Tuesday, June 1, 2010

After a nice break, I'm back in the air.

After Thursday's photo flight, I had to go out of town for a few days. Got back very late on Sunday night, and spent the day with family for the Memorial Day holiday. I had been scheduled to fly with Francis Monday night, but the weather just wasn't up to par (low broken ceilings with moderate to heave rain all over the area and thunderstorms brewing on the horizon).

I did get to fly with Dustin this morning, around ten. He is still doing well. The flying is great, and we are starting to work on some advanced landing techniques. I think that he will certainly solo before the end of the summer. My main concern is with some of the ground school stuff, however. We are now going to meet twice a week - once to fly and once to work through the other material.

Speaking of ground school material, Francis needs to take his written test as well. And the pre-solo test. As soon as he brings me the pre-solo test filled out, I'll sign him off to solo, and if he doesn't bring it soon, I'll sit down and do it with him in the office. He is more than ready, and will do a great job. We need to get him soloed, on a couple cross country flights, and then off to take his flight test for his private license. I'm really proud of him, and its really cool to think back only one month and see the progress, especially considering that I've been his primary CFI. We are both happy, and I'm looking forward to seeing a polaroid of the two of us next to an airplane get pinned to the wall in the next few days.

Tomorrow I'm staying busy. I'll be doing some cross-country planning and flying with John, a guy my age I have talked to a lot around the airport. His CFI is busy and gave us the green light to work a little. I'll fly with him to Parkersburg in the morning, then he will fly there and back by himself in the afternoon. At 4:30 I have a new student, and Francis again at 6. Meg and I are going to get up early and have breakfast before I go, because its looking like I'll be gone the entire day, 8 to 8 at least.

It could be worse, at least I have work to do. Actually, I'm very happy with what I'm doing. It would be nice to be able to be picky about when I have to fly, but that will come someday. Right now its still unreal that my job is to fly airplanes, and I love it.

2 comments:

  1. Hey, I just wanted to let you know... I'm a very young PPL, and I really look up to you. You are an inspiration. I'm still networking like mad at my local airport. I go to college next year, and I'm hoping I can still continue to work my way up the aviation ladder to become a CFI! You are awesome! Keep the blogs coming when you can!

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  2. Hey, thanks! I'm certainly trying, lol. Its tough, but the work has paid off so far. An important thing to remember is to not let yourself get into any debt if you can help it. I have almost none, but a lot of guys are miserable after paying for all their ratings with loans, then trying to pay it all back on very meager, entry-level wages.

    Have fun and stay safe!

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