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Entries are listed oldest-to-newest. 
15-SEP-2000 - After a 12 year absence, I am resuming training for my private pilot certificate with MVP Aero Academy at Weiser Field. Ground school started on September 12, and my first training flight since WAY back in high school is Sunday. I can hardly wait!
18-SEP-2000 - I couldn't believe how much I remembered once I got in the place and actually started flying. I think both my instructor and myself were equally impressed. The biggest area needing work?...LANDINGS of course. I still did pretty well considering the heavy crosswinds.
22-SEP-2000 - Flying was rained out yesterday The last 2 Thursdays I scheduled to fly were rained out. Maybe I should change days! Oh well, we'll try again on Sunday.
25-SEP-2000 - Oh well, I made it up on Sunday. We did some more crosswind landings and extra pattern work. There were about 3 planes practicing at the same time. We had a little "excitement" when this jerk in a T-6 Texan decided he wanted to cut in front of the smaller planes so he could land. He was announcing his intentions, but he would never acknowledge our transmissions. As soon as I would announce something I was doing, with this annoyed sounding voice he would immediately say he was doing the same thing I guess even in flying, it takes all kinds. I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. After all, I've never had to do a 360 on final to avoid another plane!
I'm going on vacation in a couple of days through next Monday so I won't be flying for over a week. I hope to get on a more consistent schedule when I get back.
21-OCT-2000 - Since the last time I updated, I've flown 4 more times, bringing my total hours to 9.1. We've done tower work at Sugar Land, and crosswind landings at Weiser. Sometimes, I don't think Weiser has anything but crosswind conditions! I've also done power off stalls, simulated engine emergencies, and slow flight. Not to brag, but since my instructor was telling folks, on my slow flight I deviated less than 2 knots and 50 feet (total) in altitude on my first try. Anyway, just a lot of repetition on some things, and complete success on others on the first and subsequent tries. My instructor is ready to let me solo, but with my hectic schedule this past month, I haven't been able to get my 3rd class medical yet. Anyway, that's enough for now. I'll let you know when I solo (again).
5-NOV-2000 - Well, it's been a couple more lessons, but I finally soloed today. Weather hasn't been the most cooperative for soloing the past couple of flights. In fact, last week we split the lesson to let some showers pass through the area. Finally though, everything worked out and I made 3 full stops, sans instructor today. My landings have really improved, and all in all, today may have been some of my best landing work. Pattern work wasn't my best, but there was lots of turbulence. I know that there'll be good and bad days to follow, but all my landings today were better than any others I've done so far.
The time change really sucks when you want to fly twice a week. I guess I'll have to see if I can leave work early every now and then so I can fly during the week.
Here I am after my first solo:
18-NOV-2000 - A few more flights have come and gone, along with a couple more short solos. This week, my instructor put the foggles on me. For those you you that don't know what "foggles" are, think of wearing a set of wraparound glasses that are opaque (fogged) everywhere except where the bifocal lenses would be. They make it so the only thing you can see is the instrument panel! That was a nice challenge, but above all the most exciting and fun thing we've done were the "unusual attitudes recoveries" while wearing the glasses. Imagine going for a roller coaster ride with your eyes closed, then in the middle of it, being told to look up and figure out which way you're pointing! It was great fun. I didn't get dizzy or sick, but my ears sure popped a lot!
Anyway, I'm cleared to solo everywhere except for towered fields. If the weather cooperates on Sunday, I'll get that clearance as well. If I can keep up the pace, I'm on track to get my license in January. Although with the weather, short daylight, and holidays, I'm not holding my breath. -
20-NOV-2000 - Well, yesterday my instructor had wanted to take me down to Sugarland Airport to practice landing on their big, WIDE runway. Earlier in my training, I had been flaring too soon at Sugarland. I think the huge runway was throwing me off, and messing with my height-perception because it was so wide (100 feet). As I began to taxi, she announced a change of plans and said that we would go to Hooks instead. As I started flying and got closer to Hooks, I understood why. Hooks has 2 parallel runways. One runway is over 7000 feet long and 100 feet wide (like Sugarland). The other is only 4000 feet in length and 35 feet wide (like Weiser) By now, you might have guessed what happened... As traffic permitted, she had me land first on the small runway, then next on the big one, and back and forth. My landing proficiency had already improved since my last trip to Sugarland so I did pretty well. Overall, it was a good experience.
