Some of you might be curious what Erin (my flight instructor) looks like. On the off-chance you haven't already seen the pictures on Jenny's blog, here is a pic of Erin. (If you're wondering just what Jen and Erin are doing, Jen wanted to be able to say that she's also flown with Erin.)

(Insert witty title here)

Well, flying didn't happen for me this weekend. Two of our 3 planes are down for maintenance, and another student reserved the third plane for both yesterday and today. That's okay, though. I'm a little disappointed, but also pretty happy that I get to spend the whole weekend with Jen.

We had Erin over for dinner last night, and I grilled up some burgers. They were pretty good. Jenny made her nationally renowned lemon cake, but in cupcake form this time. They're so good!!! We had intended to dye Easter eggs last night after dinner, but we got talking and time got away from us, and then Erin had to go because she's an R.A. and she was on duty last night. So she might come back today and dye eggs with us.

My last day of working at the library was Thursday. Thank God I'm done with that fiasco! It was just a train wreck of a job. I do have an application in with the aviation department, so the next time a student position opens up there, they'll at least consider me.

Today there's a carne asada lunch taking place in town. Last Fall, Jen and I discovered we like carne asada, so we're going into town to buy some for lunch. We also have volunteered to help Erin move, and also help our downstairs neighbor move. No clue whether or not either of them will take us up on our offer. And our Georgia friend, Chris, is a bachelor this weekend (his wife took a short trip back to Georgia), so he might call to set up a play date today (he has an X-Box and a PS2!). Lots of potential activities; let's see if any of them come to pass.

I decided, about a month ago, that I was only going to celebrate my rebirthday this year, as opposed to celebrating my biological birthday in November. For those unfamiliar with the term, it's the day I became a Christian in the true, Biblical sense (April 4). I'll be 9 this year. That said, Jen gave me my rebirthday present on Sunday. It's a brand new flight bag that I really wanted. My original flight bag was a little bit on the... umm... cheap side. It was a very basic beginners flight bag. My new one (thank you again, Jenny) is more durable, has more pockets (with zippers), and even has a pocket for my headset. I really like it.

After class yesterday afternoon I walked to the library and quit my job. The reason I gave them was that I needed greater flexibility in my schedule in order to succeed in the flight program, which is not a lie. There are times when an opportunity to fly will come up almost spontaneously, and I need to be able to jump at those chances. However, the other, equally true reason for my quitting is that it was just an awful job. No one on campus (aside from the librarians) had anything good to say about being a student worker in the library, or how the librarians treat those student workers. So I quit, but Helen (my boss) basically begged me to finish the week. I told her I couldn't do Friday, because that's prime cross-country time (which I explained in my interview, and they still scheduled my longest shift on Friday mornings), but I'm working the rest of the week. I'm not happy about it; I'd rather just be done. But I suppose it's the decent thing to do.

So I've got a cross-country scheduled for Friday. Whether or not the weather will accomodate my plans is still uncertain, but I'm going to plan on it and see what happens. I've still got 3 X-Cs to fly before I'm done with Commercial Stage I, so I need to get it in gear and wipe them out ASAP. I still need to get a whole bunch of Instrument time logged before June, and I can't very well do that until I finish Commercial I.

And speaking of flying, I made what may well be my best landing ever this morning. What's funny is that I was flying a plane I'm not used to, and I had a really sticky yoke (my flying pet peeve), so I was really wrestling with the controls: don't pull back hard enough, and you slam into the ground, but pull too hard, and you go back up instead of coming down. I'd just made a pretty sorry landing, and I was pretty sure I'd be making another one. Then, just like nothing, I landed so gently I literally didn't feel the wheels touch down. Jackpot! Now if only I could get the rest of my landings to do that.

Airshow!!!

Today is the first ever Border to Border Airshow at Douglas Municipal Airport in town! I'm very excited about it. All the proceeds go to the Cochise College Aviation Dept. Admission is free, but there's a carnival and food and stuff that costs money. I'm hoping for a really good turnout, not because of the proceeds going to my program, but because I'm hoping that a good turnout will mean another airshow in Douglas next year. There are 2 good reasons why the numbers today might be a little low. First, there's also an airshow at Davis Monthan in Tucson. It's a military airshow, so they've got bigger, louder planes (I think the Blue Angels are supposed to be there, but don't quote me). And second, Spring Break was this past week, and it seems like many of the Cochise students haven't gotten back into town yet. Reckon all we can do is wait and see.

Oh, and Cochise College Aviation Dept has a booth and a plane at the airshow today, and Sally (the glue that holds the department together) said I could probably go hang out in the booth for a while, since it would be good to have prospective students talk to actual students. Sweet!

Here's some stuff I couldn't quite manage to fit into the body of the post: There might be carne asada for sale at the airshow, and we're really excited about that, too. We like carne asada. Our new friends from Sierra Vista, Chris and Jennifer, are coming out to see the airshow with us. The Douglas Municipal Airport was the first international airport in the United States, and it was dedicated by Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart. I think that's all.

I forgot to mention that I have a new job, starting this Monday. I'm going to be a part-time library aide. I'll be doing all the normal library stuff, plus the library is responsible for meeting the A/V needs on campus, so I'm going to be an A/V guy, too. All those duties will be packed into just 12.5 hours per week!

