New Blog:

I've decided to make another blog about my aviation pursuits. It looks like I will be able to go back to flying lessons almost full-time soon thanks to some help from my folks (thanks!), and I am delighted at the prospect of returning to the sky more frequently.

With that in mind, and given that I do have a fair amount of unfilled spare time, I give you: airways to airways. The title is a bad play on words between the Respiratory-style airways I am used to and the aviation-style airways I will be getting reacquainted with.

We'll see how it evolves. I'll still post here too, of course, but I figured this would give me a good place to channel some of my aviation enthusiasm to. Follow along and enjoy!

Belated

A belated happy 100th birthday to "Mama Bird" Evelyn Johnson, the oldest female aviator in the nation. Ms. Johnson has logged 57,365.4 hours in the air over her lifetime, and while she is no longer able to fly due to glaucoma, she still acts as manager of Moore-Murrell airport in Morristown, TN.

Just for perspective, if my math is right, Ms. Johnson has spent 2390 1/4 days in the air, which works out roughly to 6 1/2 years airborne. Wow!

Not much news to report here in Florida. The weather has finally cooled some, with a mere 80 degrees today, though persistent clouds and some wind have made it feel much cooler. Melissa's transcripts have finally gone through at the new school, and so the ball is once again rolling towards the eventual completion of the USMLE, and then placement in clinicals. On the aviation front I spoke with a representative from ATP at the aviation forum yesterday and he told me he'd check their records and call me Monday to see what the delay in processing my financial aid application has been.

The cats have been unusually frisky and energetic lately. I think the change in weather is helping them as much as it's helping me; I feel more human when it's not 400 degrees outside, especially in November.

Summit

The Star:, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

Today I attended the 2009 AOPA Aviation Summit in Tampa. The theme this year was "General Aviation Serves America." In todays economic and paranoid times, general aviation is under attack by those who view GA as nothing more than a plaything of the rich, when quite the opposite is true. GA pilots ferry cargo, ferry passengers, do sightseeing tours, fly medical flights, dust crops and ship agriculture. GA Pilots volunteer time with veterinary adoption agencies, organ procurement programs, and Angel flights, where ill people are shuttled free-of-charge to destinations where they plan to undergo therapy. GA pilots do a lot for the economy, but our legislators fail to see that and demand impositions of prohibitively high user fees on GA airports and ATC facilities. They demand restrictive and asinine security measures at small fields that do little to make anybody safer from what is largely an imagined threat. The whole point of the summit was that pilots and aviation enthusiasts, and the network of companies, FBOs, mechanics, and factories that support them, need to mobilize to change the way thought leaders are bashing GA.

Anyway.

At the summit were conferences, speakers, and other notables. There were equipment manufacturers and retailers, and I bought a headset for use when I continue my flight training. But the most fun for me was the Airportfest, held at Peter O. Knight municipal field in Tampa. At the airportfest were hundreds of private aircraft flown in by their owners, as well as new machines from the manufacturers who wanted to showcase their latest and greatest. Did I take pictures? Why yes, I did!

All in all, I had a blast at the summit. I learned a lot from the various speakers and vendors, and I just had an amazingly fun time walking around and looking at the various airplanes, toys, electronics, and gadgets.

With any luck, I'll be flying more consistently soon. We'll see what happens.

Halloween:

We didn't dress up or party for Halloween, but we did do two festive things: we got a pumpkin and baked a cake.

Pics:

The cake has marshmallow cats along the side of it, similar to the marshmallow peeps popular at Easter time. Good stuff!

The Beach

Tuesday afternoon Mel and I decided to go back to the beach. It may not have been the beachiest day--slightly overcast with a decent wind--but we figured we should go while we had the chance. We piled into the car with a cooler full of sandwiches and drinks, clicked on the GPS, and zipped off to Indian Shores.

By the time we got to Indian Shores, the sky was a little foreboding. Despite the gray clouds and the breeze we figured we'd driven all this way and dang it, we were going to enjoy the beach. We found some parking up the road from our favorite coffee place and headed on to the sand.

The first thing we noticed was the waves. The last couple of times we had been to the shore, there were waves, but they were trifling and small and the water was for the most part perfectly clear. Not so much this time. Whitecaps were cresting off the shore, swelling up to maybe four or five feet before they crashed and broke just shy of the waterline. Further out it was hard to tell what was going on, but an ominous black line was on the horizon and we could see the sheets of rain falling far in the distance. We forged ahead anyway, stowed our cooler and towel, and headed into the surf. I noticed what looked like a strong cross-current and made note to be careful.

