Category Archives for flying
Lesson 41 – Simulator and Crosswinds
Sandy called me while I was on the way to the airport yesterday. She was stuck in Kenosha getting a flat tire fixed on the airplane I was scheduled to fly so she would be late. Since I was already headed there, I went on to the airport anyway. I was content to just hang […]
Continue readingLesson 40 – VOR Navigation
This lesson started in the classroom where we spent an hour going over the VOR system and how to use it. I learned about tuning in and verifying the stations, using the OBS and CDI to locate myself, intercepting radials and tracking to and from stations. I all seemed pretty simple while sitting at a […]
Continue readingLesson 39 – Solo to Practice Area
I am slowly stretching my wings. Yesterday I made my first solo flight away from the airport. It was just out to the practice area west of Waukegan, but it felt like a big deal to me. It was almost like I was getting away with something by getting in an airplane, by myself, and […]
Continue readingSkill Aviation Open House
Saturday was open house day at Skill Aviation. Georgia and I got there about 11:30 which gave us time to look over the airplanes on the ramp and have lunch from the grills manned by some the schools CFIs. In addition to the current Skill fleet, there was a warbirds display featuring a T28, an […]
Continue readingLesson 38 – First Dual Cross Country
Today, we flew the trip to Janesville that we planned during Thursday’s ground school lesson. I got a weather briefing and updated the heading and ground speed calculations, using the current winds, before I left home. When I got to the airport, Sandy and I went over my plan and I listened in while she […]
Continue readingLesson 37 – Flight Planning and Second Solo
My Thursday afternoon lesson was another ground school session. We went over flight planning using our up coming dual cross country as an example. I drew a course line from Waukegan to Janesville, Wisconsin and chose checkpoints about every ten miles along the way. Using the current weather and the C172R Pilot’s Operating Handbook, I […]
Continue readingIt’s Just Too Hot
With an extreme heat advisory out for yesterday, we opted for ground school. I find that when it gets really hot, the temperture becomes so much of a distraction that I don’t get much out of training in the airplane. Besides, I haven’t had ground school for about two months and we do have stuff […]
Continue readingLesson 36 – Pilotage
The goal for this lesson was to use pilotage to fly to Poplar Grove, from there to Lake in the Hills and then back to Waukegan. The distance didn’t qualify as an official cross country flight, but it was a very good introduction to what travel by airplane is all about. My basic task was […]
Continue readingLesson 35 – A Grass Strip
For this lesson, we flew to Dacy Airport to practice soft field techniques on a grass landing strip. It was my first time flying to a field with turf runways and was a real education. This is the way flying was in the early days and it is good to know there are places like […]
Continue readingLesson 34 – Starting Stage 3
My first solo marked the end of Stage 2 training. Yesterday I started on the first lesson of Stage 3. This is the dual cross country stage but starts out with maximum performance takeoffs and landings. We flew up the shore of Lake Michigan to Racine to work on short and soft field takeoffs and […]
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