Borring update for you... I know. But I'm excited. I sold my mixer and bought stuff for the car.

-JMB Ultimate CAI with small battery kit
-JMB Catch Can
-JMB Trans Cover
-CF Eyelids
-Apexi TurboTimer

Brian @ 16:30 | comments(0) | Permanent link

I decided to implement a forum on the site. It's mostly me just poking around to cure boredom on here, but if you're up for helping me kill time and talk about random stuff, hit the forum link up top and start making some suggestions for things for me to do to make this place at least somewhat entertaining.

Thanks,
Brian

Brian @ 19:27 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Found this and laughed.


I was talking to a friend's little girl, and she said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?"

She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people."

"Wow - what a worthy goal!" I told her, "You don't have to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over to my house and mow, pull weeds and sweep my yard, and I'll pay you $50.00. Then I'll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out and you can give him the $50.00 to use toward food or a new house."

She thought that over for a few moments because she's only 6.

And while her Mom glared at me, she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work and you can just pay him the $50?"

And I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Brian @ 05:53 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Where have I been? RIGHT HERE! Doing nothing worth writing about really, but I'll try.

I was going to write a blog complaining about stuff, but I do that too often. Thanks to notepad, I highlighted and deleted it all. In it's place will be pleasant thoughts, because I am very grateful for too many things. Complaints can see the door for this post.

1. My wife. Nearly 3 years into marriage including big changes, personal adjustments, rough times, and some humbling moments I can honestly say that I have never been happier with our relationship than I am today. The lack of underatnding between us use to be a huge issue, now we both accept we will never understand the opposite sex and we have fun with it. She makes me laugh in some form everyday and I can't imagine being without that.

2. My family. My family asks nothing of me, and would give anything in return. I grew up in a pretty laid back, relaxed environment for the most part and seeing other families as an adult now makes me appreciate the kind of upbringing I had so much more. My father has worked his butt off for us every day of his life that I've known him. The only thing he asked for in return was enough money to put food in our mouths, and a decent vacation for the family. To this day he is still a hard worker and it's one of things I wish I could have inherited from him. Instead I got his sense of humor. =) My mother is me, but older, wiser, a female (obviously) and a bit more reserved-probably due to the "wise" part. For instance, we both love Family Guy, she just insists on shaking her head at fart jokes eventhough she's holding back laughter. We can string together a whole conversation of nothign but smart-ass comments. My sister use to beat me up. That sucked. I got bigger than her. That was nice, but by that time I was mature enough to not kill her for her prior acts. I'm glad I didn't. She is one of my best friends now and always has high spirits (unless she's biting someone on the basketball court. True story)

3. My job. Primarily because of the support of the people who love me I was able to pull my head out of my ass at a relatively younger age than most, finish college at 21 and get this great job right after graduation. It has allowed me to be self sufficient and become independant. Weird. I bought a house before I turned 23, own two cars, have nearly completed my pilots licence, and have even managed to NOT kill my credit score in the process! (go me)

(Are these too steriotypical yet?)

4. Realistic common sense. "Common sense isn't so common anymore". No kidding. I have a healthy dose of it though. Sometimes TOO much for my wife to deal with. =) In life I try my best to consider if what I'm doing is important. I prioritize things based on necessity. Sometimes this creates conflict - the dishes in the sink don't NEED to be done until it causes an odor or we need a plate (good lord, that one happens often) but in a greater sense it helps me keep grounded. Being able to filter out all the crap throughout the day which doesn't matter is a wonderful releif. My mother use to say if it won't affect you in 5 years, who cares? I think I simplify that a bit, but it's true. Life goes on. Every time in my life that I've thought the pain or a problem wouldn't end...it did. Common sense has allowed me to learn that when issues come, you deal with it, and move on - eventually it will just be a memory and you will be a better person, and much wiser, having dealt with it. Gain knowledge from everything you do in life.

5. Iced lattes. Just had one. Good stuff.

I have more, but I'm done writing these for now.


I am considering going back to college soon for some type of an aviation degree. More info to come soon on that. Also, November 25th is the projected release date for the 0901 OTS board. Early Christmas present for Brian? Wish me luck, pray for me, send cash, etc...

=)

Brian @ 09:43 | comments(0) | Permanent link

My new SRT-4 finally looks like an SRT-4.

Brian @ 17:54 | comments(1) | Permanent link

I bought a new used car today. It's a 2004 Dodge SRT-4. Sure wish I could drive the thing.

About three minutes after I forked over the money for it and drove away I noticed the heat was WAY too high. We went back to see my wifes grandfather (his shop was who we bought it from) and I checked it out a bit. For some reason the radiator fans aren't working. *facepalm* So now MY car is in his shop being worked on so that we have a way back home tomorrow or Monday morning. I was soooo ready to show it off too.

In the last 2 months preparing for this purchase I have become a car guy. I have so many plans for this thing. One of the biggest concerns I have is the front bumper. It was in an accident with the owner before me, and when my grandfather got the car he replaced the front bumper, but with a Neon bumper, NOT an SRT-4 bumper. Along wiht the radiator fan not working, this new bumper is contributing to the heat by restricting airflow conpared to the stock SRT-4 bumper. After that it's on to a short ram intake, turbo timer, new plugs and wires, and then a few things to make the engine bay look a bit better.

My other conern is what I have to learn about the car, considering it was used. This is a car to tweak...and it has been a bit already. Unfortunately, when these cars goto auction or sale in general, they are put back to stock for the most part. So my first order of business is to figure out what the heck a switch was used for that isn't connected to anything. It's rocker switch which leads to the enginebay and is cutoff. grrr. Next is trying to figure out how to get the serial port in the glovebox connected to the OBDII port to then monitor stats on my laptop. Then it will be to fix any unsightly looking wires. A few of them have the sheeths frayed or are just generally dirty.

Wow I have some work to do. Fun times.

Brian @ 09:47 | comments(0) | Permanent link

http://www.rs.af.mil/recruiter-online/story.asp?id=123104474

"Air Force Recruiting Service officials considered 722 applications as part of Officer Training School Selection Board 08OT03, which selected 178 for a 28% selection rate."

Ouch.

Brian @ 22:10 | comments(0) | Permanent link

I'm quite upset with myself. It's been over a year sinse I started this quest for my PPL, and I still haven't finished it. I shoul dhave finished it at about 43 hours, but no... Why? I keep asking myself the same thing and I'm unhappy with the answers I have to come up with. Money is the first reason. This stuff is expensive - especially when I have so many other things to pay for. On top of the normal stuff, I need to get some work done on my car and we need to buy a new one. Time is another reason. This one is really just due to my bad management of time, I admit it. I spend all my energy on work. Then when I get home from work I dont feel like studying - I just want to rest or fly. The studying part of it all is what expanded my time. The next thing - My primary instructor going to a new job. Sounds cheessy, but we worked well together and I really enjoyed the way he would teach. The new guy I've talked to is ok, but there is no understanding or trust between us. I've considered joining a flying club just to get a new instructor, but that would cost way more money, plus take a bit more time beause I would be flying a completely different airplane. *facepalm* Enough complaining. It's my own fault, and I'll just have to deal with it.

Time for some good news. Rumor has it that all OTS apps will be rolling over to the 0901 board. This means I may get my pilot slot after all. The first baord of the year almost always have much higher selection rates than later in the year - so thats good for me. Keep praying for me, I'm not giving up that easy.

Brian @ 14:52 | comments(0) | Permanent link

I remember having discussions with my recruiter about putting in the app for pilot only or for pilot OR nav. I couldn't remember which one I had decided on. Apparently it was Pilot only. Results came back: Non-Select.

Eh, life goes on. You have a few choices in life when it doesn't go the way you want it to. 1. Change what's affecting you. I can't change the results. 2. Change your goals. That isn't going to happen. 3. Change the way you view the outcome. I'll complain about it, adapt and try again.

Congratz to the ~28 Pilot, ~140 Nav, and ~12 ABM Selects of the 0803 board!

EDIT:
Updated Info: HERE

Brian @ 11:02 | comments(1) | Permanent link

Updated the pictures section with a few more pics, and also transferred all the links to PB - makes my server cry less.

Brian @ 16:13 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flight: 29
Flight Time: 1.5
Total Flight Time: 47.9

yeah, so I went flying 2 weeks ago. I didn't update. I'm bad, but whatever. I went up with a new instructor because my old one left to fly a lear. It's different...

He said for not flying for 6 months I did better than he would have expected. I need to get use to radio communications again and a few things I'm a bit rusty on, but all-in-all I was safe and I'm pretty happy with my flying and landings. The first landing we did was a result of a mock engine out situation. I located a farmers soft-field (grass) landing strip and manuevered for the intercept. When we got to about 100 feet I asked the instructor if we were going back up, he replied "I didn't hear the engine restart"...So I got to make my first soft-field landing ever. Greesed it, along with my touch and gos.

I've been slacking on cash lately, but I'm trying to get up ASAP. Also, the OTS board results come out in 9 days... Cross your fingers and pray for me! =)

Brian @ 14:02 | comments(2) | Permanent link

...sort of. I FINALLY took my private pilot written exam. It's very late, but I'm pretty excited to start this up again and finish it. Yes, I passed. I missed a few, but considering I haven't flown in 7 months and 2 days, and I ahven't really studied for my tests in week I'm quite happy with my score. Now I'll be prepping for my oral and checkride while getting some flight time in for refreshers and also my night crosscountry.

