All By Myself

Yesterday marks the second lesson I've had to cancel due to poor weather (low overcast clouds).

It wasn't a total bust, though. I spent an hour on the ground with my instructor going over the pre-solo written test. I am very close to flying my first solo flight! As might be expected, I am equal parts excited and nervous about this. I feel ready. I've memorized my checklists. My last few flights have gone very well, but I still need more landing practice.

The competitive part of me wants to know the average time to solo and how I compare to it. My goal is to solo at or before ten hours (i'm at 7.6 now). Another student at my flight school recently went solo at seven hours, and I was secretly hoping to beat that, but that's okay.

After my solo, the next thing I'll be working on is my first cross-country flight, followed by a solo cross-country (in aviation terms, "cross-country" is a flight that is further than 50 nautical miles, not literally across the country). I am very excited for this, because it means flight planning and geeking out with maps! It also means flying into new airports. Not that Santa Monica and Van Nuys aren't great places to fly; I just think I would enjoy a change in scenery.

Landing!

Landing: important part of flying? Or most important part?

Last week I did an hour of touch-and-goes at Santa Monica. A "touch and go" happens when you land the plane and, without slowing down, put in full power and take off again. You "touch" the runway, then "go" again. It's a great way to get a lot of practice landing and taking off. I did eight landings in one hour and felt like I was really getting the hang of it!

That was Thursday. Fast-forward to Saturday, in which mother nature decided it was time for me to learn the crosswind landing. Due to some unfortunately-located clouds, we couldn't do any practice at Santa Monica. So we flew to Van Nuys, where the sky was clear, but a moderately strong wind was blowing across the runway (to be exact, it was 10 knots, 20° east of runway heading).

I felt like I handled the crosswind well; I was able to keep the plane headed straight down the runway center line, despite the wind trying to push me away. The problem was that the added stress of dealing with the crosswind caused me to forget everything else I had learned about landings, and they were all terrible.

Looking at the bright side, I know exactly what I was doing wrong most of the time (flaring too early and too much), and I am feeling good that by my next flight (or possibly the one after that), I'll have it down.

The Beginning

So I've decided to get a pilot's license. This means that for the next however-long-it-takes (my goal is 6-7 months), I'll be flying three times a week, studying a lot and daydreaming about the freedom I'll have when it's all done.

For each lesson, I rent an airplane for about an hour. My flight school, located at Santa Monica airport (SMO) in Southern California, owns Piper Cherokees, which are four-seat, single-engine airplanes. I sit in the left seat and an instructor sits in the right. In an airplane, just like most cars, the left seat is the driver's seat, although unlike a car, an airplane has controls on both sides.

Flying lessons are very hands-on. I fly the airplane the whole time; the instructor only jumps in occasionally to demonstrate things. If you're surprised by that, let me tell you a big secret about airplanes: they are extremely forgiving, possibly even more so than your car. They are designed to fly, and they do it well, despite clumsy control inputs by newbie students. It is very difficult to get into real trouble.

After 40 hours of flying time, the FAA says I'm eligible to become a pilot (hence the name of the blog). Realistically, it will probably take closer to 65 hours (there's a lot to learn!). As soon as my instructor thinks I'm ready, I get to take a really long written test, followed later by a "checkride" with an FAA examiner. If I pass, then I will be a pilot! I will be allowed to fly single-engine airplanes, in clear weather, day or night.

Why am I doing this? Besides the fact that it's super fun? There are a lot of good reasons. First, being the nerd that I am, I am drawn to any hobby that involves complicated machinery. Second, I love a challenge. Especially one that has such huge rewards at the end.

You know how much fun road trips are? Plane trips are like those, but better. For example: Vegas in two hours. San Diego in 60 minutes. Random little towns all over Southern California, Nevada and Arizona: here I come!

I've been talking for years about learning to fly, and now I am excited to say that I am actually doing it. If you'd like to follow along, that's what this blog is for! Welcome, and thanks for your support.