SOLO!!!!!!!!!!

I finally did it!!! After several days of frustration and impatience, I finally made my first solo flight! Joshua and I went out and did 2 takeoffs and landings so he could make sure I knew what I was doing. Then, as I made my second landing, Joshua said, "This is going to be full-stop." That means that instead of adding power and taking off again, you taxi the plane off the runway. For just a second, I thought I'd done something wrong and he was ending my flying for the day. Then I realized he intended to get out of the plane. Such an unspeakably surreal moment, I can't even tell you. Wow. I went up on my own, did 3 takeoffs and landings, and taxied back to the ramp, all the while trying not to let my heart jump out of my chest. What made it all even better was the fact that Jenny got to be here to witness it all.

So I'm over the hump, in a sense. I have to do two more solos just like today, with Joshua riding along for the first part, then I'll be able to take a plane and head out to the practice area and, in essence, do what I want... as long as it's legal. All the glory and praise belongs to God, and Him alone. Thank you, Lord. This calling is more than I could have imagined.

The pictures are of me flying the plane after Joshua bailed out. Enjoy!!!

Heavy wait...

It seems Douglas has replaced Chicago as the "windy city". This morning brought more wind, so Joshua didn't see much point in even going up today. It would have been a waste of time and money, since I don't need to log any more dual local time. I need to get this solo done so I can focus on cross-country work. We're going to try again tomorrow, bright and early.

Flying high...

After my last post, you might be wondering why I was in such high spirits. Well, what you're wondering is really immaterial because I'm going to tell you the reason for my high spirits whether you want to know or not. See, I passed my stage check. Yup! I finally did it. I went up with Joshua at our normal time to practice some takeoffs and landings. I got back on the ground at 7:50, then hung out for 10 minutes, then went out to preflight the plane for my time with Belinda. Belinda's response to my first landing was, "Excellent! Two more like that one, and we'll be done." Two more landings later, and I was back on the ground, grinning like a monkey.

This morning, Joshua endorsed my logbook and my student pilot certificate, so I can officially fly solo. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing this morning (we never have early morning wind here) and it made a mess of my traffic patterns, so Joshua wasn't comfortable letting me go it alone. Fine by me; I wasn't totally comfortable with the idea, either. But we're going to try it again tomorrow morning, bright and early. I'll go up with Joshua, do a few takeoffs and landings, and if he likes what he sees, Joshua will have me drop him off on the ramp and go back out to do 3 takeoffs and landings on my own. I've been told that I should be nervous to the point of losing sleep about my first solo, but I'm more just excited and eager to get it over with. Far as I'm concerned, the redo with Belinda was the nerve-wracking part of this process.

I'll let you know if it happens tomorrow.

Oh, and the two pictures: First is me right after my failed first attempt at the stage check. Second is me right after my successful redo. Enjoy!

The product of endorphins meeting free time alone with a digital camera.

Here's a couple pics of me flying a Piper Cherokee while wearing my new Flightcom headset. Enjoy!!!

Happy landings!

Okay, I know I haven't posted since the "I failed my stage check" post. I'm still not very eager to discuss the details, but I will say that my biggest problem was that my landings just weren't up to snuff. This was something I sort of knew going into the stage check, but I was hoping to do them well enough to get past Belinda so I could work on them by myself. Well, that didn't happen. She told me I needed to work on landing, then get back with her to redo the takeoffs-and-landings portion of the stage check. For a couple days there, I was pretty upset and had no real desire to fly anymore. I actually called Jen and told her to let me know whenever she was ready to go back to Michigan, and we'd pack up and go. I was frustrated and disappointed and feeling pretty crushed. In retrospect, that was a natural way to feel, but it certainly wasn't the most productive mood to take with me to my lessons. I'm sure Joshua was about ready to strangle me a couple times. I just felt defeated and it seemed, at the time, like every critique he offered was just another attack on my already-broken spirit.

Things sort of came to a head a couple days after my stage check. God ended up convicting me about my attitude and I eventually went to Joshua and apologized. I recommitted myself to learning to land and made it known to Joshua that I wasn't really interested in doing anything else until I'd gotten my landings right. He was cool with that because he gets obsessed with challenges, too. So we spent a few days just flying the traffic pattern. Takeoff, downwind, base, final, land. Takeoff, downwind, base, final, land. Over and over and over. And this morning I finally did 6 really decent landings in a row. So I talked to Belinda after class (she teaches my ground training class), and I'm flying my landings redo at 8:15 Wednesday morning. It's not a great time, since it means I won't have much of a break between practice and the real thing, but it's the soonest time she had available, and I want to get this done!

In other news, my headset came in the mail today. I bought it on e-bay last week and have been waiting eagerly since. Well, it finally showed up this afternoon. I'm excited to take it to my lesson tomorrow and try it out. Here's hoping it doesn't suck!

Stage check

Didn't pass. Don't want to discuss it.

Oh! I suppose, since I'm on here, I should say something about flying, too. I mentioned the stage-check already, right? Well, Joshua and I went and scheduled a time with Belinda (the assistant chief flight instructor) this morning. I will be flying my stage-check on Monday at 9:45am. I could've done it this Thursday, but I wanted the extra day to polish a few of my maneuvers, so I can be confident Belinda will O.K. me for my first solo. Gadzooks!!! Seven days from this moment might find me a survivor of my very first solo flight. *faints dead away*

My New Friend, or The Most Horrible Thing I've Seen Today

Here are some pics of the new friend I made on my walk home from class today. Enjoy!!!