Winging It

Fickle Weather

December 12, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom
/ 2 COMMENTS

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 […]

Lesson 57 – Winter Is Here

December 4, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom
/ 2 COMMENTS

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 […]

The Go – No Go Decision

November 26, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom

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 […]

Lesson 56 – Finishing the Hood Time

November 22, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom

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 […]

Lesson 55 – First Solo Cross Country

November 20, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom
/ 4 COMMENTS

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. […]

Lesson 54 – Night Cross Country

November 9, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom

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 […]

Lesson 53 – A “Passenger”

November 6, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom

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 […]

Lesson 52 – Some Hood Time

November 3, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom

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 […]

Lesson 51 – More Overload

October 30, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom

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 […]

Lesson 50 – First Night Flight

October 26, 2006
/ flying
/ By tom
/ 3 COMMENTS

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 […]