When I'm Licensed

This picture was taken by my wife during a San Diego bay tour.

I've been experiencing a little bit of burnout in regards to the training aspect of my flying. I absolutely love learning, and will continue to educate myself even after becoming licensed, but I think after 9 months I'm growing eager to be able to share the joy of flight with a passenger or two. Here are some of the things I'd like to do shortly after receiving my private pilot's license:

San Diego Bay Tour

Early in my training, I was allowed to bring my wife along since it was a dual-instruction flight in the local area, and my CFI was the pilot in command. What we did was a tour of the San Diego bay, where you fly 500 ft MSL once reaching the water. Below is a video from that day. I can't wait to do this with just my wife and I in the plane!

The $100 Hamburger

I'd like to take a few close family members out for lunch at somewhere 50-80 miles away. I think all pilots celebrate this way, and it's just cool to be able to do it.

Visit My Dad

Right now, it's a 3+ hour drive to visit my Dad in Oxnard, CA. I can't stand freeway traffic, so I'll elect to take the Pacific Coast Highway for the view, but that takes even longer. In a Piper Warrior, I can be up there in 45 minutes depending on wind. The price of the plane rental could be offset by not needing a hotel before driving home.

Maneuvers

This is one I know my wife would prefer I take a more thrill-seeking spirit on. I don't want to do anything dangerous or stupid, but I think there are a few things a private pilot can do that are fun and safe when executed properly. I'd like to show someone how a short approach feels, and how awesome dutch rolls are. Steep turn figure 8s are also cool as a passenger.(I'll keep stalls and engine failure practice to solo flights.)

More Night Training

Nothing says you can't hire a CFI after you get your license. There are a couple things I think became repetitive in my training, but on the complete opposite side I feel the FAA's night training requirements are too low, and downright scary. It's a whole new world trying to navigate by city lights, where mountains appear flat, and I fully intend to go back up with an instructor to build more confidence before flying anywhere at night.

Well that was a bit long winded, but it's good for me to maintain focus on my goals. My PPL training is finally winding down, and some of these things are actually going to happen soon!

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Lost Radio Communication

If the plane has a fancy GPS, be sure to understand it!

A few weeks ago, on November 10th, I experienced my first radio failure during my 3rd solo. I was at 36 hours of dual-instruction in the plane, and only 1 hour of solo experience.

It was a beautiful morning. Twenty something miles of visibility with an overcast layer way up at 20,000 ft. It allowed one of those rare no-sunglasses flights at 11am.

My instructor stepped out at the terminal, and wished me well on my final supervised solo. Before shutting the door, he reminded me how to use the fancy GPS to tune COM1 frequencies as I didn't often fly this particular plane. Sparing too many details, I had to start the plane twice because of a concern with the nose gear strut. After the second start, the GPS was on some weird screen and I couldn't get it back to the radio screen. I elected to use COM2 only, rather than go through another cycle of shutting the plane down to call the instructor over. It was just going to be a few touch and goes on the tower frequency.

I got my taxi clearance and headed down to runway 27R, where I was practically alone. I was more at ease that the tower frequencies wouldn't split and the radio would really be a complete non-issue.

I was given my takeoff clearance and told to follow a Cessna taking off of 27L for left traffic. (My flight school requires a student's inital takeoff on the longer 27R, even for 27L patterns.) I screamed down the runway and was shortly in the air. It was pretty quiet and I was just keeping an eye on the other plane, waiting for it to turn crosswind when my headset erupted in complete static at about 200ft AGL.

It was extremely loud, and I could hear faint hauntings of pilots and controllers talking - but couldn't make out the words. I went into action mode.

- Volume? no Squelch? No
- Keep the cessna in sight
- Retry headset. No improvement
- Cessna.. check.
- 7600, transmit just in case.
- Turn downwind and level off. I should stay slow.
- Steady green light from the tower. Cool!

Then I just flew the rest of the pattern and landed. I considered a short approach, but decided not to do that without radios - and there was someone holding short.

I didn't get to do my touch-and-goes but it was a pretty cool experience. I finally got to see those light gun signals and use that ground school knowledge. It was the first time as PIC that I really had to make a few important decisions quickly. I feel a little bad for stressing the controller, but everyone is safe.

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First Solo

I'm in there alone, and I'm about to fly this thing!

It was a great morning to go flying, and I was up early in anticipation of my first solo flight. I had flown the pattern at Gillespie for nearly 30 hours with my instructor, and with my endorsement in hand I headed out to the field.

Since this was a supervised solo, the first 3 landings would be dual and then the next 3 would be the solo ones. My wife was able to come along as a passenger for the first 3, and then watch me from the terminal where my instructor would be supervising.

I knew I was ready, but the realization hit me that everything I was about to do was all on me. I was the pilot in command, and the decisions were up to me. If I did something stupid, the consequences are on me. This was all going through my mind as I taxi'd from the terminal to the runup area for 27R. However, stronger than any of that was the sense that I knew how to do this. I've had awesome instruction, and studied every chance I had.

Cleared for takeoff, I turned onto the runway and hit full throttle. Airspeed alive, 2300 RPM, 60 knots and time to rotate. The tires eased off the pavement and I was airborne. Just me and N8441B, out to circle the skies. I knew how to do this, and the rest was just pure fun. I made three of my best landings that day and picked out my favorite plane among my flight school's fleet. 41B isn't really liking the recent cold mornings but primed a few times she's ready to soar, just like the morning of Sept 15th, 2011 when I finally soloed.

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Why Fly?

On a clear day, the mountains around San Diego are a beautiful sight.

I'm sometimes asked why I am learning to fly, and I find that to be a strange question. Why does one learn to bake? Why does one learn to sing or dance? It really is as simple as "because they want to".

For the first 27 years of my life, my feet stayed on the ground and I had never stepped foot in an airplane. That means nearly 3 decades of just southern California living and road travel.

I rarely looked up.

Back in February 2007, I stepped foot onto my first airplane. It was a Delta flight to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where I'd get on another flight to Detroit Metropolitan, for a weekend with the woman who I'm now happily married to. I had a window seat right behind the wing, and when that bird started screaming down the runway, then pitched up into the sky, something just switched in my head.

"That was the coolest thing ever, and I want to be able to do it."

I flew to DTW every other weekend that summer, with layovers spread about the country. It amazed me how efficiently we could travel cross country, how fast we could go, how amazing the view from FL360 was.

Being up there was something pretty special and life changing. Some people may experience this at a very young age and take it for granted, but for me it was one of those rare moments of true childlike discovery.

I'm not going to work for a major or regional airline. I may never own a plane. So why am I getting my pilot's license? Because it's the most amazing, fun, complicated, peaceful, stressful experience on 3 wheels. I just want to.

My eyes have been turned forever skyward.

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