Updates to start up again "soon"!

Brian @ 09:42 | comments(1) | Permanent link

Well i had my interview and MEPS physical. The interview went very well. There were the typical interview questions: "What are you greatest strengths and weaknesses?" "What are your goals in life?" etc... The Captain I interviewed with said I didn't have much to worry about as far as the interview went. One thing that I did a *facepalm* for: Right before the interview he explained his service, which involved some pilot training. He then asked me if I had any questions for him before we started and I inquired about what came of his training. His response? "I uh....actually washed out midway through." As soon as he said that I said "Ahh. Well that was a bad way to start an interview!" Which seemed to defuse the tension. =)

MEPS is an interesting experience. We got setup at a hotel the night before, with a checkout time of 4:30am. Ouch. I got to sleep about 1:30 and was up before 4. So running on little sleep I managed a full day of getting poked and examined. There were about 25 other people there, all enlistees for the various branches of the military except myself. Everytime they saw my paperwork they'd go "OH! an officer..." like it was a rare thing. There were about 5 priors and the rest were kids. Not being mean, but really-they were high schoolers. I felt old until I started talking with the priors and all of a sudden I felt like youngblood again. One of these guys was a nurse in Somolia and seen battle in a few other places. Another was an explosives expert who transferred to another job because he had seen too many friends get hurt, and one die. Rough stuff. It's humbleing.

SO! the process was fairly simple. Hurry and get to room XXX, and wait. Get your stuff done there and hurry to room YYY, and wait. Get the done and hurry to the next place wait and so on...

Eyes: 20/20
Hearing: good
General health: good
Drug test: clean
Blood test: clean
Do a silly dance for 3 old doctors: Complete
Exasperated quickly clearing upper airway while my cranium was tilted at least a 45 degree angle away from the nearby doctor: Complete

So looks like I'm good to go. Now I wait until June to find out if I'm selected.

Wish me luck and pray for me if it's your thing.

Brian @ 12:16 | comments(4) | Permanent link

• Randomness #1: I have my interview for my OTS package thursday.
• Randomness #2: I also have my MEPS physical on friday. Good times.
• Randomness #3: Work is about to be less of a pain in my ass! REALLY GOOD TIMES!
• Randomness #4: I am planning a birthday party for April 28th. I have a decent sized group of people who are willing to jump out of a perfectly good, uncombusted (is that a word?), working airplane. it costs about $200, but the more people I get the cheaper it is. If you're interested, email me or leave a comment. http://www.skydivechicago.com
• Randomness #5: I sent out my >%90 tests to my flight instructor who is all over the country. He is getting back to me in the next few days so I can take my written exam. It's nice to get back into things and I can't wait to get back up in the air.
• Randomness #6: Purple Monkey Dishwasher.

Brian @ 15:46 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Last friday I took my TBAS. Combined with my AFOQT, and ~48 hours of flight time, I have a PCSM score of 99 out of 99. Next steps: Interview and MEPS physical.

Brian @ 09:55 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Big snowstorm came in and caused work and school to close. This means that the ROTC armory was closed and I couldn't take my TBAS... It's cool. I only took off one of my very few vacation days left and need the scores next week so I can arrange my interview and MEPS physical sometime in the next 3 weeks... No rush. *end sarcasm* Once I take my TBAS and receive over a 75 on it I will collect my last letter of recommendation and send it up to my recruiter who will begin putting together the package. Sometime in the next few weeks I need to schedule a few things. 1) MEPS Physical. This is to be sure I'm in relatively good health. 2)An interview. This will be one of the most important peices of information given to the baords. 3) Flying Class 1 physical. I already have a FC3 physical, and the FC1 is not required to submit a package, but it is required of all fliers in the Air Force. It just makes me look better to the board.

The 0803 board meets in May. I have to have my absolute final package in by April 30th and I would find out if I am accepted in June. Wish me luck and pray for me.

Brian @ 17:14 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Slight update on my page due to boredom.

1. New banner. Similar to the old one. Cooler colors(in the warm vs. cool sense, not "AWESOME!" sense) than the older one, but still the same basic "doodad over in the corner, text/icon over there... great" concept.

2. I seriously doubt anyone who comes here does so for my shoutcast audio stream...You know, that little windows media plugin on the top right over there-->
Well, I figured it's about time I start using it. I will have music playing randomly on this server 24/7. Contrary to popular beleif, I am not ALWAYS at my computer, so I will not have total control over what is playing. Also due to having some upload overhead and this comming off my main box, I'm dropping the users from 15 down to 5. Like I'm going to have 6 listening at the same time anytime soon? Eh, when I get fiber I'll bring back the FuseBOX Radio show and try and break my all time high unique listener count of 786 at once. Until then, if you're #6, tough luck buddy. Also as a reminder, if the server is not up for any reason, the link on top will automaticly direct you towards my project playlist music box.

3. Along with my decision to keep the stream up, I wanted a way to report and UPDATE IN REAL TIME what song was playing without the user having to refresh the whole page - thereby stopping the music if streaming directly from the page. I figured out a jury rig way to do it without updating and rewriting my whole site in PHP or AJAX and it will now refresh every 3 minutes with the current song and listener counts.

3b. Along with that refreshing, I also added the same logic to the "Quote of the moment" section. This will update with a new quote every 30 seconds. Considering the content on this page is primarily of interest to friends/family, or the occasional stalker (yes, YOU!) I can't imagine most people paying attention to these for more than a few minutes... I've even provided a popup window for the music stream, so the main page for most will be a quick read; even with my long winded, uneeded explanations. =)

==========

Unrelated update: News to come friday after I take my TBAS test.

Brian @ 00:02 | comments(0) | Permanent link

With work the way it's been, and bills the way they are (as if they ever change) I haven't had time or money to get up in the air again. Hence this site has been kind of dead sans the picture/video/cam area.

SO! what to do, what to do....? I'm thinking I may move my flight related posts to another potion of my site and continue this strictly as a personal blog. Really, I want to think of something more useful than even that.

I need content ideas! Have any for the site? Leave me a comment or Email them to me.
It's appreciated.

Brian

Brian @ 16:34 | comments(1) | Permanent link

Wow, it's been almost 2 months since I've been up... I'm having BAD withdrawls.
Unfortunatly I still have not had the time, money, or energy to devote to this flying lately. I hate it. Work has been a pain - end of year rush stuff. Money has been a pain - about to get better. Energy has been an issue - no sleeping = bad stuff.

Enough about complaints, on to the goods. First of all my wife, Joanna, recently got a new job working for a medical office nearby. It's big news because she actually loves her job. Kudos babe, love ya! ok, done with cheessyness, on to other good stuff. I went to Vegas last weekend and had a blast...kind of. i went for Aviaiton Nation, one of the largest airshow in the world. This one was special because it was at nellis Air Force base, home of the main act, the Thunderbirds. It was also special because it was the primary celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Air Force. They had just about every aircraft you'd care to see on static. C-5, C-130, KC-135, KC-10, F-16s and F-15s including a -15 and -16 from the aggressor sqn and also a blk60 -16, F-117, A-10S, T-38s, T-37, T-6II, B-52, B-1B, warbirds, F-35 mock up, and the gem of the show, the F-22. The -22 was quite amazing and I am hoping to get some video of it's demo on here soon.

So the airshow was great...Vegas not so much. It's not that there isn't a lot to do there, but not a lot for me on my own. Gambling? No thanks. I only play poker and only if I'm with at least one other person I know. Drinking? I did a bit of it, but I'm not one to drink excessivly to have fun on my own. Sex? Despite getting hit on by a hooker, I'm married...and herpes doesn't stay in Vegas. Clubs? I went. I got bored. The last times I ever had fun alone in a party was before I was married where could flirt...so it's not the same anymore. If I ever goto Veas again, it will have to be with people. All in all, a good trip. I was amazed with Vegas and did enjoy walking around and taking in the sights at least.

I took many pictures but only have a few on here - so check them out if interested.

Flying? I've taken time this last week or two to study and am forcing myself to take my test by the end of the month.

Brian @ 14:35 | comments(0) | Permanent link

First of all, I have been very busy at work. So much that I haven't had much time to study for my written! AHH! I'm spending this weekend in Chicago for my cousins baptism and hope to get some studying done. I know i have a lot to go over, and I am pretty disappointed with my study habbits lately. I'm sure I'll be fine though. I have always had a habbit of being harder on myself than I really need to be. (then again I did kind of bomb the AFOQT)

I got a new toy recently which I can't wait to really put to use. I own an xv6700 PDA phone running windows mobile 5. It doesn't have a GPS chip installed, so I bought a bluetooth GPS receiver, the Holux M1200. It's small, picks up up to 32 satelites, and gets a lock in about 10 seconds. Here's a pic to understand how portable this thing it...



=)

When I get a few more dollars I'll be flying a night cross country. I hope to get that out of the way next week, as the weather is already starting to turn bad.

Brian @ 16:43 | comments(4) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 28
Flight Time: 1.5
Total Flight Time: 46.4

Wow...The other day I did a mini-checkride with my instructor. We did a bunch of things like turns, stalls, and engine EP items that are borring to write about for n-th time...So today I have something new, Spins.