With all the radio chatter around Hooks, and constantly having to change my traffic pattern, that got tiring pretty fast. After about 30 minutes, we departed the area to the SW, then headed toward May Field, where my instructor simulated an engine failure. After a couple of landings there on the grass, we headed home and called it a day.
As an added note, the air temperature was in the 50s. That's the coldest that I've ever flown an airplane before. I was amazed at how different the performance was compared to earlier in the year with temps in the 90s. The airplane wanted to float forever.
27-DEC-2000 - Today I was looking around and realized that over a month has passed since I last updated the site! There hasn't been just an abundance of flight going on because of the less than spectacular weather around Houston. This month, I've logged 4 flights totaling 7.5 hours (2.2 solo) and 18 landings. 5 of those landing were at night, so with 5 more I'll have my night requirements finished. I've also gotten in a couple of soft-field takeoffs and landings, since one day the plane's nose wheel strut was a little "flat" to say the least and we wanted to take it easy.
One of the flights was a short cross-country up to College Station on the 23rd. Visibility left something to be desired and at around 2000 feet, it was probably the bumpiest flight I've ever experienced. All in all it turned out well. The conditions kept me pretty busy just managing the airplane and maintaining my course so there wasn't much time for computing groundspeed or distance off course. I think for my next cross county I'll hold out for no ceilings and unlimited visibility! Since I can't resist, I also have to say that there really wasn't much to compute anyway because I hit my ETA's pretty close.
Next up: More instrument and soft field practice. I'm hoping for some "unusual attitudes" as well!
15-MAY-2001 - It seems like there never is enough time to update a web page, so here's a short summary since December. I obtained my Private Pilot License on April 13, 2001. For those of you with a calendar, that was a Friday, but it was Good Friday, so everything turned out OK! I made a 97 on my written test about a week before and the oral was a piece of cake. The whole shooting match lasted from 9:00am until almost 4:00pm, but it went by pretty fast. It was a great experience. The practical took 1.6 hours.
Anyway, a lot is going on. We have a baby due in September and that's been a breeze so far. I hope that trend continues! I'm working on getting checked out in other aircraft to see what I like the best. So far I've checked out in the Archer and I'm scheduled for a Cessna 177 Cardinal checkout this week.
That's all for now. One day I hope to go back and fill in all the blanks from my flight training. Right now, I'm just having fun!
12-JUN-2001 - Well, Cessna Cardinal checkouts went fine. As usual at Weiser we had some strong crosswinds that made for some interesting landings, but I never felt totally out of control. The instructor said that she never felt like she needed to take the wheel.
Flying the Cardinal is a blast. Things happen a little faster than in the Warriors and Archers and sometimes I still feel like I'm playing catch-up but I'm sure that will disappear with a little more time. After all, I only have about 5 hours in the Cardinal but more than 50 in the Warrior, so I'm still in transition.
I'm going on my first cross-country with my wife on Friday. We plan to fly up to Athens, TX to watch a horse show, then come home that evening. It was even her idea, so I'm pretty excited that she wanted to go since she's not a big fan of small planes. I guess since the round trip flying is quicker than one way driving, she liked the idea, plus the Cardinal is really roomy. That's good news for a woman who's almost 7 months pregnant! I hope to be pushing around 140-145 MPH, so that will make it pretty quick too.
A final note. I received my best compliment during my first ride in the Cardinal. After the flight, the instructor said, "I look forward to flying with you again, it is so nice to fly with a well trained pilot." I've gotten quite a few good compliments on my flying at the airport, but that was my favorite. Thanks go to my instructor at MVP, Shikha Gupta.
