LoLPilot
Line Up and Wait
I am finishing some of my cross country requirements for my IR, with about 7 hours to go. I've been trying to fly with friends and do some fun VFR stuff since I have all of my hood time I need - then I'll do my three hours of prep time with my instructor before my checkride.
One of my pilot buddies and I took my school's 172RG for a cross country flight yesterday to scout out an airport that looked fun. It was a few firsts for me. My friend is IFR already so we went VFR over the top by finding holes in clouds. He said if we get trapped we can get a pop up clearance and get down below the clouds. We ended up having some good holes in the cloud cover and it was a cool view out the windows. It was also my first actual grass takeoff and landing. Yes, almost to the end of my instrument rating and yesterday was the first time I've landed an airplane on turf. It was a ton of fun. I also made one of the best crosswind landings I ever have after fighting some mechanical turbulence and a little bit of shear on final. It felt awesome to be able to feel the mains do a staggered touchdown and then have my buddy say "NICE landing!" considering he has 3x my total flight time.
I added the flight to my logbook. I'm still a neophyte at 150 hours. We got dinner after the flight and we both brought our logbooks into the restaurant with us rather than leave them in our cars. I started thinking about what all is contained in there. Yesterday's flight is contained in one line, showing the date, type, origin/destination, # to's and ldgs, remarks, and time. A few scribbles and numbers sums up an incredible experience with a good friend. I started thinking about all of those lines of scribbles and numbers. Each one of them means a recorded flight and some accrued time to the FAA, any examiner I may have, and to any other pilot. To me each one is intrinsically connected to a memory. One of those, on July 24, 2015, has "First Solo!" in the remarks section, and records 6 takeoffs and landings, with 0.5 hours PIC time. It's a short entry, but looking at it I can still remember how the sun filtered through the windscreen when my instructor pulled a walkie talkie out of his bag and said "those three were good. Think you can do three more like it by yourself?" Another one in February reminds me of a high overcast and snow on the ground, with me being lost on my long solo xc for my private before discovering that I was right over my second stop. Another line was flying two of my friends from college to dinner, who had never been in a small plane before, to dinner.
Anybody else ever think on how much is contained in those little lines of letters and numbers, to the people who wrote them?
One of my pilot buddies and I took my school's 172RG for a cross country flight yesterday to scout out an airport that looked fun. It was a few firsts for me. My friend is IFR already so we went VFR over the top by finding holes in clouds. He said if we get trapped we can get a pop up clearance and get down below the clouds. We ended up having some good holes in the cloud cover and it was a cool view out the windows. It was also my first actual grass takeoff and landing. Yes, almost to the end of my instrument rating and yesterday was the first time I've landed an airplane on turf. It was a ton of fun. I also made one of the best crosswind landings I ever have after fighting some mechanical turbulence and a little bit of shear on final. It felt awesome to be able to feel the mains do a staggered touchdown and then have my buddy say "NICE landing!" considering he has 3x my total flight time.
I added the flight to my logbook. I'm still a neophyte at 150 hours. We got dinner after the flight and we both brought our logbooks into the restaurant with us rather than leave them in our cars. I started thinking about what all is contained in there. Yesterday's flight is contained in one line, showing the date, type, origin/destination, # to's and ldgs, remarks, and time. A few scribbles and numbers sums up an incredible experience with a good friend. I started thinking about all of those lines of scribbles and numbers. Each one of them means a recorded flight and some accrued time to the FAA, any examiner I may have, and to any other pilot. To me each one is intrinsically connected to a memory. One of those, on July 24, 2015, has "First Solo!" in the remarks section, and records 6 takeoffs and landings, with 0.5 hours PIC time. It's a short entry, but looking at it I can still remember how the sun filtered through the windscreen when my instructor pulled a walkie talkie out of his bag and said "those three were good. Think you can do three more like it by yourself?" Another one in February reminds me of a high overcast and snow on the ground, with me being lost on my long solo xc for my private before discovering that I was right over my second stop. Another line was flying two of my friends from college to dinner, who had never been in a small plane before, to dinner.
Anybody else ever think on how much is contained in those little lines of letters and numbers, to the people who wrote them?