Before I get to that though, we did unusual attitudes again, which I love. There's something wierd about being blinded and tossed around the air and actually enjoying someone basicly saying "open your eyes and keep us alive..." The idea is that you should be able to attain a level attitude based solely on your instruments. Also while heading to our practice area we could have been in an accident. Someone in a decent sized single-engine plane said he was SE, when really he was SW - near us. We were both at 3k feet and we ended up passing eachother headon with only about a half mile between us. Luckily my instructor saw him in enough time for us to react, had we needed to.

Ahhhh, spins. Fun times. Ever been in an inverted airplane? I have. No, we did not do an inverted spin, but when we would enter the spin our nose would drop straight down, and keep going. Green fills the windscreen, sky can't be seen, and then it is followed by about a 1.5-2G pullup. Actually, there is very little elevator action involved in getting out of a spin, and even less rudder than I had expected. This is mainly due to the DA-20's design though, so not something I should expect of every plane I will fly. My instructor said he expected me to get sick durring the flight like one of his other students, but not only did I not feel ill at all, I had the biggest smile on my face.

I also got my AFOQT scores back this last week. I received an 88 on the Pilot portion, which is competitive, yet my other scores were not impressive. I'm split between being disappointed becuse I expected to do much better, and also knowing I did not study and kicking myself for it. I can retake it in 6 months, which I plan to do, but also plan to go ahead with my TBAS and get a PCSM.

Brian @ 11:22 | comments(0) | Permanent link

This morning I took the Air Firce Officer Qualifying Test. I have been so worried about it for a long while now. SO much that I've been neglecting my PPL studying. I've been trying to study math for this for a while, but I feel I still bombed it. The other 10 sections I think I nearly aced. I should get my results in about a week... I really hope I didn't mess up the math part as bad as I think. grr....

Brian @ 18:12 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 27
Flight Time: 1.7
Total Flight Time: 44.9

"Look all around, there's nothin' but blue skies
Look straight ahead, nothin' but blue skies
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone,
I can see all obstacles in my way
Here is the rainbow I've been prayin' for
It's gonna be a bright, bright
Sun-Shiny day"
...and indeed it was.

Blue skies as far as my near-perfect vision eyes could see. From 5500 feet I could see some clouds that were most likley in eastern Indiana or even into Ohio-nothing but me and sky for a few hundred miles otherwise.

I went to VYS, Illinois Valley Regional today. Nice little airport. The fear I mentioned in my last post has come true. I have nothing to write about because everything went as perfectly as it could have. I got off a bit late, but otherwise I flew straight there and straight back, good time, no issues, good landings, and now my cross country requirments for my PPL are finished.

Edit: I put a video of my flight showing how clear of a day it was. I think when I look off the left wing you can barely make out some clouds far-far away. Cool sight.

Brian @ 11:34 | comments(0) | Permanent link

I know, I know...The comments are giving issues for some people. I'll fix it tonight.

Also I should be flying a XC to VYS tomorrow afternoon, so you can expect another entry then. I'm hoping everything goes smooth and that's all I'll have to say about it. =)

Brian @ 10:31 | comments(0) | Permanent link

While I was at my parents house over this past weekend I was pleasantly surprised. While I was mooching off their Cable my father walked in, threw a piece of paper in my lap and said "Merry Christmas, son". Round trip flight to Las Vegas to join my father at Aviation Nation, Vegas' free airshow at Nellis, home of the Thunderbirds.

I'm very much looking forward to this. =)

Brian @ 15:09 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 26
Flight Time: 2.7
Total Flight Time: 43.2!

Good lord it's been a long day.

Short version:
-Spent the night at my parents place in Chicago
-I was up until 4am
-Woke up about 9
-Finished my flight plan for my 3 stop cross country
-Left Chicago at about 10:30
-Got home: 12:35
-Left for my flight: 12:36
-Wheels up: 1:30
-Final landing back here at bmi: 4:40ish
-Write blog: 6:15
-Pass out: TBD

Long Version: This won't be a VERY long version (refer back to the first line) I had 3 legs this time around. BMI->DNV->MTO->BMI. BMI-DNV was a bit off. The Bloomington VOR is a bit screwy in some radial ranges, so that threw me off at first. Then when I started to track on the next VOR I was looking at the wrong one. I thought I was due east of an airport that was supposed to be south of me, really I was due west of my intended VOR. Blah blah, by the time I figured out what was up I was almost at the airport. Apparently despite my confusion and turning pointlessly to get "on course" when I wasn't off, I made it there without too much delay. DNV->MTO was a breeze. I've never been in that area, but nailed my checkpoinbts exactly on target. Same goes for MTO->BMI

Next up: Night hours.

Brian @ 18:09 | comments(2) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 25
Flight Time: 1.1
Total Flight Time: 40.5!


See that flight time? Just hit over 40 hours! SO what's holding me back now? Damn tests... I have to study like crazy. I am hopeing to have my checkride 2 weeks from today. That's if all goes well.

Today I just went up to check out the area I'll be flying over in my next XC. I'll have 2 stops this time.... should be fun. I also did some landings including cross wind landings. I had one that was a bit harsh, but the rest were smooth.

Not sure what I'm going to do today, but I'm pretty sure it's NOT one of the things on my to-do lists which I REALLY need to do.

1. Get some work items completed


2. Study for FAA exams, oral, and checkride


3. Study for the AFOQT


4. Fix Joanna's computer

ok, I'm off to take a shower, then either go out or play madden08! (hit me up on XBL: FusedIntention)

Brian @ 20:28 | comments(0) | Permanent link

One fine hot Summer's afternoon saw a Cessna 150 flying in the pattern at a
quiet country airfield. The Instructor was getting quite bothered with the
student's inability to maintain altitude in the thermals and was getting
impatient at sometimes having to take over the controls. Just then he saw a
twin engine Cessna 5,000ft above him and thought "Another 1,000 hrs of this
and I qualify for that twin charter job! Aaahh.. to be a real pilot.. going
somewhere!"

The Cessna 402 was already late and the boss told him this charter was for
one of the Company's premier clients. He'd already set MCT and the
cylinders didn't like it in the heat of this Summer's day. He was at 6,000
ft and the winds were now a 20 kt headwind.

Today was the 6th day straight and he was pretty damn tired of fighting
these engines. Maybe if he got 10,000 ft out of them the wind might die
off... geez those cylinder temps! He looked out momentarily and saw a B737
leaving a contrail at 33,000ft in the serene blue sky. "Oh man" he thought,
"My interview is next month. I hope I just don't blow it! Outa G/A, nice
jet job, above the weather... no snotty passengers to wait for ... aahhh."

The Boeing 737 bucked and weaved in the heavy CAT at FL330 and ATC advised
that lower levels were not available due traffic. The Captain, who was only
recently advised that his destination was below RVR minimums had slowed to
LRC to try and hold off a possible inflight diversion, and arrange an ETA
that would helpfully ensure the fog had lifted to CATII minima. The Company
negotiations broke down yesterday and looked as if everyone was going to
take a damn pay cut. The F/O's will be particularly hard hit as their pay
wasn't anything to speak of anyway. Finally deciding on a speed compromise
between LRC and turbulence penetration, the Captain looked up and saw
Concorde at Mach 2+. Tapping his F/O's shoulder as the 737 took another
bashing, he said "Now THAT'S what we should be on... huge pay ... super
fast... not too many routes... not too many legs... above the CAT... yep!
What a life...!"

FL590 was not what he wanted anyway and considered FL570. Already the TAT
was creeping up again and either they would have to descend or slow down.
That damn rear fuel transfer pump was becoming unreliable and the F/E had
said moments ago that the radiation meter was not reading numbers that he'd
like to see. Concorde descended to FL570 but the radiation was still quite
high even though the NOTAM indicated hunky dory below FL610. Fuel flow was
up and the transfer pump was intermittent. Evening turned into night as
they passed over the Atlantic. Looking up, the F/O could see a tiny white
dot moving against the backdrop of a myriad of stars. "Hey Captain" he
called as he pointed. "Must be the Shuttle. "The Captain looked for a
moment and agreed. Quietly he thought how a Shuttle mission, while
complicated, must be the be all and end all in aviation. Above the crap, no
radiation problems, no damn fuel transfer problems... aaah. Must be a great
way to earn a buck."

Discovery was into its 27th orbit and perigee was 200 ft out from nominated
rendezvous altitude with the commsat. The robot arm was virtually U/S and a
walk may become necessary. The 200 ft predicted error would necessitate a
corrective burn and Discovery needed that fuel if a walk was to be
required. Houston continually asked what the Commander wanted to do but the
advice they proffered wasn't much help. The Commander had already been 12
hours on station sorting out the problem and just wanted 10 minutes to
himself to take a leak. Just then a mission specialist, who had tilted the
telescope down to the surface for a minute or two, called the Commander to
the scope.

"Have a look at this Sir, isn't this the kinda flying you said you wanted
to do after you finish up with NASA?" The Commander peered through the
telescope and cried "Ooooohhhhh yeah! Now THAT'S flying! Man, that's what
its all about! Geez I'd give my left nut just to be doing THAT down there!"

