Jackpot!!!

Jenny called Twin Buttes today, just to verify that we were still going to be able to move in on Monday, and the owner told her we can have the place tomorrow afternoon!!! To that end, I spent a pretty fair chunk of my morning packing more boxes, and that's probably how we'll spend the rest of our afternoon, as well. This is very, very exciting!

Night Solo

I logged my very first night solo flight time tonight. I've been in my own head far too much lately, about my landings. All it's really done is make me real jittery when I fly. To that end, I spent some time this evening praying that God would get me out of my head and show me when to flare so I could make some decent landings and start building up my confidence again. I did three landings tonight, and all of them were really pretty good. Each time I came across the runway threshold, God showed me just when to flare, and each time I made a landing I was very pleased with. A part of me wanted to keep going and do more, but I decided that sooner or later I was bound to have a landing that wasn't so pretty, and it would just get me all freaked out again. So I took my three well-made landings and used them to assure myself that landing isn't such a hard thing to do, after all. Flare was found; confidence was built up; prayer was answered; God is still good.

Fail-safe

Despite not being in the mood to fly this morning, I went over to aviation bright and early and got a plane all ready to go to New Mexico. The duty pilot checked over my planning and gave me the okay to fly, so I got in my plane and started it up. I noticed that my fuel pressure gauge was bobbing back and forth, but I figured it was just the plane getting itself awake and situated. I took off, turned to my heading, and began my climb up to 9,500 feet. One thousand feet above the ground, I switched off my electric fuel pump, per procedure, since the engine-driven pump would be operating just fine on its own by them. When I finally got up to 9,500 feet, I noticed that my fuel pressure was on the low end of the green arc, which isn't too terribly rare in the Cherokees, so I switched my electric pump back on to boost me back up to a wide margin of safety. Things were good for a few more minutes, until I noticed that my fuel pressure had bled back down to where it had been before I turned on my electric fuel pump. Before this morning, that was something I'd never seen before. Usually, turning the electric pump back on solves the problem and everything is ducky. I flipped the pump switch off, then flipped it back on again, and my pressure spiked back up to normal... and then bled back down again. It was at that point that I did a 180 and headed back home. After the plane is started and running, the electric fuel pump is more or less just a backup for the engine-driven pump. I probably could have made it to Silver City and Deming and back without any difficulty. But my fuel pressure with the engine-driven pump was already lower than I really like it to be, and it was looking very possible that I wouldn't have any options if the pressure dropped below the green arc. No fuel pressure equals no fuel to the engine. When my engine is starved of fuel, my airplane is magically transformed into a glider. Now, it's true that a glider can make a perfectly safe landing just like an airplane, but that's assuming the glider has someplace to land. Since I happened to be flying over the southern slopes of the Chiricahua Mountains when my fuel pressure dropped, it would have been quite a feat to find a safe spot upon which to set down my glider. I took a little flak from an instructor who happened to be in his office when I got back to the school, about my decision to abort the flight. Then I called my instructor and explained my situation, and she praised my decision and assured me it was the right thing to do, which boosted my confidence quite a bit. I guess the lesson here is that being a good pilot is more a matter of decision-making than actually handling the controls of a plane.

Again and Again

Well, I know I never really posted about my long cross-country that I flew a couple weeks ago (I haven't been online much lately), but tomorrow morning I'm flying to Deming and Silver City, both in New Mexico. I've still got quite a bit of solo cross-country time to log, so a nice Friday morning flight to NM seems like a fair way to knock some of it out. That's assuming the Friday forecast is still favorable in the morning, of course. Otherwise, I'll be enjoying a nice Friday morning on the ground.

