Looking for a High

Well I am on the look for another instructor. The instructor I have, I just feel un-ease at how he instructs. He is a good pilot there is no question about that, its just his way of teaching, and it maybe just be me, but what really got me thinking that maybe I should look for another teacher is he wanted me to do a night flight. Now in order to become a pilot you have to have 30 hours of day flight and 10 hours of night, but I don’t think I am ready for night after only 1 hour of day flight.

It looks like I am going to have to go outside Shelbyville to finish out my flying lesson. I think there are only two instructors at Shelbyville. The other instructor has 7 students and told me that I would have to be a back up, if he has no students or if someone cancels, then he could take me up, so I told him that I will keep him in mind if I cant find someone ill give him a call, so that I can get a few more hours till I can find my instructor. So I am going to check around other Airports for Flight Lessons. I just hope I can find one soon, I need to get high. hahahaha!!

Waste of Time??

Well I don’t know what to do it’s been almost three weeks, and I haven’t had a ground or flight lesson. I have the plane, I have the gear, and I don’t have an instructor. My instructor was sick two weeks ago, last week he had a family issue and this weekend he is going to be delivering a plane to a client & training him. Now I know I am not making him rich off of me due to I can only afford two hours of training per month, but I let him know before hand I didn’t want to waste his time, but its getting to the point that he is wasting mine.

Now don’t get me wrong I understand that family comes first, and I don’t want him to give me anything if he is sick, but I think he should have called me earlier than what he did. When he was sick he called me about hour an half before we was going to fly. He called me three to four hours after we were supposed to fly when he had family issues.

Now my family is supporting in whatever the younger generations do. And  I so far as I know I’m going to be the first to receive my pilot’s license in my family. Now my Mother, Daddy Joe, & my Niece came to see me fly. They were going to video tape me, which is weird for me, you know a 24 year old has Mommy and Daddy coming to video tape him..LOL. But I think it would be cool to have a ground point of view. Will we sit there for about an hour or two waiting for my instructor to come and nothing, I tried to call him, the other instructor tried aswell.

First Headset

            Well I now am ready to start flying. I just received my first avionic headset from Gulf Coast Avionics, all I need is a VFR Kneeboard (hint hint mother..lol) to complete my student pilot gear. There are still a few books I will need once I get closer to the long distance flight planning.

            Now a surprising story I found out about my headset. I recently turned 24 years old, and was looking for something to get myself. I get a magazine from a pilot shop in Ohio; I take a look at it every so often just to see if there is anything interesting. Will I got on amazon.com just to see what kind of avionic gear they sale, and found some nice headsets, well I only found one that I liked, so I bought them. Took about a week to receive them, when I got them and looked at the invoice, I found out that Gulf Coast Avionics is located in Lakeland Florida. Why is that so surprising? Will I work in the Engineering Department for Wastequip and we have several plants that we do the Engineering for including Minnesota, Texas, Tennessee, & Lakeland, Florida. I typed in the address of Gulf Coast Avionics and Wastequip Florida and found out that they are about two miles away from each other. Now isn’t that something.

The Plane

              Well yet I had another ground lesson, I think we was suppose to start flying but another instructor had the plane all day, So we studied the pilots guide book, mostly just the limitations of the PA-28 Cherokee plane, the plane I am going to be mostly flying for my lessons. I am going to learn on the Cessna, due to it being a high wing aircraft and the Cherokee is a low wing, I would like to learn with both high and low wing aircrafts just to see if there is any difference between them. If the weather is good I will start flying next lesson.

Winging It

             Well I have the feeling that my instructor is just winging it. I didn’t fly today but it was ok I guess. I wanted to know the basic cockpit components. And we started to learn the different gages and what they do and that was what I wanted to know. We started to talk about the engine. I am not for sure how I should take what I learned today on engines. I don’t have a book on the airplane motor. I guess it would be good to know the basics. I am going to have another lesson this next weekend, I am going to talk to him about a lesson plan or something so that I am prepared and know what I need to study for the next lesson.

Back to School

            Well I didn’t fly today but I preferred it that way. I would like to know basics before taking a seat as the pilot. We went in the pilot’s room. He started off with flying patterns for Shelbyville Airport. For example most airports have a left pattern, so when you take off or come in to the airspace of that airport you will need to be on the left side of the take-off / landing runway that you will be using. When you take off or land, you go into the wind. So if the wind is coming from the north than you take off or land in to the north.

             He wanted to take off, but he checked the wind and it was a good cross-wind so he said that it would be best to not fly today, so we started learning to read section carts, sectionals are maps that a pilot uses to determine what altitude is needed, airport traffic info, ect. That is going to be some getting use to, but I am sure after a few more lessons I will be able to read them like if I was reading a book.

Watch out Below -First Lesson

               OOO SCARED…. I got there thinking I was going to start ground school but no he threw me in the pilot’s seat, and told me to fly. Talk about being scared, someone you don’t know handing you the yoke and telling you to fly; I can’t remember what I learned or what I was supposed to learn. I honestly don’t think I deserve the 1 hour of fly time that is in my pilot’s log. We took off and landed 3 times, I must amend the third time we went around I did feel a little better controlling the plane, but I still feel like I needed to learn the basics on the ground then take a flight lesson in the plane. I think the over all lesson was to see if I would keep my cool, he said I did good as far as my first time flying.