What the Discovery Commander was looking at was a Cessna 150 in the pattern
at a quiet country airfield on a nice bright sunny afternoon.

Boy, I'll tell you... pilots are never happy unless they are drinking beer
and looking for a better job!

Brian @ 14:18 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 24
Flight Time: 1.4
Total Flight Time: 39.4


What a beautiful day today! Unrestricted visability with some scattered clouds at 7k. Big difference from a few days ago. I had a solo cross-country to Canton, CTK today.

The flight there was flawless. I kept a good track of my checkpoints, contacted all the right radio/radar contacts at the right times with no issues, stayed generally on course, got there almost exactly when I expected to, and best of all I had one hell of a greaser landing where I couldn't even tell when I had finally touched the ground. It was a hell of a lot of fun, despite my attention being split 5 different ways.

There were two things of interest for the flight out there...First of all I was almost on top of the airport before seeing it, so I did a teardrop turn away from teh airport to drop some altitude and make the appropriate entry to the pattern. Just as I was entering I heard an experimental call he was midfield for my runway (which is where I was at the time) so I had to call to clarify because I couldn't see him. Thankfully he saw me, did a 360, and we didn't have any issues.

Even though I had another 3½ hours of fuel and the ride back to BMI was only about 30 min, my instructor wanted me to top off the tank. So I pull up next to the tanks, ask the guy there for fill'r up, then went to pay...with no wallet. I had left my wallet and all my money at home. oops. So I didn't get a top off - not a big deal, but I think my money will be on the top of my checklist from now on.

The flight back wasn't bad. I did get a little distracted and vered off course a little bit. Not enough to get lost, and I figured out where I was and corrected the issue before I got back to BMI, but it messed with my ETEs quite a bit so they don't make much sense now. The end of the flight was finished with another beautiful landing. Not quite as great as the one in Canton, but it was still very smooth.

Thoughts and Impressions

• Lots of fun


• I enjoy the process of figuring out where I am, where I want and need to be, and figuring out how to get there.


• I look forward to having flight be as natural as any daily activity.


• I really want ot get paid to fly


• Central Illinois is flat


• I need to improve on many aspects of my flight planning and general awareness before my checkride.


• I always have great landing when my instructor is not there...what gives?



Brian @ 23:25 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 23
Flight Time: 1.6
Total Flight Time: 38

Went to Kewanee today. Between BMI and EZI there was a river...THAT's IT! A few towns on the way, but that's it. I stayed on course for the most part - and when I got off course, I figured it out fairly quickly.

Tomorrow I will be doing a solo cross country to Canton (not Ohio). I'm looking forward to it. More then.

Brian @ 16:26 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 22
Flight Time: 1.7
Total Flight Time: 36.4

Earlier this week I was supposed to do my cross country to Kewanee. The weather had other plans...The midwest was hit with a huge storm and when it came by central illinois, the main system was just north of peoria. Kewanee is northeast of peoria. So instead of doing the cross country, kevin and I went up to practice crosswind landings.

The odd thing is that when we started on the normal approach runway, I was all over the place, unstabalized, and generally ugly. As soon as we switched to the other runway for x-winds = nice landings. So now he's cleared me for 10kt x-winds. I really like comming in upwind wing down now - at first I wasn't comfortable with it, but I felt like I had more control than the straight in landings I did earlier in the day.

Then thursday I was supposed to do my xc again, but storms were brewing AGAIN in Kewanee! So Kevin brought up the option of going to Canton - which wouldn't have been a bad idea, except by the time I got off work, got to the place, started and finished my flight plan, it would have been late and I had things to do. So I had to scratch THAT xc as well. My next flight is monday and I'm preping a flight plan for both kewanee and Canton. Somethings gotta give.



I'll be editing my post about the Chicago A&W show in a few...While looking for videos of it I found a great one from a few years back of the Thunderbirds show in Chicago. Great music, and a few awesome clips flying between the buildings. (I don't imagine they let them do much of that anymore...) It's on my Video page, but here it is as well.

Brian @ 12:47 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Sunday it was canceled because of this...



Gary airport was the staging airport for the planes performing in the A&W show (excludin the B1, B2, and Buff). I'll have more later about the show for the mayor there on thursday night, but figured I'd get those pics up now.

============

EDIT (Aug25)
SO! The thursday before the A&WS the mayor holds a private airshow at the Gary airport, where they keep the aircraft. The -15 went up and did some very nice and impressive flybys. When he took off he did about a 555 degree pullup. I joked you could probably go see the scortch marks on the runway. =) He did this again on saturday morning when we went to watch them leave and come back to the A&WS.

The A-10s put on a nice demonstration as well which included some pyro. There were also a few T-38s from Sheppard AFB. Ironicly, I hope someday I'm am flying one of those -38s I saw today. The T-38s are training aircraft for pilots in a fighter track. While all the planes were impressive, right now the -38s are my main goal.

The highlight of Thursday was the F-18E Superhornet. I haven't seen the superhornet up before, but it was a good looking machine. It tookoff after it was already night and had what looked like glowing decals on the sides of it which was pretty impressive to see at night going 500kts.

The highlight of the weekend happened on saturday. Let me set this up for you...
I was listening to ATIS, which broadcasts information for the pilots about weather, general notices, and airport conditions. Part of the ATIS message said that taxiway D and a particular hanger were closed for construction. I looked, saw no construction. I didn't think about it later until talking with my father who told me that the F-22 was being held in an "undisclosed location". 2 + 2 = what again? 4. Sure enough, 12:30 rolls around and the F-15 preps for flight, as does the P-51. Then 1 o clock on the dot we hear what we think is the -15 at the end of the runway about to takeoff but see a splittail. The -22 did a humble takeoff and turn towards Chciago, but was still very impressive to see. After the show, the -22, -15, and -51 came back in formation and did a geritage flight and a few passes before landing.

Those were the only pictures I had because we didn't have the camer on thursday or saturday - and sunday it was canceled because of rain. Next year I'll remember the camera. =)

Brian @ 16:05 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 21
Flight Time: 1.4
Total Flight Time: 34.7

Winds: 150@12. Remember a few posts ago when I said landing in wind sucks? Well, landing in wind SUCKS! The flight was good, but I had the worst landing so far. On my first approach I hadn't realized how bumpy it would be - I got about 30 feet from the runway and had to go around. on the next time through I controlled it pretty well right up until the landing...flared hi, dropped like a rock, fell on my ass with a big thud. I held my breath for a second hopeing the prop didn't fall off, then taxied to the ramp. When I opened the canopy I asked the lineman if the tires were still on. =)

Those stories about seeing pilots getting out and kissing the ground? That was almost me. I may have to cancel my cross country tomorrow, but I'll update about that if/when it happens.

Brian @ 17:39 | comments(0) | Permanent link

My father recently sent me a prayer to keep with me durring my flights...

Dear Lord,
Thank you for allowing me to soar like an eagle
The skies are volatile, yet you make them calm

Let me fly with safety and wisdom
Keep my words straight
My ears and eyes alert
Make me keen to sense danger
Grant me courage to remain calm
And wise to avoid all blunders

Keep your saving grace over my craft
Let your angels fly with me
And allways be with me.
Amen

I am a mommas boy, this was always obvious. I am also my fathers son, which has become more apparent in recent years. I am blessed with a great family.

Brian @ 02:14 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 20
Flight Time: 1.6
Total Flight Time: 33.3

First cross-country: Finished!
Pretty much all my prep was done this morning. I got there at 8am, and didn't get up until around 11. The flight went well. I didn't have much of a problem staying on course...my largest issue was keeping up with times and checkpoints.

No pictures, no video, nothign exciting for you folks. I have a solo flight wednesday and another xc on thursday, after that I can get to work on my solo xc and test prep.

Brian @ 14:30 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 19
Flight Time: 1.4
Total Flight Time: 31.7

I hadn't flown in over a week. I was having withdrawls. My landings were again safe, even though they wern't always pretty. The sunset was amazing.

The turn coordinator doesn't work. I made a note of it to the desk fearing it would mean the plane was grounded for my cross country tomorrow morning. Kevin said it's been doing that a bit on and off and shouldn't be a problem for tomorrow. whew! SO I have my cross country tomorrow and I'm hoping I have everything done the way I should have it... I'm stressing quite a bit about it actually. We'll see how well i pull things together. I'm not worried about getting there, I'm worried about filling out the paperwork!

I'll have a lot to say tomorrow probably. Until then, take a look at the new picture I put up from my flight today. The complex near the pond is my office.

Brian @ 21:03 | comments(0) | Permanent link

So my site has been all types of jacked up lately. I think a bug got onto my network, and I'm trying to hash things out with it now. Either that or my ISP sucks - very possible.

I am quite angry.

/angryface

Brian @ 17:48 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 18
Flight Time: 1.5
Total Flight Time: 30.3

I really wanted to do my cross country today, but wasn't quite prepared. I've been busy the last week or two so haven't really had time to study. I wish this was my job.

I'm preping a xc from here to Kankakee. It's a 60 mile trek that shoudl last only about a half an hour. I flew a bit of the flight today, but I can only go out 25 miles, so didn't even hit halfway. On the way out there, I was cruising at 4500 feet. Until now I've stayed under 3500, and the day was clear and beautiful. It really was amazing flying today.

Pretty borring stuff to read about though. Hopefully I'll nail down my xc next week.