Packing

We went on a short box hunt this morning after we finished our Subway breakfast sandwiches (they were delicious). Wal-Mart had trouble giving us any definite answers on when or how we could obtain boxes from them, so we popped over to Safeway. The dude we talked to there told us to come back around 2 or 3, and he'd have some boxes for us. So I did, and he did. We ended up with six apple boxes from the produce section. I've already filled up three of them (I've been home from Safeway for an hour) with books and games. Most of our bookcase is now packed up, minus the books I need for aviation and our coloring books (you never know when the urge to color is going to hit). And all of our games are packed, except for one deck of cards and one card game, and Star Wars Monopoly because it was too long to fit in an apple box. Our little corner of the bedroom where the filled boxes go is starting to really fill up. This is good, because we usually wait til the last minute to pack (this will be our fourth move in 3.5 years of marriage), but it's also bad, because we don't get possession of our new home for another 15 days. I really hope we don't go crazy with packing to the point where we eat McDonald's for every meal for a week because all our kitchen items are tucked away waiting for to move.

Disturbingly Eager

It's strange, but I didn't realize how incredibly eager we are to move, until our "let's casually pack a few things this afternoon" turned into "full-blown, work-up-a-sweat packing day." Unfortunately, we only had a few boxes to work with, so we've run out of things to put stuff in for now. But that's only going to stop us until we come across more cardboard.

Long way to fly...

God willing, I'll be making my long solo cross-country flight tomorrow morning. I've got all my courses and checkpoints figured out; I'm just waiting til 7pm so I can get the weather forecast and finish up my nav logs. I'll be flying out of here at 6:45 tomorrow morning, and I probably won't be back til sometime around 3:00; maybe even a little later. In preparation, Belinda and I worked on gusty crosswind takeoffs and landings during my flight period this morning. Those went well, so I don't see any reason why tomorrow shouldn't be more of the same.

On a sadder note, there was a plane crash at the Benson airport last night, that apparently claimed 2 lives. Benson is a 50-mile flight from here, and the airport is a popular checkpoint for Cochise College students, when flying to Tucson. As a matter of fact, I'm using it as my first checkpoint tomorrow morning. The plane that crashed was making a short trip from Safford (one of my favorite airports) to Benson. The pilot landed hard and bounced, then added full power, which flipped the plane over and killed both people on board. It's a very sobering thing to hear about, and it makes a pilot realize once again that panic and poor planning are two things we can NEVER allow into the airplane with us.

Nothing in aviation is ever concrete...

I sat down and talked with Belinda regarding my commercial training and the requirements I have to meet. It turns out I'm still going to have some flight time to log before I'm done with Commercial 2. Here's how this discovery changes my last post: instead of 1 night solo cross-country, I now have two; instead of only having the one long day cross-country, I now also have 2 (possibly 3) shorter, though still fairly long, cross-countries to fly in addition to the long one; I'm going to end up logging 8-10 hours of local solo time, just flying around the valley to rack up hours.

Where I'm At

Some people are starting to wonder, I guess, so here's the latest on the aviation front. This past week I flew a very short solo cross-country to Willcox, just to get used to soloing again (it was my first solo flight of any kind since last spring). That same night, I made a local flight with Clif (the only instructor on duty all week) with a heavy emphasis on landings, to prepare me for the night solo flight I have to make. With these two flights done and over, there are really only two things I need to do to finish Commercial 2 (there are 3 phases to complete before I earn my Commercial certificate).

The first thing I have to do is make a LONG solo cross-country flight. The big requirement for the flight is one leg of at least 250 nautical miles, and our syllabus gives us the option of four options we can take to complete this beast. I'm mostly set on the option that will take me to Blythe, CA then Kingman, AZ then back to the college. I've already sat down with my sectional (you'll recall that a sectional is an aviation map) and mostly figured out my route. Now the big question is when I'll actually get to make that flight. It's sort of doubtful that I'll be able to go during the week, because I'll be gone approximately 8 hours, and they like to have all the Cherokees available for flight periods on the weekdays.

