Hello, this is your pilot-in-command speaking...

Yup, after about three months of fighting weather, planes, school, and gophers, I have finished my private pilot's license training and received my license this afternoon around noon.  And damn, it feels good.

I woke up at a ripe 6:30am to make sure I could either drive my car, or get it towed out, of my icy street and to the airport.  Upon arrival, I got asked if I was nervous, to which I replied that last night, the only darn thing I was nervous about what getting my car out of the garage and to the airport in one piece.  Flying a plane is easy =P  And boy, did I learn how to drive in bad conditions today!  Thumbs up for having stick shift

There's two parts to the checkride that I had this morning: oral and flight
The oral part consisted of the FAA-approved "reviewer", Mike, and I sitting and verbally going over flying.  We began by talking about how I got into this, what he's learned in his years, and what's to become of the aviation world.  He asked me some basic questions about what's needed in an airplane and on me when I fly and general rules of the sky.  Then, he mainly focused on stuff that I don't necessarily need to know all the time, but stuff he felt it might be good for me to know of.  We also went over more complex fundamentals of flying and planning.  His view was that I was a competent engineer and pilot and knew what was going on when an alternator failed...heck, that's my major pretty much.  So instead of wasting time, he wanted to teach me insights and tricks of the trade he had learned over the years, and make sure I knew deeper stuff that I will need to know later down the road in my training.  When I sat in on the other oral, he said he wasn't there to grill, he was to make sure the future pilot knew the basics, knew where to look up the complex stuff, and fill in any gaps.  Today, it never even crossed my mind as a "grill session", but instead, one of the best side learning experiences I've had.

Flight: At this point, we hop in the plane.  He had me plan a trip to Norfolk (to make sure I know how to plan a flight), but diverts after about 15min of flight and makes me land at the nearest airport (Louisa).  There, we practiced different types of take-offs and landings.  He gave me great pointers on emergency situations during landings, and great new views of landing.  He is the first person to get me to visualize a landing, and flying in general, from the kinetic physics approach.  Since I'm a physics kid, I picked up quite quickly instead of someone just saying "stay high", he said, "think about the potential energy you're losing if you lose altitude".  Gave me a whole new approach on flying.  Then we practiced stalls and basic maneuvers.  Then, came the fun part.  He made me put on the cone of shame and had me recover from an unusual attitude (closed my eyes, he made the plane turn and descend, I opened my eyes and corrected).  I think he thought I was bored, so after him making a near vertical turn (without a single G either), he told me to close my eyes and fly.  Turns out, I was pretty decent.  Then, told me to go home.
All in all, the flight wasn't perfect, but the point is, I stayed safe and knew how to recover if I was in trouble.  I had one slightly big "oops", but again, I trusted my instinct and recovered.  He used it to teach me another lesson of landing without instruments, at which I did just fine, and he used it all to remind me to always ask myself "is this right??" if something fishy is going on, take a second and think, then react.  Unless I'm 100 feet off the ground, I have a second or two to think.

So, we touch down in Charlottesville, I taxi over, stop the plane.  He says great job, it was a pleasure flying with you, congratulations.  Big sigh of relief and great big smile!

I finished in 3 months and right under 45 hours, which is apparently really, really good.  Now I join the big ole brotherhood of private pilots, and I drove the entire way home with a giant smile on my face.

Next up: taking willing-passengers =D  I need to accumulate some more hours and really get used to the plane to start my instrument.  I also may have to change the blog's title =D

Quote of the Day: "Tell her to keep the pointy end forward, and the dirty side down"

Duckie #2: 1 Mother Nature: 3/4

She gets 3/4 simply because she went to EXTREME efforts to keep me from flying today.  However, I prevailed!!  Despite the solid ice patch my street has become and my utter inability to be able to get my car anywhere due to the fact I live at the bottom of two very steep hills, my instructor came and picked me up from a clear road near my apartment.  WOO!  Got to fly, got to wrap up my flight instruction (weird to say), and got cleared for my checkride tomorrow!!

So, at 6am tomorrow morning, I will be up, planning not only my last student flight (hopefully), but my plan of attack to get the heck out of dodge.  I WILL make it out of here tomorrow!

Then home for the holidays =D  (and doing all the wrapping that's left for me, aka mostly everything)

Snow, snow, snow, snow, and more snow....and then some more snow

The semi-official number here is 27 inches.  That number is more than I've seen, in total,  my entire time here.  Everything's white and anything not white is mostly covered by white.  I didn't leave my apartment between Friday afternoon and Sunday afternoon because all of Cville was shut down.  Today I finally got out to do some sledding, and we all decided that the only reason the awe is wearing off is because we have no idea where snow ends and grounds begins.
Anyways, the CHO runway is open because a few flights, mostly private jets, have landed/departed, and the Pegasus helicopter (transportation network for UVA Hospital) has been flying all day.
So, we shall see what happens over the next few days...