(check it out, I hit over 30 hours now!)

Brian @ 00:37 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 17
Flight Time: 2
Total Flight Time: 28.8

I had a lot of fun on this flight...
I decided to head out to the Pontiac VOR and do some work with that. I did pretty well and even busted out my chart to try and recognize ground references. It was a fun exercise that I hope to get more practice with soon.

After a bit of tracking I headed outbound on the 024 radial and ended up where I suspected I would - Lake bloomingon/Lake Evergreen. Someone else was above evergreen practicing, so we agreed to stay on our sides of 51...I did the normal stuff - steep turns, slow flight, blah blah. The only thing to tell was that when I did a turning right stall the wing dropped way more than I had planned - maybe 70 degrees or so. I recovered within about 200 feet, and without any issues, but it certainly got my heart going and I let out a chuckle for a few minutes after that.

There was a bit of a crosswind when landing - not too bad, but it was gusty. I landed her pretty well all but one or two times, and even those were decent.
I really enjoyed this flight.

I managed to take a minute of video...Somewhat borring, but in central Illinois your limited to a field, some grass, or the occasional silo.

Brian @ 20:00 | comments(2) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 16
Fight Time: 1.5
Total Flight Time: 26.8

Short story...I needed gas at the beginning of the day and there was suspicion that I ran it to dry last night. That's not true and I beleive there may be a leak in 802s system somewhere.

Long story comming after I go swin. I need to relax.


EIDT: ok, well the long story...
Yesterday I checked the gauge. It said 3/4 full. I checked the tank, it also said 3/4 full. With a 24gal tank (actually a bit more, but for ease of calculation it's 24) I should have 18gal at 3/4 full. The max burn at full cruise on the DA-20 would be 5.5gal. The approximate burn in the pattern is maybe closer to 3 or 4. I was up for 2 hours. SO! even at max burn for 2 hours, thats 11gal. 11 from the 18 I started with means I would have had 7gal left. Or about 1/4 of a tank. When I landed the gauge showed just under 1/4. Even if I had misjudged the stick and it was say, 15gal, I still should have had about 4gal in the tank, and being in the pattern I feel pretty comfortable with that.

So this morning when I get to the plane, it's unfueled, and when they gas it up it takes 24.9gal. As I said, this plane holds about 24.5gal total. Which means the tank was dry and the .4 extra was probably the line and/or the mouth to the tank. What happened to the extra gas? I don't know, but I sure as hell didn't put my life at risk by flying until it ran out. I normally wouldn't be as upset, but I purposely came in because I had under 1/4 of a tank so had fuel on my mind. I thought I made a good decision to come in when I did. Instead I kind of got chewed out for not comming in earlier when I know for sure I had gas in it. The worst part about it is that I think there is a leak in the plane. I know that last week when I checked the fuel, one of the drains did not want to close and I had to fiddle with it to shut it off.

Kevin didn't have too much to say, just that a new proceedure will be to have a full tank on the way out from now on.

OK, I feel better now. Next flight is Tuesday, and after that is cross country time!

Brian @ 12:55 | comments(2) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 15
Flight Time: 2
Total Flight Time: 25.3


HAZZY DAY! Clouds at 2700 and mist all around I started my flight by heading north to Lake Bloomingon. I practiced some steep turns, stalls, and some ground referencing. Then I headed over to Lake Evergreen just to check it out. From there I headed south of Bloomington and started doing some rectangular courses, turns around a point, and stalls again. Then I headed in for some touch and gos. There was about a 12kt wind straight down the runway, so every once ina while a gust would knock me around just before I met the ground, but I feel a did a good job.

Just before I started the plane my instructor came up and gave me tickets to a fundraiser dinner at the Challenger Learning Museum. He got them for me, my wife, and also my brother in law and cousin who are visiting us for the week. That was very kind and unexpected.

Yeah, so this is borring today - more after my flight tomorrow morning. I have to start studying for the AFOQT and Cross-Country flights!

Brian @ 20:19 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 14
Flight Time: 2.3
Total Flight Time: 23.3

Yesterday I went up with Kevin for a mini checkride. I did pretty well. We started with steep turns, then went on to slow flight, stalls, engine out, blah blah ect...
Then he handed me gasses to blockout the horizon where all I could see was the instruments. We did some abnormal flight attitude recoverry. He told me to put my head down and he took over the plane.Then he would bank, turn, dive, ascend, basicly throw the plane all around and then tell me to look up (with the glasses still on) and recover. I didn't have any problem determining my attitude, or where to point the nose to get back level, but he did tell me the correct proceedure for it. Nose low = pull power, level wings, level flight... Nose high = dip a wing, level flight, level wings (possibly add power). He then demonstrated why those are used.... basicly you want to avoid overstressing the plane. Being turned around and pulling a bit of negative Gs is fun stuff.

We then started to track VOR radials. Pretty basic stuff, but it sometimes took me a bit of thinking before I caught on. Now that I look back and reflect on it, I think I got it pretty good in my head. When we were on our way back we contacted Peoria and got a radial for an inbound ILS approach to 2-0...I was pretty much oblivious because after over an hour of having those glasses on my head started to bother me.  flew the approach then at 400AGL i could pull them off and land - not a whole lot of time to adjust, but I was pretty much on a good approach the whole way and landed it with minimal adjustment.

We then worked on crosswind landings. We did about 5 or so of these and I did pretty well. Only one was a bit hi, and one was off center a bit, but the others were pretty much right on. For our full-stop he pulled power for another simulated engine out landing abeam the numbers on the downwind. I quickly turned for the base leg to prep a short final and made a very smooth landing.

I enjoyed this flight quite a bit. The best part is that now I can go out to 25nm of the airport on my own and practice manuvers. The next steps will be flight planning and cross-country flights.

Brian @ 12:14 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 13
Flight Time: 1.3
Total Flight Time: 21

I hate 2-0
It's a bumpy runway
It has a hump in the middle of it
Haiku

Touch and Gos in a busy pattern...My landings are going somewhat well. I think I still come in a bit hot though.

Today will be airwork again, and VOR work. Once I prove I can get back to the airport using VOR, I can go 25nm out solo.

Oh, I'm officially halfway to the minimum PPL hours! (not saying I'll get it at 40, but I can hope, right?)

Brian @ 11:45 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 12
Flight Time: 1.3
Total FLight TIme: 19.7

Today I took out 409AM - being the only available DA-20. The stick is more stiff than 802CT - I don't like it. Not that I can use it as an excuss for my crappy landings, but WATCH ME TRY! Most of the time my approaches were pretty good, I lost it at the very end on touchdown. I bounced the plane more times than I can skip a rock. The WORST part was that when my instructor taxied up for takeoff in 802, I came in for a landing WAY too fast and high, leading me to land halfway down the runway. I know I'm going to hear about it tomorrow - which I'm dreading.

While in the pattern I heard about 2 other student pilots on the frequency and realized I handle my radio calls much better than the typical student. Level of skill is all relative, obviously. I'm sure the pilot of the Blackhawk that came in thought the same about me. I actually had to turn one of my touch and gos to a stop and hold on the runway for this guy. So I stopped, and sat on the runway for a good 5 min before the BH went on his way and I was cleared for takeoff again. I seem to always see other great aircraft when I fly.

All in all, not too bad. When I stopped focusing on what kevin had said about 1300ft at the Lowes and 70-80kts, and just started to fly a comfortable approach with a glide speed of 70kts I landed it pretty well. (IMO at least)

Tomorrow I'm back with my baby, 802CT. lol

Brian @ 21:30 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 11
Flight Time: 1.8
Total Flight Time: 18.4


Smooth wind today. I again took Kevin up for a few times around the pattern, dropped him off and I was up almost another hour and a half. My goal today was to come in lwoer than before... I was always comming in too high. I did well, and didn't drop it in hard on any of the landings, but a couple were a bit more nose-low than I'd like.

Cool sites for the flight: a helecopter that looked very similar to a cobra came in for refueling. I dropped Kevin off right next to it and it was pretty nice to see it. Also, I was fairly close to a learjet comming in for landing - I tried to get video of it, but it didn't turn out so well. Oh well, there will be more opprotunities.

I now at a point where I don't have to bug Kevin anymore for supervised solos. I can now rent out the airplane when I want and don't need him there. I hope to add 7-8 hours just this week. It might be rough, but I have a goal to get my PPL in August.

Brian @ 21:00 | comments(0) | Permanent link

In addition to the pictures and video, I also just put up a randomly changing quote section on the bottom right of your screen. Each time the page is refreshed, it will change. I'm a sucker for quotes that either amuse, or make you think. I'll add more as I find them.

My radio link on top also changed. If I am not running my server it will no longer send you to a blank errored page. Instead it will show my playlist from Project Playlist, and you will at least have a selection of SOME music to listen to... If my server is running, it will automaticly bring up a player connected to the server.

My next goal is to redesign and tweek the Message Board. Right now there is no use for it, but I had it there just to play around with. I hope to give it a breath of life soon and hopefully a use and users will form in one way or another.

The peoria airshow was ok - JUST ok. Over half the static displays they said woudl be there wern't, the commentary was dry, and even though at least 2 acts had performed twice in the day, the -16 didn't go up until almost 5 o'clock. We left before he went up. In general, it seemed very unorganize.