Tuesday morning I flew to Ryan Field, just on the other side of Tucson's airspace. It's a trip I'd been dreading, because my training has left me uncomfortable (and, in my opinion, unprepared) to interact with Air Traffic Control. It was a required cross-country, though, so I was going to have to do it sooner or later. I decided it may as well be sooner so I could stop worrying about it. It went pretty poorly, and I wound up getting scolded by both the approach controller at Tucson and the tower controller at Ryan. I do feel like I learned a lot on the trip, though, so it had value. On the downside, I really took a hit to my confidence. I went out and did some touch-and-go's yesterday morning, and I was a mess. My final approach each time around the pattern was pretty awful, and I kept overcorrecting on the flare. Not a good time. I was supposed to fly another cross-country this morning, but after the time at Ryan and my troubles yesterday, I decided to just call it a week.

Whiskey Creek, or My Last Great Bad Idea

As can be inferred from my last post, I flew a cross-country last Friday morning. I have a list of 5 or 6 cross-countries that I have to complete for my commercial certificate, and I get to pick which one I want to go on, each time I get the chance to make a flight. Well, on Friday I chose the Silver City-Safford-Willcox trip. It seemed like a pretty straightforward trip to knock off the list, except Grant County (the Silver City airport for that trip) had been closing their runway at odd times, seemingly at random. I certainly didn't want to spend time planning a cross-country, only to find I couldn't complete it because of a runway closure. So I had Erin fill out the necessary paperwork that would allow me to do a touch-and-go at Whiskey Creek (the other airport in Silver City) instead. I knew nothing about Whiskey Creek, save that it was on the school's list of approved airports, and Erin was no help as she'd never been there. So I set out on my trip.

As I approached Silver City, I began looking around for Whiskey Creek and monitoring the traffic frequency. I wanted to know if anyone else was taking off or landing there and, if so, which runway was active. All standard stuff. I also had the plane's GPS set to Whiskey Creek, to make it a little easier to find. Everything was going well, except the GPS said I was only a mile away from the airport, and I couldn't see it! Then another plane called in to say they were about to enter the traffic pattern. And then I saw it, and instantly realized why I hadn't seen it sooner. It was a single, narrow asphalt runway on a hill, with no markings whatsoever. So I muddled my way into the traffic pattern behind the other plane. When I was about 20 feet over the end of the runway, I noticed that there were, in fact, runway markings, but they were so old and faded they weren't visible from the air. I made my landing and took back off... only the plane got about 15 feet off the runway surface and seemed to stop climbing. I pitched up some more, but then my stall horn went off, so I was out of options. I couldn't pitch any further without dropping like a rock, and I wasn't gaining any altitude. After I passed the end of the runway, though, I started climbing again. I don't have documentation proving it, but I'm pretty sure the runway is on a slope. That's the only explanation I can come up with for why I was staying 15 feet over the asphalt. Anyhow, once the ground started getting smaller, I breathed a sigh of relief and then realized I was still in bad shape. There's a mountain range off the departure end of the runway I used, so I had to turn left a little early, which meant I was flying over Silver City at an uncomfortably low altitude (I think the regs require at least 1,000 feet over populated areas). And then I noticed that the mountains curled around to the left of the airport, too, so I had to swing well off my intended heading to avoid what we in the aviation world call an "accident." In the end, I made it away from Silver City and got back on my heading once I'd climbed up to a reasonable altitude. But I spent the rest of the flight convinced I'd be hearing from the FAA for swooping the good citizens of Silver City. Fortunately, it hasn't happened.

Here are 2 pictures of the airport. I strongly suggest clicking on them so you can get the bigger picture (literally).

This is what it looked like to be on final approach. Notice how you can't see the runway number or any other markings on the asphalt. Also notice how the land falls away to either side of the runway.

And this is a shot that I frantically clicked off as I was working to climb and turn and not hit a mountain. The airport is the dark horizontal stripe in the center of the picture. If you're wondering where the city is, it's right below me.

For Kara, and every one else who was curious.

Here it is, at long last. As always, clicking on the pic will enlarge it. Enjoy.

Updating, as requested

It's been a little while since I last posted, my wife has helpfully reminded me. She's also requested that I take a moment or two to update. So here goes nothin'!

It's been windy here. Exceptionally windy. Keep-all-the-pilots-grounded-every-weekend windy, which means I haven't been able to knock out a required cross-country in a while. That may very well change this weekend. As of right now, the forecasted winds for tomorrow will allow me to get up and get an X-C done in the morning. I've been pretty bent on flying the Silver City-Safford-Willcox trip, but the winds in New Mexico are supposed to be pretty intense tomorrow, so I've got another trip in mind. It's the Globe-Holbrook X-C, and it will be the first all-Arizona X-C I've flown in a very long time. If God really decides to make my weekend rock, He'll make the winds manageable both tomorrow and Saturday. If that ends up being the case, I'll do Globe-Holbrook tomorrow, and head for Silver City on Saturday. It sure would be nice to get those flights out of the way.

Speaking of cross-countries, the other day I asked Erin when I would get to fly the new plane (3154W), and she told me we might be able to take it when we fly our night cross-country to Tucson. 3154W is a 2006 Piper Warrior III that the school bought last year. It has a glass cockpit. That means the panel of "steam gauge" instruments has been replaced by two screens on which the pilot can call up all sorts of information. Glass cockpits are sort of where general aviation planes seem to be headed, and the Quest Kodiak incorporates the glass cockpit into its design, so it seems like a fantastic idea for me to get familiar with the glass now.

As Jen mentioned in her blog, we got to see Glory Road for free in the campus theater last night. That was really fun. What Jen failed to mention is that the Douglas theater has worked a deal with the college, so if we show up at the Douglas theater this Monday, we not only get into a movie for free, we also score free soda and popcorn. We've heard some less-then-encouraging reports regarding the Douglas theater, so we haven't really wanted to spend money to experience it for ourselves. So this is a great opportunity to go check it out, and have some fun off campus while we're at it. Jackpot!