Checkride is scheduled

Sat in on a checkride's oral part this morning, and I'm totally pumped for mine.  Very straightforward, the guy is really nice and a great pilot obviously, and most of all, he isn't there to drill me, but instead make sure I'll stay safe, know the rules to stay safe, and if I don't, know where I can look them up.  My instructor, the head CFC guy, and even the checkride instructor, Mike, are excited and think I'll do great.  Woo!
After my oral portion, I go flying.  I do a basic cross-country, then do some maneuvers, then do some safety things, such as finding an alternate airport and power-off landings.  Then, Tuesday by about 1pm, I should have my license, and either be on my way home for the holidays or flying someone around if they're in town.
=D

In the meantime, I'll enjoy the 1-2 feet of snow due for Charlottesville.  All the planes got put in hangers tonight, because 2 feet of snow on an airplane's wings can be terrible for the plane.  The flight center held an early, early dinner, so after I flew today, I stuck around and had a great time.  I'm REALLY going to miss being at this place all the time.  Looks like I'll just have to get my instrument rating =D  They've become a second family to me and everyone there is super nice and the conversation over dinner couldn't avoid planes.  I even talked to one younger guy who got to go to the radar center in Leesburg and he's putting together a trip for everyone to go up there and see how it all works.  I keep thinking this journey can't get any better, and it does, and it keeps me going when stuff like weather and plane-oopsies get in the way.

Quote of the day: "They all work for you, not the other way around"  -Mike, referencing how instructors/air traffic controllers work for pilots, not the other way around
QOTD #2: "You should use the pick-up line: 'Hey, want to just go on a plane ole date?'"

Clap Clap Clap! Part 2

Got to high-five myself again today!!  At 2:00pm, after two hours of 60 pilot questions, I got a 88% on my written exam!!  A 70% is needed to pass, but being over 85% is great, so I did just great!  And with all the jet noise outside, it was some of the worst test conditions ever =P I got to hang around the flight center all day and got some flying in, so I'm quite the happy duckie right now.  A friend took me out to sushi for somewhat of a celebration part 1 too, so it's been one great day.
So, now I need to do about 3 hours in a plane with Tom and make sure I'm ready for my checkride.  Tomorrow morning I'm listening in on the oral part of an actual flight test, so I'll see first hand what's going to be expected of me.  I'm somewhat nervous for this, but everyone in the flight center is behind me and is helping me prepare.
Since we're about to get 10-15 inches of snow tomorrow afternoon into Saturday, I probably won't do my checkride until Tuesday, unless by magic I get to fly tomorrow.
So close!!!

Clap Clap Clap!

Well kids, I've finally crossed the 40-hour mark.  I've logged all the hours I need to take my tests to become, yes, a private pilot.  So, next up, written test.  Then I need another 3 to prep for my checkride.  Then, my checkride.

Way cool, stay tuned

Look Momma Duckie, no fighter jets!

Boring part of post:  took my last solo cross-country trip, as a student, out to Hanover (north of Richmond).  Nothing spectacular about the flight, just pure fun and pretty.  Everything was darn near perfect.  Tom took someone up for an aerial shoot as I was leaving, so I'm sure he had heart failure as he taxied behind me and watched my flip on that strobe light and take off.

Cool part of post: Tom and I ventured up to Class-S/Class-FJ zone!  Now there's Class A (high altitudes), Class B (Dulles)  Class C (Richmond)  Class D (Cville) and so on.  The letters stand for nothing.  Class-S, however, is a special class that only exists around DC, stands for Class-Stupid, because the protocols in the area, although important, are dumb.  Class-FJ encompasses the same space, but is heightened over areas such as the White House and Camp David, stands for Class-FighterJet because they use jets to make you not fly in those areas.
Since there's a 99% chance I'll fly up to the DC area one day, and I needed another hour in the plane with Tom there, I decided to persuade him to fly to Leesburg.  Normally Tom flies under Instrument Flight Rules, so this was his first of flying into the area under VFR.  Involved three flight plans, dodging Dulles and big planes, and wayy too many frequency changes.  We also got told to dodge the Class-B airspace of Dulles which made flying tedious.  Managed to get to Leesburg just fine after a lot of Tom going "this is stupid, they're making me angry" and me going "what on earth is going on".
Now, the return trip was somewhat humorous.  First, landing, I was supposed to get a certain squawk code to land in Leesburg.  Never did.  Taking off, Leesburg has a certain departure frequency listed, but that controller sent us to another who sent us to another and so forth.  Five changes later, we were nearly to Fredrick, MD when we were told to head to C'ville but stay clear of the Dulles airspace.
Long story short, as far as pilots like me goes, the FAA does not have their crap together with this airspace deal.  A course I took to be able to fly VFR into the airspace says one thing, controllers say to do another, then another controller says something else.  But, everything worked out, and I never saw a jet I wasn't supposed to see.  Did see a 747 fly over.
All in all, fun flight.  Kept me on my toes and other than all the frequency changes, it was pretty straightforward.  Although I am glad Tom was there to help out, I probably would have freaked with all of the changes and making sure I wasn't violating airspace rules.  Weirdest thing, by far, was being "home", but not actually being home.  I flew over landmarks I recognized and roads I could follow home, saw Tysons/Reston and all the way to DC, but being in the air, and in control, was definitely weird.

Returned to C'ville to watch a very loud Navy jet do touch-and-goes, too =D

Quote of the Day: "PLEASE DODGE THE JETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" - Momma Duckie in an email to me prior to flight =D