Brian @ 13:40 | comments(0) | Permanent link

I finally took down the info for the LAN party and replaced it with some pictures and videos I enjoy. I will be adding many more videos as the day and my boredom progress.

Brian @ 17:35 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flight: 10
Time of Flight: 1.8
Total Flight Time: 16.6 (wow, almost halfway through?!)

Today was another supervised solo...with about 10kt crosswinds. ick. Kevin and I went up for about 5 T&Gs. I didn't do too well - at least according to my standards. I did start to get the hang of lining up though, which is %25 of the battle. I dropped it in a bit harder than I wish to admit a few times, but I think I got progressivly better as they went on.

Like before, I dropped off Kevin and went out on my own. I was up on my own for about an hour just doing touch and gos. Out of about 9 of them, maybe 5 were pretty ugly, 2 were just acceptable, 2 were kind of nice, 6 or 7 were a little high on final, and 2 were low or near right on. Most of them were high, but I feel much more comfortable comming in high and using a few extra feet of runway - I was landing on 20 -AN 8000 FOOT RUNWAY! So I had some room to spare while I get use to this. =)

My patterns, altitude, turns, and general awareness are getting better by the flight. There was one situation where I needed to make a 360 for traffic, a couple to extend downwind, and also a couple calls concerning the C-130s in the area. I handled them as I should.

SO! The C-130...After about 45-50 minutes of T&Gs and making the tower repeat the same thing back to me 10 times, he asked how long I would be because a C-130 was comming in to do some training work. I told him about 2-3 more and I would finish up. So after my last T&G I go around again and prepare for landing, then turn left base for final and in front of me about a half mile out at my altitude I see a C-130 turning left for right downwind. If that doesn't make sense it means while I'm turning for my base/final, it looks like were facing eachother. =) I've been around and in C-130s more times than I can count, but seeing it in the air FROM the air is an incredible sight. We were the only ones in the sky. So I try my best to stay focused, I land and am advised to continue straight to taxi to the ramp to avoid any issues with the -130. I do so all the while peeking outside for the fatboy to touch down behind me.

He was there for a while. After I got back to the ramp he was still doing practice runs, and even when I was on my way home he did a steep right bank turn about 250 feet right above the main road and it was quite a sight. Definitly a highlight of the flight for me - sure as hell better than my landings.


No flights until Monday...I will be at the Peoria airshow on saturday, and probably have pictures posted here then.

Brian @ 22:42 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 9
Time of Flight: .8/.3 = 1.1
Total Flight Time: 14.8
Expected Solo: Keep reading. =)

Well it was about damn time, right?! I got to go up on my own, and I was amazingly comfortable.

First Kevin and I went up for about 5 T&Gs. These wern't the prettiest landings. I bounced the nosegear on one of them. No HUGE deal, but certainly not something I want to do again. After that, the next 2 went pretty well and I taxied to the ramp and let him out. He told me to go around a couple times - my response = "you mean like 5 or 6? right?" *shakes head* "ok, three or four?" and he told me 3 if I felt comfortable...He packed up his things, shook my hand, and said "keep the nose up and be gentle, you'll do fine". With that the canopy was closed and my head was in my checklists.

This is where I made the first of two mistakes I made on my first solo. I qued up the mic with "802CT Student on First Solo, holding short 2-0 at Echo, ready for takeoff"....and got a response back of "802CT, contact Tower on 124.6". My response? *FACEPALM*switch to TWR*Repeat request* This time I hear "cleard for takeoff..." finally. -HELP Heading, Electronic Transponder, Landing Lights, POWER....and airborne.

The flight was easy, just 3 times around the pattern. Here's the sad part, as I mentioned my 5 or so landings with Kevin wern't so great, but these on my own? Beautiful! On my second one I flared a bit too much and gained a few feet, but I recoverred well. My first and last were smooth as butter. I found it was much easier to adjust speed, pitch, and power without someone telling me to, or how to.

So the landing was nice and sweet, and I slow down for the taxiway...and I slow down more....and more... then the prop stops. "(explative), I sure hope no one sees this". Second mistake, didn't give it enough power to stay turning while stopping for taxi clearance. Within about 10 seconds I went through the restart engine proceedure and it was up again, so I guess it was a good excercise to keep me on my toes, but embarassing at the same time. (I don't know why I was worried about someone seeing it when I post it on the internet - *facepalm*) I am greatful my small mistakes happened on the ground and not in the air. I think the thing I'll take away from my first flight revolves around these ground oversights. That is, I need to pay better attention to detail and not let proceedure just become habit for the sake of being habit. That's where things can go wrong.

Here are a few pictures I was able to take. I also did get a few seconds of video after my first solo Touch and Go. Last words = "I gotta go. I have to go land!" Fun times, and I'm looking forward to Wednesday.

Waiting for Taxi Clearance
Turning Downwind
Me at about 1000 AGL
Movie of first takeoff after a T&G

Brian @ 19:51 | comments(1) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 8
Time of Flight: 1.6
Total Flight Time: 13.7
Expected Solo: "Monday...maybe....possibly"

14+kt winds = not fun to land in.
No solo again today, but that's fine. There was way too much wind for me to even want to attempt landing without a saftey net. We started by heading south and doing some ground reference maneuvers. Like before, I did well with my left turns arround a point, but lost it going to the right. I did pretty well both ways while tracking a rectangular course though.

These landings were rough. Some too high, some too low, maybe one in the right spot, and I don't think I can take credit for that one. I have about 5 more questions I need to research on my tests to solo and finally Kevin said it will probably happen on Monday. More then.

Brian @ 13:39 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 7
Time of Flight: 2.2
Total Flight Time: 12.1
Expected Solo: Who knows

Nothing too exciting to report. I stayed in the pattern for just over 2 hours and dealt with landings over and over again. I didn't solo, but I'm ok with that. It was a lot of needed time spent learning landings again. I did much better this time - yet again. Still not "great" but better. I also realized that I need to multitask better. Anytime there was traffic or somethng going on I would loose track of my altitude, and in one case my speed. Lessons learned for tomorrows flight. Now I'm off to go finish my tests.

Brian @ 21:55 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 6
Time of Flight: 2.3
Total Flight Time: 9.9
Expected Solo: Friday?

It feels like forever since I've flown. It was 2 weeks ago, after all...
Two weekends ago I was scheduled, but was sick. It wasn't fun, and I was disappointed.
Then last week I was scheduled for a Thursday and Friday flight. Thursday my instructor had to cancel, and then on Friday my wife had to have oral surgery, so I stayed home with her and canceled that flight. He couldn't fit me in until yesterday.

So after two weeks did I lose all sense of flight and control? It was quite the opposite actually! Somehow I managed to retain all the information I learned from my past lessons, and perform in the airplane better than I have so far.

Maneuvers:
- Take-off. Yeah, it's a necessity. =)
- Steep turns. Left was perfect. Right, not so much.
- Stalls. Performed them well, recovered without hitting the ground. =)
- Slow flight. God do I hate slow flight. It takes constant adjustments and takes forever to do a 360.
- Emergency engine out failure situation.
- Turns around a point.
- S-Turns
- Touch and Gos

I pretty much nailed the EP, except I forgot (and still now forget) the general communication radio freq to call a mayday on if not near ATC. I am proud of the way I handled this. There was an airstrip about 80-90 degrees to my left, about a mile out. (the DA-20 can glide 1.8nm for every 1k ft alt) I was still at about 2000 feet so made a right turn to circle around and line up to the strip - all while going through engine restart procedures. Once I had the strip lined up I started through the emergency landing procedures to shut everything down. My instructor commented on how my turn and line up was good, and also my adjustments for wind correction were right on. I brought her in to about 30ft and we were off for more.

The turns around a point went somewhat well...My left turns were pretty good, but like with the steep turns, my right ones were off. I had to reset myself a few times while going around right. My S-Turns were decent. While in the middle of doing my S-Turns I saw a crop duster plane spraying a few fields near us. Watching other aircraft while flying is a very cool experience. (Hopefully one day I'll be in formation? *cough*AF*cough*)

Ahh...Touch and Go's. I have read that eventually landings will just "click", and yesterday I heard it loud and clear. When we did the EP, I felt very comfortable bringing the plane in and knew if it was a real emergency, I could have landed the it with little to no problems. It was a good confidence boost for when we did go through the pattern. This time as soon as I was lined up I would try to keep my head outside the cockpit and focused on the end of the runway. Compared to when I had done the landings the last few times it was like a blind man seeing! Distance, speed, and altitude was so much better understood and I could better judge how and where I should land. My level off was done much better and my flares/stalls/touchdowns were much smoother.
Other than the habits of where to look, when to make control adjustments, and how much control was needed, I also recognized a few mental techniques that helped my landings. I treated each approach and landing as though my instructor was not there. If your going to walk a tightrope, you'll have a lot more patience, take a lot more time, and be much more precise and careful without a net. So mentally removing Kevin from the seat next to me (while still listening to him) helped me become more patient and meticulous about what I was doing. Surprisingly, I was not nervous. Taking a breath and being relaxed was a huge help. Treating the landing seriously, but as just another thing to do was a good way to keep myself grounded (*rim shot*) and not too stressed about it. My thought process was simply "You got yourself up here, you better get yourself down safe, or gravity will do it for you eventually". Landing is not a big deal, nor should it be feared or made into a big deal.