Swimming was great fun. With the giant waves we could crash through them and ride them in to shore. The undertow gradually sucked us North along the beach, but we had a blast jumping in and out of the waves and trying to time the big ones so they didn't break before they hit us. As we swam, we noticed the sky getting darker and grayer, and eventually it became difficult to tell where the horizon was as the water reflected the sky. Suddenly, just as we were considering getting out, the sky opened up and a torrential rainstorm began. We made way back down the beach to our cooler and our now soaked towels. There was no point really in drying off, so we just splashed back to the car and evaluated the damage from in there. Towels? Soaked. Clothing? Mostly soaked. Electronics? Miraculously okay.

We stopped for a hot coffee before riding home and turned the heat on in the car in an effort to dry ourselves off. We had a blast playing in the surf, but I suppose the most valuable lesson from the day would be to check the forecast before heading out to play.

:)

Eight hours after landing...

...I still feel high from flying.

Soon, very soon, I hope to be doing this part-time. And then....someday....full-time. The gears of change might turn slow, but I am glad they are even turning at all.

Flying!

Today, I went flying.

It was as awesome as I remembered it.

The helm of the mighty Skyhawk.

I went through ATP's facility in St. Petersburg at PIE. I showed up a little before one and met another flight student in the office. We talked shop for a little bit; I reminisced about my old days, we talked about the facility, and he recommended it and said he'd enjoyed his training so far. The CFI, named Mark, was out getting a sandwich, but before long was back at the office. A few questions, a waiver to sign, and we were off.

The CFI elected to take a Cessna Skyhawk, a single-engined plane which I have flown in before. Because it has been 8 years since I flew, and because PIE has a lot of commercial and military traffic (the US Coast Guard was doing maneuvers at the field), and also because I am not familiar with operations at a field with a control tower, Mark elected to handle the taxi/takeoff. We ran up the engine, got our clearance, and with a roar and a scrape of wheels we were off.

We climbed to 1000 feet before Mark let me take the controls. Since PIE is within the airspace of Tampa International we stayed below the boundaries of their airspace and flew at 1000 feet for the duration of the flight. I turned West as instructed and we cruised over St. Pete and headed for Indian Shores. There was a fair amount of traffic to watch as we flew past Clearwater Airpark, and I spotted a cropduster doing a banner tow along the beach below us. We reached the waterline and headed North, then turned and flew South for a time. There were some light winds aloft, and it was challenging to turn the airplane and make the headings Mark asked me to. After a few minutes, I remembered what it was like, and was able to do some very basic flying before we turned back to PIE and Mark took control of the plane for landing.

Landing ops at a controlled field are different as well. We were directed to fly East, then turn to the numbers (turn towards the end of the runway, on which the runway number is marked) and set down on 17L. Mark eased us down, and after a smooth landing and short rollout we taxiied back to parking and called it a day.

It was too short of a flight, but otherwise awesome. I am excited that someday soon, I might get to go back and do this more often. Back when I set up the intro flight I applied for admission to the commercial pilot training program at ATP, and assuming everything goes through, it's possible I might be flying again very, very soon.

All in all? A totally awesome day. I can't wait to go back!

Flying Again

196 Rollout, originally uploaded by hubristicexpat.

After eight years since the lat entry in my logbook I am finally going to go flying again. Thanks to a little boost from my parents, I was able to gather the resources and call a flight school in Tampa to make an appointment to go up again. Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM I'll be at the flight school; with any luck I'll be airborne around 2. They tell me they'll probably bring me up in a Piper Seminole, which is a smallish twin-engine prop plane. I am excited and thrilled and a little nervous; the excitement and thrill because this is what I have been wanting to do, and the nerves because I feel that I have just enough knowledge from reading the ground school books and thinking back on my old lessons to be dangerous. The nerves are probably unnecessary; I'll be under the watchful eye of a flight instructor, and I have been making a conscious effort not to think I know more than I know, because nothing is more dangerous than someone at the controls of an airplane who does not know the limits of their own abilities.

Nerves and all though, I am freaking excited. I may have to contain a maniacal laugh as we roll down the runway.

If all goes well, I'm hopeful that I can get some kind of financing and go back to flight school on a part-time basis. And if that doesn't work, there are other ways I can fly...I'll figure something out.


Beyond that, not much is new here in Florida. It's been cool lately, which is amazing to me. I feel human again now that it's not a million degrees outside. The heat slows me down and makes me lazy; now that it's October maybe the heat will take the hint and go somewhere else.