The second flight I have to make is a night solo cross-country to Tucson and Casa Grande. I can go to those airports in whichever order I choose, but I'm required to do ten stop-and-gos at Tucson. A stop-and-go is a lot like a touch-and-go, except you have to come to a full stop on the runway after landing and before you take back off. I anticipate that exercise being extremely tedious, so I'll probably save Tucson for last. The bright side of this flight is that I won't be limited to weekends; there's not much demand for planes at night, so all I have to worry about is having an instructor around after hours to dispatch me. I think I have to have 5 hours total of night solo flight, and this cross-country should take about 3.5 hours, so I'll have to maybe go back up by myself for some local time before I'm through.

Unless I've completely misunderstood my instructor, once I've met these two goals, I'll be done with Commercial 2 and on to Commercial 3. Since I'm finishing my Commercial certificate under FAR Part 61, there are only a few flight requirements left. The main focus for phase 3 is getting really good at the commercial maneuvers in the Cessna, and then I'll be more or less ready for the check ride. It's definitely possible for me to knock this certificate out before summer, God willing.

Confession

I need to get something off my chest. It's been bothering me since Saturday afternoon, and I'm hoping that confessing it on my blog will help dispel the guilt. Among the food items being sold at the airshow on Saturday were trays of nachos slathered in hot, gooey, orange cheese sauce. Since my $5 hamburger more or less completely failed to satisfy me, I decided to buy myself some nachos just after Jen and I had found a good spot to set up our chairs for the show. I wandered over to the food booth in question, paid my money and received my pile of nachos and goo. I had taken about 5 steps away from the booth, when a sudden, strong gust of wind (I'm not joking) blew the top chip clean off my pile and right onto the back of a guy in a nice, white tanktop. Of course, this left a hot, gooey, orange ring of cheese on his back, but he didn't seem to notice for the first second or two after impact. I panicked, fearing he would think I had intentionally attacked him with hot nachos, so I put my head down and double-timed it away from him. As I made my escape, I heard voices and such that left me believing he was quickly becoming aware of his situation. I hurried back to my seat and prayed he wasn't following me. As I sat and ate my nachos, though, I started feeling really guilty that I'd ruined this guy's clean, white shirt and hadn't even had the decency to fess up to the man. I'm not sure what I could have done for him, besides apologize and offer to let him throw a nacho back at me, but I still feel terrible about the whole thing. If, through some strange miracle, you were at the Douglas airshow in a white wife-beater and some jerk nailed you in the back with a cheesy corn chip and you're actually reading this, I'm really sorry about your shirt and I swear it was unintentional. If you want me to pay for your shirt, leave me a comment and we'll work out the details.

Jen and I had fun at the airshow today. I'm sure one or both of us will provide more detail and some pictures soon, but for now it's enough to say that we were at the airfield for around 7 hours, and we both got badly sun/wind-burned. Just wait til you see the pictures, friends.

Airshow!

Tomorrow is the second annual Border-to-Border Airshow here in Douglas. Jen and I have been looking forward to it for a while now, and we plan on leaving the apartment at 10:00, which will give us some time to eat tasty carnival food and look around before the actual show starts at noon. The winds have been pretty strong and gusty here the past couple days, and tomorrow is forecast to be more of the same. I'm curious how strong the winds actually have to be before the aerobatic pilots are grounded. Let's hope it takes more than tomorrow can offer.

Rated!

After a very tense, very turbulent 1.2-hour flight, I'm now officially instrument rated! Tomorrow, I get back into the Cherokee to start working on commercial phase 2. Thanks for all your prayers. And thanks be to God, who answers prayer so faithfully, despite the failures of His children.

Tomorrow

I flew a practice flight with Belinda this morning, to go over what I'll most likely be doing on tomorrow's recheck. It went really well, but that might be, in part, because the sky was like glass this morning. It's hard to screw up when there's no turbulence or wind shear knocking you around. When we got back from our flight, Belinda talked to my examiner and found out that my recheck is going to be at noon-ish tomorrow, when the turbulence and wind will be much more pronounced. The forecast for tomorrow calls for light winds, though, so it still might not be that bad. We shall all find out tomorrow.

