Lingo!

I drop a lot of names and letters and ect, so here's a cheatsheet:

CHO: the airport I fly in/out of, Charlottesville Airport.  FAA letters at KCHO, but who's counting
FAA: .....duh....
CFC: Charlottesville Flight Center, the kind instructing facility that puts up with me and my antics
Tom: the guy who holds on for dear life while talking me through how not to be dumb/my instructor
Dick: runs CFC/head-hauncho.  He says when I can/can't fly and does my official license stuff
43H/"Soda Can": "Four-three-Alpha".  C-152.  My friend...
Ramp: the place where planes are parked, tied down, and tucked in at night
Pattern: the airspace that planes enter if they're landing
-Downwind: flying parallel to landing runway but in opposite direction of landing direction
-Base: after your downwind, you do a right turn to get closer to the middle of the runway
-Final: right turn after your base, it's your final approach to the runway to land
Tower: tower controller, focus on the air traffic
Ground: ground controller, monitors planes bouncing around on the ground to and from the runways
3: one of CHO's runways, pointed 30 off north
21: "same" runway as 3, just in opposite direction, 210 degrees off north
VOR: old-school navigational unit, but like transistors, still works extremely well today
Cross-country: flight that is at least 50mi in length and you traverse outside your originating airport
Cross-state: what most people call my cross-countries because I don't really leave VA
508/10A: C-172s
Hood/"cone of shame": simulates flying only by instrument, but not really because that's instrument-rated
Instrument Rating: when you really can fly only by instrument and in low visibilities
Solo: yes, I fly by myself when I solo
ADIZ/DC-No-Fly-Zone/Class-Stupid/Class-Fighter-Jet-Airspace:  why I don't fly home yet
Private Pilot's Certificate/PPC: nope, not a license!
Run-up: before every flight, at the runway I run-up the engine to make sure it's still kickin'
Duckie #2: me!  Momma duck gave us three kids these nicknames in an attempt to not lose us on a hike in Montana some time ago...stuck since and we don't mind