was a perfect chance. I couldn’t have asked for a better evening […]
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