Category Archives for flying
Lesson 73 – An Almost Solo and Crosswinds
While Sunday’s session was an almost flight, yesterday’s lesson was an almost solo. There were a few rain showers around but ceilings were forecast to be 4000 feet or higher and winds were supposed to be light. Sandy didn’t want me to go out to the practice area but cleared me to solo in the […]
Continue readingBad Weather, Tire Damage and a Practice Oral Exam
A low pressure center has been camped out near the Chicago area for several days now. The bands of rain and thunderstorms rotating around it forced me to cancel my Thursday lesson. Sunday wasn’t looking much better but, Sandy and I talked it over and decided to try going ahead with the lesson. If we […]
Continue readingLesson 72 – Starting the Checkride Prep
After a long Memorial Day weekend in Salt lake City, I got back in the air yesterday. The goal for now is to fine tune everything I have learned and to get ready for the private pilot checkride. I will do that with a series of solo and dual flights over the next few lessons. […]
Continue readingLesson 71 – Long Solo Cross Country
Well I finally got the long solo cross country done. If you have been reading this blog, you know I was working on it way back in January. I was beginning to think it would never happen. I had to cancel Tuesday because a line of thunderstorms was moving though the area. When I got […]
Continue readingLesson 70 – Back to Janesville
I finally got a day when the weather was good enough for a solo cross country so, I went back to Janesville, Wisconsin. When I went there for my first solo cross country, I had trouble finding the airport. This time I hoped to do better. The most difficult part of the whole flight was […]
Continue readingLesson 69 – Alone Again
Yesterday was my first solo flight since January 7. I was going to do a short cross country but the weather to the west didn’t allow that. Instead, I went out to the practice area for some air work. I did a few steep turns and a few minutes of slow flight to get started. […]
Continue readingLesson 68 – Another Dual Session
I still haven’t been able to get a good weather day for a solo cross country and it was two weeks since I had flown so, we did another dual session yesterday. I managed to make two crosswind landings at Westosha but, the conditions were tough so we didn’t stick around long. In the practice […]
Continue readingLesson 67 – More Crosswind Practice
We finally had a beautiful looking day yesterday but, the winds were blowing too hard for a solo flight. Instead, Sandy and I flew to East Troy for some more crosswind practice. The 12 plus knot winds were blowing straight across runway 26 so, that is the one we chose to use. There were other […]
Continue readingPracticing for the Oral Exam
The wind has really been howling here in the Midwest lately. Yesterday it was blowing about 20 knots with gusts up to 30 knots. I need practice with crosswinds but, this was a little to much wind. Sandy and I talked it over and decided to wait for a slightly calmer day. Instead of flying, […]
Continue readingLesson 66 – Short Hops
This lesson was an exercise in finding airports and entering the patterns. We went to three different airports with landings at each. Leaving Waukegan, we flew north to Racine. I coordinated with the Kenosha tower to transition through their airspace along the way. I had the right frequencies set before takeoff so the transition went […]
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