I am very proud of myself. I am progressing faster than I thought I would. I am picking this up very quickly - perhaps too quickly. With all that said, I still am keeping myself humbled to a point. I was very confident this flight. Now my goals are to be confident in whatever else comes, remain confident even through trouble, realize my limits, and not become cocky or dangerous.

After the flight my instructor said again that I need to finish the pre-solo exam because he wants me up on my own soon. He also said my "hand-eye coordination is excellent, understanding of the maneuvers and material are phenomenal" and that I am progressing amazingly well. The only thing I'm depressed about is that I can't get paid to do this for a living! (yet)

ok, long post, but I'm done. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have some pictures from my solo. *crosses fingers*

(Notice no spelling mistakes this time around?)

Brian @ 13:52 | comments(4) | Permanent link

It's funny how things work out sometimes. Yesterday I got the medical all clear for flying solo, and last night I started feeling a sinus infection and now I'm stuck in bed. No flying for me for at least a few days.

Brian @ 09:12 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 5
Total Flight Time: 7.6hrs
Expected Solo: Soon½

I appologize that I could not get the weather image from yesterday, but here is a cheap recreation of the weathermap durring my flight.

That explains why we stayed in the pattern and just did T&Gs for an hour and a half. This was one of the first flights that I was very proud of my FLYing ability. I kept pretty straight off the runway, my turns had improved quite a bit, and despite the bumpy weather - I kept the plane going where I wanted when I wanted it to go there. That explains my feelings about FLYing the plane, but LANDing it was a whole other story. I couldn;t land this thing nicley to save my life (just an expression). "Right wing down, left rudder.... sure no problem coach! .... umm... crap" might have been my radio transmissions a few times if I didn't learn at a young age to keep my mouth shut in a professional environment. I flare too early, not enough, I can;t lineup with the runway correctly, I can't drop her in nice and easy - when I try I gain altitude. Landing is hard to pickup. I can't wait until it is second nature. On the bright side, experience trying to land in rougher air will help my ability in smooth air. Another great thing was the view. When we headed north you could see the heavy showers. West of us were high dark clouds that blocked out the sun on one of our last T&Gs. Then to the south were thunderstorms that was amazing to watch, even from the pattern altitude. I wish I had the time to take pictures.

This morning I went for my FC3 physical. No real poking or prodding. I had to do a little dance that showed I can walk on my heels, stick my arms in all directions, and bend over. A nurse whispered sweet nothings to me...then I had to repeat the numbers back to prove I'm not deaf. Really it was a "are you alive? yeah? Are you going to die anytime soon? Don't think so? Good." and I was off with a FC3 medical certificate. Go me.

Another thing to mention is a few packages I got recently. I bought Microsoft Flight Sim X and was messing around with that last week. Cool game, but I wanted more. So thanks to Amazon and ebay I got an add-on for MSFSX for the DA-20, the plane I'm flying. It;s pretty realistic - if you have a joystick; intro toy number 2 ----> The Thrustmast Cougar HOTAS joystick and throttle. I've been drooling over this thing for a while. It's a copy of the control sticks used on an F-16 (I beleive all blocks have this same HOTAS system). HOTAS=Hands On Throttle And Stick. I spent a day getting it setup and the next day programming it using it's own programming environment and macros. It's a true pecie of hardware in that you actually have to write code and "upload" it to the device. This is soooo my kind of toy. I programmed a ton of the buttons to do everything I need in a DA-20 and now consider that my off-flying training.

My next flight is scheduled for Tuesday, but I'm going to try and fit one in on Saturday. More then, maybe with pictures.

Brian @ 15:35 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Total Flights: 4
Total Flight Time: 6.2 hours

Manuvers...

1. More turns...
   
2. More power on/off stalls
   
3. Turning stalls - both ascending and descending
   
4. Engine out situation
   
5. Touch & Gos
   
6. slip into final - I didn't do this. Not something I want to try, but it was fun to ride along.
   
7. One landing (no kidding, right? I'm not posting this from the air!)
   

Overall, I did pretty well. I need to work on my altitude adjustments, I did MUCH better with that today. Next time I'm up I want to work primarily on T&Gs. I am still starting my flare too early, but I am getting better.

My instructor said if I get my FC3 physical done and am able to take the solo test I might be soloing next week! He also said he thinks it's possible for me to get this finished in about a THIRD of the time it normally takes students!

I am very excited about his comments, yet I'm not letting it get to my head. I know I've only scratched the surface of what I need to know. It feels so good to be doing something I love. I haven't really had that in a very long time.

---

Here are a few pics from the air museum outside my training FBO

An F-4 Phanton and an A-7 Corsair II
The A-7 and an F-14 Tomcat. I was at the airport when this came in last year-beautiful bird
F-14 again.
The F-14 head on
F-14 and an A-4 Skyhawk
Me with a stupid look on my face as I take a picture of (1)My AOPA hat that came int he mail today (2) My watch I posted about and (3) My new headset.
Did someone say JATO?

Brian @ 19:52 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Well, first we did some slow speed turns and stalls to go over what we had covered. I can't imagine people spreading flight training over a year. I went 4 days and couldn't get the thing to turn the way I wanted it to. Granted there was a bit of wind-but I'm a perfectionist, so I always expect more of me.

We did some turns around a point - I suppose I didn't do too bad. I stayed around the point and by the second time around I started to pick up wind correction. Then we did some terrain following excercises following roads in a box pattern. With the high wind I constantly needed to correct myself and my crab wasn't really done right. I'll again chalk this up to it being my first time, but I was pretty upset about not getting it.

We also did an engine out situation again...This time I didn't quite freeze, but my checklist in my head was a bit jumbled. My first priority in my head is to try and restart the engine. Really it should be to fly the plane. "maintain coordinated flight, 73kias best glide speed attained, fuel, mixer, throttle, fuel pump, key". Is that it? Damn that sounds a lot like landing minus the fuel pump and add in the landing lights and seatbelts. I need to read more.

We then took a nice flight back to the pattern to do a few touch & gos. These were pretty good. Then for the final full-stop I landed it with no assistance. It was a bit flat, but not too bad (the tires were all still attached and we were in one peice). It's a very nice feeling to finally get a full landing done in rough wind (well, the roughest I've flown in) with your instructor not touching a thing.

My radio calls were all done well - I will need to study the airport map a bit for taxiways though. Also ATIS is still hard to understand. I feel pretty comfortable with communication.

All-in-all a good flight (we're back on the ground safe) but I was really disappointed with myself. Joanna keeps reminding me "it's only your third time up, hun" but I always get upset when I don't get something right away.

One other note - I got my headset just before I left for the lesson. It looks sharp, it works well, and the phone feature will be nice someday when I'm able to use it.

Quotes for the flight
-Practice makes you better.

Brian @ 13:01 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Today I got one of the new Skyhawks in Titanium. It's a bit darker than I had hoped for, but still looks very nice. I did find a black one like the picture I had in the poll, but it looked a bit bulky next to this (despite the dimensions being negligibly smaller)

I'm quite happy with my purchase.

Brian @ 22:57 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Now it's AFTER 5am, and I'm still tweaking things. Breaktime to bring something up and ask for help. I spent the day searching for a watch I might actually NOT mind on my wrist.

I have been drooling over one of the Citizen Sky/night hawks for a few years now. They have a flight calculator ring on it, typical features of a newer watch (chrono, date, etc...), it can display the time in ANY timezone, is reasonably lit at night, and runs on eco-drive technology which transmits light into energy for the watch - meaning never a dead battery. I have heard nothing but great things about this watch, and probably over 90% of the pilots I've seen talk about watches have one of these. It's retailed at about $475, but I can get this for less than $300 on ebay. While it looks sharp, it doesn't look very classy, or the type of thing I'd wear to a very nice dinner. It is a bit bulky, but the black one gives the impressing of beign a bit smaller

Next up is a Tissot T-Touch Watch. If you know me, you know I love anything with a touchscreen - and this watch has it. If you enable the touchscreen (face of the watch) you push on different areas of the watch to enable that function. The functions/displays include your typical ones like a chrono, alarm, and date/time variations. This thing really attracts me to it because of the Compass, thermometer, barometer, and altitude display. Not only are these features pretty cool - but did I mention it has a touchscreen? This also looks very nice - it is very classy and is nto bulky on my skinny wrist at all. Two bad points for this though, and they're both big ones... First of all, it's $650. That price is too steep for my watch budget right now, but my next point makes it even less attractive. Most of the forums/reviews I've seen have everyone complaining about how after a short time this thing quits working. I've read things ranging from the hands getting stuck in compass mode, to the touchscreen not working, and even to where the touchscreen gets permanatly se on, as if someone was constantly pushing it. How valuable is a good looking paperweight?

You can see pictures of both watches in the poll on the right. If you have a suggestion for a flight watch reasonably priced please make a comment about it.

Brian @ 05:06 | comments(3) | Permanent link

It's almost 5am, and I'm still coding. Not good.
I just finished a bunch of modules for various purposes; some you will see, some you won't, but all are keeping me up late into the night/morning.