That's all for now. One day I hope to go back and fill in all the blanks from my flight training. Right now, I'm just having fun!
23-JUN-2001 - We made the trip to Athens in the Cardinal last Friday and had a lot of fun. It was one of the smoothest flights I've ever had. While en-route, we were doing 145mph TAS. It was a pretty day after the rain passed over that morning. Melanie had a good time too, so that's good to hear. I just can't say enough about Cardinal N34244. I need to go back every now and then and fly an Archer or Warrior to stay in practice but I'm not really looking forward to it. Compared to the Cardinal, those low-wings are a workout! (no offense to any Piper fans). One sad note though, the Cardinal's owner said that he eventually plans to take if off-line. I'll have to strike a deal with him!
This might be my last flight entry (but maybe not). The archive page is getting longer each time. Plans for now include just building more hours in the Cardinal and any other interesting planes that I see. I submitted my application to the Southwest Flying Club based out of David-Wayne Hooks airport. They have a waiting list that is up to 2 years long right now, but we'll eventually make it. I'll just keep building my hours for now so I'll be ready to fly their two Skylanes (fixed and RG) when a slot opens up. I'm also trying to decide when to start my IFR training. I'll decide after the baby is born in September.
19-SEP-2001 - Not a whole lot of flying news lately. Our first child was born Sept 11, 2001, so pretty much everything has been centering around that. With the terrorist attacks and all, VFR flights are still prohibited, so I couldn't go fly even if I wanted to! I guess I need to look into starting that IFR training soon. Anyway, up until the baby, I just flew around the local area since I didn't want to get too far away. There's nothing wrong with a little sightseeing and practice every now and then anyway.
On a humorous note, the last time I went flying, it was really wet after raining for several days. I flew around in Windsock's 172, and then came back to park it. I was watching one of the young guys who work for Windsock giving me hand signals where to taxi. Unfortunately, he taxied me right over a soft spot where the left main gear promptly sank in the mud up to the hub. After that, there wasn't much to do but shut it down right there and go get the camera. No harm was done, I and I've been told that I'm not the first person to sink a plane in that spot. Here's the results:
16-FEB-2002 - Well, if you visit this page any at all, you've noticed that I haven't been very good at updating it regularly. I guess that's what happens when you have a 6-month old at home! He's a lot of fun and I still find plenty of time to fly. Lately, I've just been flying different airplanes, having fun going for $100 hamburgers, and trying new things. Today I experienced the most exciting thing yet in an airplane...SPINS! I went out in a 150 with one of my favorite instructors and performed a dozen of them. Simply to say, it was a blast! Plus, I now have a new method to lose a lot of altitude really fast! (Just kidding)
Next up in my flying endeavors is to get my instrument rating. I finished the ground school a couple of weeks ago and I intend to start the flight training pretty soon.
24-AUG-2002 - Well, if you visit this page any at all, you've noticed that I haven't been very good at updating it regularly. I guess that's what happens when you have an 11-month old at home! He's a lot of fun and I still find plenty of time to fly. Lately, I've just been flying different airplanes, having fun going for $100 hamburgers, and trying new things.
Next up in my flying endeavors is to get my instrument rating. I've already finished the ground school and I intend to start the flight training later this year (after it cools off a little). I'm also awaiting an open slot in the Southwest Flying Club. I got a call this week that said I'm next in line for the next open slot!
18-MAR-2003 - They say, "Better late than never." That's got to be my motto on updating my web page. What's changed since August? Let's see... Cale is now 18 months old and I've been an active member of the Southwest Flying Club since the middle of September 2002. I still haven't started my instrument training yet, but I still intend to this year. A membership in the Civil Air Patrol for myself is planned somewhere here in the confusion. Cale has been on one trip in the club's 182RG and seemed to enjoy it although I'm not sure if he really knows that he was flying. He was strapped in his car seat and really couldn't see out. We flew from Houston to Ft Worth and although he stayed awake all the way there, on the trip home that afternoon he slept all the way from gear up until I got out to refuel the plane back at home!
