First Passenger

October 17th 2010.

Took my first passenger up on a flight today, and of all people, it's my sister! Despite her claims that she is scared of flying, she loved every bit of our trip, and when she wasn't to busy taking pictures of herself, her nose was plastered to the window.

I picked her up at Lake Lawn Airport (C59) and brought her back to Poplar Grove (C77).

Here are some pictures- (Click to view full-size)

Saying goodbye to Grandma!









All strapped in..









Off we go!









Thanks for reading!

Taylor

Private Pilot ASEL

It's been quite some time since my last post (over a year!)

Wanted to stop in and say that on October 9th 2010, I earned my Private Pilot Certificate!

I was nervous when I got to the airport and was waiting for the examiner, but once we got into the sky, all my nerves seemed to go away!

The check-ride got off to a late start, and by the time I did my final landing, the sun had almost disappeared from the sky.

Left to Right
Examiner Bob Schmelzer, Me!, Instructor J-P Dixon


Stay tuned for more of my travels!

Taylor

Private Pilot Written

Hey everyone, On October 1st, 2009, I took my Private Pilot Written exam.

My Result:

85%!

I must say I was nervous going into the test, and am really happy with the score I got!

I went flying a few more times as well, knocking out the last 1.2 hours of SimIFR that I needed. We did some Unusual Attitudes and VOR Tracking, Standard Rate Turns, Climbs, and Descents. Fun Stuff! I even did .6 of that at night!

I'm back off to the airport tomorrow to finish off my last .9 hours of PIC time and I'll have all the requirements needed to take the checkride! Which is just around the corner!

As of now my schedule is as follows:

This Weekend: Dual/Solo flight
Next Week: Mock Oral
Same Week: Mock Checkride

Before Thanksgiving: Checkride!

I'm definitely very nervous, however I am very excited.

Stay Tuned!!

Taylor

Huge Update!

Hey everyone,

Long time no post! We left off when I went over to Rockford to practice talking to ATC, well, it's been a long time since then and quite a bit of stuff has happened,
-Towered Solo
-Dual Cross Country
-Dual Night Cross Country
-Solo Cross Country
-Solo 3 point Cross Country
-Short Field Takeoffs & Landings
-Soft Field Takeoffs & Landings
-Unusual Attitudes
-Intro flight in Piper Warrior out in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

We are now getting close to crunch time, and I'm hoping to have my Private Pilot License by the end of September! My ground school is just about finished, just one more lesson to go and I'll start my practice tests. I'll be glad when the written is over!

Well that's all for now, I currently have 50.5 hours logged, with 9.1 PIC time and a total of 123 landings.

Stay tuned!

Air Traffic Control

Hey Everyone, Long time no see!

I've done two more flight lessons now, all involving ATC or Air Traffic Control work.

On 10/19/08 I flew up to Janesville with JP and got my first taste of communicating with Air Traffic Control. I was pretty nervous and stumbled on my words a lot but I suppose that's better than not being able to talk at all! We did A touch and go and then a Full stop landing to work on Communicating with Ground Control as well. I made a few mistakes that day. I accidentally called Janesville Ground "Janesville Tower" and I could't quite understand what He said when I was cleared for Take-Off, so I had to have him say it again.

On 11/1/08 we flew to Rockford and got to deal with an Approach Controller as well. This time around was a WHOLE lot easier. I was talking with the Appr. Controller without a problem, and the tower was the same way, I'm not sure what was so different about it. I guess I just had a fear of talking to someone on the radio rather than the General Traffic. Glad to know I got over that nice and quickly. We did 2 Touch and goes and 1 full stop landing and then headed back to Poplar Grove where my landing was... well..... we won't go into that.

Next time I go up I might solo at Janesville :)

As of 11/1/08 I have a total of 15.5 hours of flight time Dual and still 0.5 PIC. Total number of landings to date - 46

See ya next time!
Taylor

FIRST SOLO!

Hey Everybody! Yesterday was the "BIG" day. I got to do my very first solo! I was pretty excited. I first went up with JP to practice stalls again one more time in case it happened in the pattern and then we practiced a few landings.

After that we were taxiing back to Runway 30 to do another take-off and JP said, "I want you to do three full-stop landings" He then opened the door, hopped out, said Have fun and see you when you get home.

Then I was all alone, I turned around and called the take-off on the unicom and took to the skies with just myself and the plane. What a difference! The plane is lighter and handles a lot differently. It climbs quicker, turns quicker, all that stuff. My first landing was a little wobbly and kinda hard. My second landing was a tiny bit better, although it was more of a three-point then it was a flare. My third landing was probably the best, I could have flared a bit higher, but hey, to late now right?

I taxied back to the parking apron and got out where I got my solo certificate and a T-Shirt. It was a great day, No winds, No clouds, I'm glad it worked out in my favor. However guess what? What a day to forget the camera right?! Oh well, there will be other chances.

Thanks Guys!

As of 10/4/08 I have a total of 13.2 Dual hours and 0.5 PIC (Pilot In Command) hours.

My new total number of landings is 39.

Till next time-
Taylor

Under The Hood

Hey everybody, barely managed to go flying today! It was raining pretty good but it held off just long enough for me to get up there! Today we practiced flying in "IFR" conditions. I put on a mask that restricted my view and I had to fly solely of watching the instruments. It was pretty fun and really different.

We practiced how easy it is to get disoriented when you can't see outside the airplane. We did a 360 degree turn in two minutes and by that time my body felt like we were flying straight and level. When J-P leveled the wings for real it felt like we were corkscrewing to the left. After we practiced more turns and a climb or two we headed back to the airport.

Before we landed we went up as high as we could to do our own little weather report. We climbed right up to the ceiling and recorded how high up it was and what the visibility was. We entered the pattern at 1800 feet and made for the approach. I took over on base after I took the mask off and made the turn to final and called it on the unicom. J-P never touched the yoke after that. I made what I think is probably my best landing to date. (Un-Assisted that is).

As of 8/23/08 I have a total of 10.9 hours logged and a total of 27 landings.

Till next time-
Taylor