The layout changed ever so slightly you may not notice it initially - but I'm a perfectionist.
My details page for the LAN party now pops up in this window. I would have to rename a lot of vaiables if I want to pull that registration page in as well - so that won't be done for this LAN Party...

I also setup an email form so you do not have to load up outlook or copy my email to your email interface of choice.

I spent a good part of the night (morning) getting an ASP based mail system running on my computer to accept and also SEND emails through pop3 and smtp servers. All seems to work now.

I also recoded most of the admin section. Yeah, I know you don't care. =P

I really should get paid to do this...

Night

Brian @ 04:38 | comments(0) | Permanent link

wow.

Manuver rundow:
-Startup/Taxi/Takeoff. All on my own. =)

-Stalls are not nearly as frightening as I thought they would be. You feel the nose go down as though you have no air under you, dip the nose a bit and hit the gas *WALA* your back up and running.

-Engine out situation. he cut the power, said "Your engine just died, what are you going to do"...What I wanted to say was "push the throttle back because you only pulled it to idle, duh" WHat I really said "drrr...*blank stare*". What I was thinking but didn't say for fear I was way off, "find a nice place to land - that highway looks good!" we basicly did a near touch and go on one of his friends landing strips in farmtown. It was a good check for an "Oh Crap" situation so that if the real thing happens I don't freeze.

-VFR Navigation...After that he said, "ok, get us back to Bloomington. Do you know where we are?" which is a tough question because (A)I've never been south of Bloomington (B)Everything looks the same here anyways (C)Even highway 55 looks like a backroad from 3000 feet (ok, 2900-3100 feet, I need to work on my elevation control). After finding 55 I stayed ontop of it heading north until we got into Bloomington airspace.

-Touch and Gos. I did about 8 of these. I understand the concepts and basics of everything, but I'm not so good at the timing of my flare. I still feel like I'm heading straight down at 70KIAS and want to pull up too soon. It's a common thing to feel for a student pilot I imagine, but it's something I know I'll get over.

Before my impressions, I'll paraphrase my instructor so you get some appretiation for my extreme excitement.

• "We've gone through all the manuvers so far, and you've done an excellent job with everything"


• "You already about meet the requirments for a checkride" (!!!!)


• "Really your just about ready for your solo. One or two more time and I'm gonna set you loose!"


• "You flying skills are excellerating faster than your knowledge"


• "I'm actually pushing you quite hard"

As for my impressions? "wow" kind of sums it up. To hear the things he was saying was both exciting, and frightening. I think I did an ok job. I demonstrated everything he showed me and told me pretty well. I do still have a problem with keeping altitude. I keep hearing "keep your nose up" yet I then keep hearing "don't gain altitude!". So I know I have so much more work to do. When he said he was pushing me hard I told him to push harder because it didn't seem like he was. When he mentioned that I might be ready to solo soon I think my heart skipped a beat. I've flown this thing twice! Apparently all my reading is paying off-still his comment about my ability maturing faster than my knowledge is an issue. I need to read and learn as much about the tests and checkrides as I can.

I did kind of screw up at one point - after we landed and were going through our post flight checklist, I leaned the mixer because my checklist said "Mixture - Lean 1' " Basicly I was supposed to lean it just 1 inch worth, not all the way. That killed the engine - taking the electronics and avionics with it. We had to restart and I learned my lesson. "Don't just read; THINK!"

Before I left I gave him the checklists and documents I had gotten from that IFS program to copy. He likes them more than the ones the school had and will be giving them to his students. So I scored more respect there.

One last thing before I goto sleep...I have this in the mail!

Brian

Brian @ 22:34 | comments(0) | Permanent link

So I finally broke down and got a REAL domain name. http://www.lostlocalhost.com

Localhost is the loopback address for any given computer. It can also be represented by the IP 127.0.0.1. The image of 127.0.0.1/localhost above was taken from a background I've had on my computer for years now. As a background image, it was appropriate. LOCALhost was displayed on my LOCAL computer. No domain name I could think of with my nickname or radio show name (Fuse/FuseBOX), or old nickname (Rubix) was available or sounded good, plus I already had that image on the site, so I used it. Being on the web = not so local = lost. Hence, lostlocalhost was born.


Now to expand like crazy on this place. Starting with a spellcheck for my blog posts. Then work will be done on the forum to make it actually interesting to go into.

Plans Later Tonight: Flight Lesson #2.

Brian

Brian @ 14:10 | comments(0) | Permanent link

Woohoo! I'm officially a student pilot! I had to push back the lesson about an hour and a half, but thankfully my instructor was flexible. 6:30 I get there and we get right to work on the preflight. I've read too much about this plane, yet there is quite a difference from reading to doing. I asked a few questions, and stumped him on at least one I think, and yet I still have a few more. I want to know everything possible about whatever plane I fly. It's the overbearing, power hungry person I am I guess.

So when we're done with the outside preflight (took about 30 minutes) we jumped in and I surprised my CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) with a checklist I "borrowed" from the Air Forces new IFS (Introductory Flight Screening) program. IFS was recently put into place to screen new pilots for the AF before going to UPT...anyways, they use modified DA-20's, which is what I'm training in. So we get through the checklist and taxi out - which I was worried about. I had heard through AOPA some interesting stories of "your first taxi ever". I wasn't quite doing S turns over the line, nor was I steering with the stick, so I think I did pretty well. Then he told me how to handle the radio calls - I slipped a bit here and there, but not too shabby for a first timer.

After runup we're cleared for takeoff...Gunned the prop, grabbed the stick between my knees, and pulled ever so gently back at about 65KIAS. Peice of cake. Gained altitude by speed keeping at about 65KIAS until we hit 3000ft, where we did all our manuvers.

Started with basic 20, 30, and 45 degree turns. Wow I have to get use to watching OUTSIDE the airplane. I was so fixated on the instruments, I think I could have passed my instrument checkride today. lol After about 8 turns or so I started to pry my eyes away from the instruments for a few seconds at a time to (A)reference the horizon, as my CFI kept "suggesting" and (B)Take in the sights. In the distance I could see a windmill farm I had been to on the ground and saw how far out it stretched. The world is beautiful from the air.

So after a few turns he demonstrates something I was looking forward to...stalls. He demonstrated 3. All of them gave a bit of -Gs, yet the recovery was very quick. Thursday he said I'll be practicing stall recoverry myself. After he demonstrated those we did some slow flight turns - as in about 10-20 degree turns at about 50KIAS. Pretty darn difficult to keep control and I kept pushing the limits and overbanking a bit.

Fast forward to the landing...ugh, I basicly brought the thing in to land right up until the last 50 or so feet. It was odd me bringing in the plane that far into landing, but I enjoyed it. I was really so focused on not hitting the ground that I couldn't really enjoy it at the time as much as I wish I could have.

Things I feel I need to work on

• Radio Calls
  
  1. First time was decent, but I just repeat what I'm told to say
     
  2. Thank god this is a small airport. Not a lot of radio traffic
  
  
• Taxi
  
  1. I think I'll nail this the next time around
  
  
• General Flight Stuff
  
  1. Get my eyes out of the cabin and into the clouds more
     
  2. A few times I got distracted and vered off course a bit. Not by much, but enough to bother me
     
  3. Slow speed turns. I need to experience more to get acustomed to them
     
  4. Rudder control. When I feel myself turning, I do well. Otherwise, not so well. I'll nail this one down soon too
     
  5. Landing. The most important one of all, and also the most difficult. Well, at least landing safely.
     

Things my instructor said

• I'm doing well for my second time flying a light aircraft
  
• I'm ready to tackle stalls and an engine out situation on thursday...He trusts me, great.
  
• He beleives I might just be able to get my PPL in August. This meant a lot, it's basicly saying he thinks I have show some aptitude and ability in learning to fly already.
  

My quote of the flight
Reading about flying for years and doing it for an hour are two completely different things. They're not always related to eachother either.

---

Pictures

Something in the logbook!
DA20-C1 I fly. Great looking plane
DA20-C1 from the front
Instrument panel
The instruments I couldn't look away from!
Leaving the flightline. (I need to shave, I know)

Brian @ 23:13 | comments(0) | Permanent link

First of all, if you got here interested in the Party I'm throwing on the 30th, check the link uptop. If you don't know about it, check it out anyways. Alcohol, Games, Music, Good people = Good times.

This blog is the latest result of many tweaks and alterations to my home server. (shh, don't tell my ISP) It will serve primarily as a conduit for my thoughts and impressions as I go through something I have been waiting for what seems like forever for...Flight training.

No, not military flight training, at least not yet. A simple Private Pilots Licence for now. If I have nothing to post about it, well then I guess this will be pretty borring - but hopefully I'll take enough pictures to keep at least my family entertained (hi family *wave*)

Yesterday I received all my material for the comming months of being a bookworm when I'm not at work, working out, or with my wife. I've already been through one of the coursework books all the way through, memorized some of the boldface for the DA20, and some of the ops limits for it as well. This is more than my instructor had mentioned I'll need for tomorrows first lesson, but I like to be ahead of the game.

Tomorrows Plan: Basic Intro
Thursdays flight plan: Possibly Stalls *Big Grin*

I will have more tomorrow after the lesson, possibly with pics.

Feel free to email me, or even better, post comments at the bottom of my blog posts.

Brian @ 20:34 | comments(0) | Permanent link