I spent this past week sick, so I didn't get a chance to fly even once all week. And I just found out the other day that my examiner isn't going to be around on Wednesday or Thursday of this coming week, so Tuesday is pretty much my only chance before spring break to finish my instrument rating. Monday morning is my time to go back over to Libby with my instructor and work out the kinks. If I can finish the instrument rating on Tuesday, then I can get back into the Cherokee on Wednesday and/or Thursday, and fly a long (about 7.5 hours) solo cross-country during spring break. Please, please pray that the weather is favorable for flying on Tuesday. I really want to be done with instrument.

Not much of an update...

I don't have much to report since my last post. I got sick again over the weekend, with a slightly scaled-down version of the same thing I was sick with a couple weeks ago. That said, I skipped my flight period this morning. The winds have been pretty ridiculous lately, and today was no exception, so had I actually gone to my flight period I wouldn't have flown anyway. This pushes back the tentative retest schedule Belinda and I had figured out last week. And with the winds as strong and unpredictable as they've been, I'm not sure when, realistically, I'll have an opportunity to get back in the plane with my examiner and finish up that rating. God's timing is perfect, and He's got His hand in this, just like in everything else, so I'm not too concerned about it all. It'll happen when the Lord wants it to, and not a second before then. However, it would be nice if it happened sort of soon, because I want to wrap up my instrument rating before I go get my medical certificate renewed, and I have to do that before the last day of March.

Disapproval

Well, my application for instrument rating was disapproved (that's the proper way of saying I failed my check ride). I have an excuse that I could easily use here to make it look like I was somehow victimized, but the reality is that I made a very foolish mistake that could have been fatal if I'd been by myself in actual instrument weather conditions. So I didn't pass this time. The good news is that I have a sort of "get out of jail free" card that will make it so I only have to redo that part of the check ride that I did wrong. I won't have to redo the oral or any other portions of the flight. In practical terms this means that, when Belinda approves me to retest, I'll get in the plane with my examiner, fly to Libby, do 2 instrument approaches, and come home. That's not so bad. It's really not. And I'm still ALL DONE STUDYING!

Murphy's Law

I had a long, ranting post all typed out, but I decided it wasn't necessarily written with the most Christlike of attitudes. Here's the short version: I didn't think to reserve 737ND for this morning so I could use it on my check ride. Accordingly, someone else took it before I got to the aviation building this morning. The only other plane I could have flown is one I've never flown before, so I wasn't really comfortable with the idea of taking it on a check ride. Despite that, I tried to preflight it, but the battery was dead. So I called my examiner and asked him if we could go at 1130, instead, which was fine by him. Immediately after I hung up, I went and reserved 7ND for 1130. Now, if God will keep the winds from getting too strong, I should have myself a check ride in a few hours.

Giant Killer

After a fairly difficult start (for reasons I'm too tired to explain right now), I passed my oral exam at about 5:15 this afternoon. I'm scheduled to fly the hands-on portion of the exam tomorrow morning at 7:30. But the important thing is, I'M DONE STUDYING FOR THE INSTRUMENT ORAL!!! No matter how tomorrow goes, I'm done studying. I can enjoy my weekend and cross-stitch and do anything I want, without feeling the slightest bit guilty that I'm not studying for my oral! Thank you all for your prayers. God was faithful, just like always.

I just found out (seriously, it was only about 10 minutes ago) that my examiner doesn't want to start my check ride until 12:30 tomorrow afternoon. He also mentioned that we may very well end up doing the oral tomorrow and saving the hands-on until Wednesday (assuming we have decent winds on Wednesday). I'm mostly okay with that possibility. It enables me to really focus on passing the oral, without having flight stuff rolling around in the back of my mind the whole time. An added bonus of drawing the exam out like that, is that I probably won't have a flight period on Thursday (we'll just start fresh on Monday), so I'll have a four-day weekend in which I won't have to do ANY studying!!! Cross-stitch, here I come!