Assuming that a war with Iraq doesn't ground General Aviation again, we're flying out to Carlsbad, New Mexico to see the caves in May. Until then we'll just be making some shorter lunch and dinner hops to get all 3 of us used to traveling in the plane together. Mommy really wants to sit in front so she can see better and help with the radios and stuff so we want to get Cale used to his headset so he'll sit in the back and leave it on. Until next time...
27-MAY-2003 - Let's see, what's been going on since March? I guess we've just been using the Club airplanes to have fun. We've gone for dinner once or twice at Brenham, visited relatives in Caldwell, and flew up to Nacogdoches to take care of some cows my dad has there. There was a lot of helicopter activity up there because they were still working on the Shuttle recovery efforts. Yesterday I participated in Windsock Aviation's first annual Poker Run. It was a lot of fun flying with other airplanes to different airports collecting cards for our poker hands.
For the big deal, the first weekend of May we took our first small vacation using a GA aircraft. We took the club's 182RG out to Carlsbad, New Mexico to see the caverns. There are a few pictures (out of the over 150 we took) over on Cale's picture page. On the way we stopped in Midland to visit the American Airpower Heritage Museum of the Commemorative Air Force. FiFi, their B-29, was there going through its annual inspection and that was interesting to see. Its starboard wing flap was sitting on a set of stands. It was as big as the entire wing of our 182! The Museum had a lot of good information to go through, but there weren't just a lot of airplanes to look at. Our Lone Start Flight Museum in Galveston has a much larger collection onsite if you want to see warbirds.
05-MAY-2004 - Well, it's been almost a year since I updated this page so lets summarize. On the flying front I got my Instrument ticket on January 27. Man, if you don't have that rating and you really want to use an airplane, then get it! I've only taken a few small trips since January but one of them was a lot more fun in the clear sky above the clouds at 5000 feet than bumping along below the dreary, low visibility junk at 2000 feet! On another one of them, we wouldn't have even taken off because of below-marginal VFR at the destination, but an instrument approach made it a non-event.
We had a second son on April 3, 2004. He was born at 3:33am. Big brother loves his little brother and we're a big, happy family.
As they say, "...a little rain must fall", and unfortunately we had our thunderstorm. My mom was killed in a car wreck in October when somebody crossed over the yellow line on a two-lane road over a bridge. She didn't have anywhere to go and they hit head on and it was over instantly. Mom never drove over 65 MPH and when both of the full-size pickups hit, the impact drove her truck backwards 50 feet. The other guy died a little later after a little suffering. 15 minutes earlier, multiple calls had been made to the highway patrol to report a reckless driver going at a high rate of speed and they were out on the road looking for him. Unfortunately they couldn't find him in time.
Anyway, we're all moving along. It's hardest on Dad to lose his wife of 33 years but I think he's doing well. He retired in January so he's trying to get out and do all the things he never had time to do because he was at work all day.
The biggest thing I've learned in all of this is, don't wait. If there's something you want to do, no matter if it's to go visit some new location, start a hobby, or change careers, then get started now. You may not have as much time as you think. Having said that, stay tuned. I've started working on my Commercial license now. I'll try to post updates when I start the flying portion later this month.
05-MAY-2004 - Well, it's been almost a year since I updated this page so lets summarize. On the flying front I got my Instrument ticket on January 27. Man, if you don't have that rating and you really want to use an airplane, then get it! I've only taken a few small trips since January but one of them was a lot more fun in the clear sky above the clouds at 5000 feet than bumping along below the dreary, low visibility junk at 2000 feet! On another one of them, we wouldn't have even taken off because of below-marginal VFR at the destination, but an instrument approach made it a non-event.
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