"Ground, Cessna One Two Papa."
"Cessna One Two Papa, go ahead."
"Cessna One Two Papa, we're here on the ramp requesting taxi via Bravo to runway one nine for a VFR departure to the Northwest"
"Cessna One Two Papa, you are cleared to taxi via Bravo, runway one nine."
"Cleared to taxi via Bravo, runway one nine, Cessna One Two Papa"
*A Few moments later*
"Tower, Cessna One Two Papa."
"Cessna One Two Papa, go ahead."
"Cessna One Two Papa, on the ramp at runway one nine, ready for a VFR departure to the north west."
"Cessna One Two Papa, cleared for take off. Winds at..."
"Cleared for take off. Thank you, Cessna One Two Papa."
That was the beginning conversation between myself, ground control, and air control before I took off on my last lesson. A typical routine conversation between many pilots and air traffic controllers, but this conversation happened to be my second. Ever. My novice to the field of aviation is still apparent, and will be for quite sometime. But I have found that the more you immerse yourself into its realm, the more you will be able to find yourself speaking the language. This past week, I even compelled myself to memorizing the entire phonetic alphabet:
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliette
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Zulu
It was easier than I thought. I just had to give my mind a task to do involving these letters, rather than sitting in a chair staring at the same words over and over again. So I found that task- license plates. Driving around, or walking through a parking lot, You can see all kinds of license plates, each one with their own individual sequence of letters and numbers. I would look at each plate and from memory, attempt to recall each phonetic letter and use it as a call sign instead of a plate number. Stupid? Yes. Did it work? You bet.
Before I continue, I need to put it out there that I'm not devoting my entire blog to discovering flight, but as it so happens, that's what I'm focusing on as a life long learner at this point. I have a few other posts coming on different ideas, but they will happen in good time.
Now, back to flying. I now have four and a half hours logged of flight time, and things are starting to get interesting. For the first time ever, or at least it felt like it to me, I had complete control of the airplane during my last take off. Once you get into your groove, you'll find that the process is pretty easy to follow:
Line up on center line. Make sure your front wheel is straight. Full power. Use rudder to keep aircraft going down center line. Airspeed at 50 kts, pull back on the yoke to rotate the plane up. Keep pulling back slightly. Plane lifts into air. Continue climb. Maintain an airspeed of 70 kts. Level. Trim.
It's that easy. I may have left a few things our for redundancy, but having that experience of being able to have the controls to yourself without corrective input from the instructor is a bit intimidating and liberating at the same time.
The plane is getting easier to fly, and all the time we're learning new things: Stalls, slow flight, steep turns, more stalls, using the instrument panel, the list goes on and on. The more time you spend in the plane, the more you learn.
But it hasn't been friendly skies the entire time. I have subjected myself to my own personal scrutiny of wondering why I am doing what I am. Why am I spending copious amounts of money for something I have no idea which direction I am going to take after I have earned the credential? Why can this plane be so hard to fly sometimes? Why is some of this stuff going over my head? Am I wasting my time and money? Personal evaluation is important in everything. I have always known myself to be overly critical of myself.
Regardless of what I put myself through, I also need to step back and ask myself these questions: Am I enjoying what I do? Yes. Is what I am doing fun? Yes. Am I accomplishing a goal that I have set for myself: Yes?
Three yeses. That seems worth it to me. Although at this point, Im not sure where or what direction this is going to take me, but as I written before, we don't know where life is going to take us. We don't even know what is going to happen tomorrow. The best we can do is enjoy the ride.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Defying Gravity
August 15, 2010. Flight lesson two. 1.8 hours logged of flight time. It seems that the newness of the brilliance and shine of the first lesson has worn itself off. This being my second time in the cockpit, I got up in the aircraft somewhat accustomed to the settings, and the feeling of what it was to be inside of this plane.
With a smile on my face, I can say that my first time up in the air as a pilot was everything that I expected it to be. Being at the controls had become an accomplishment, and a dream come true. Although I am still naive about the whole field of aviation, the sound of the engine rumble, and the shake that it sends through the entire plane just as you are holding short of the runway is without a doubt exhilarating.
Although I can recount my first time going up, it would take way too long to account for it in this blog. I will make it short by say from the time the wheels lifted off of the runway, a smile had crept its way across my face.
This Cessna is an older plane. An '81 152 Model. While still a bit uneasy about it being so old, once in the air, I learned that she's still airworthy. As it is, there is still plenty of lessons ahead of me. After all, it was only my second lesson that I just completed. This flight training has been a dream come true. I am still a bit anxious. There is a lot to learn, and at this point, I'm intimidated by it. There's the medical certification, the oral exam, and written exam, all before you can get the "entry" level license. That's just the way it is.
Still, I look forward to this experience, what I am going to learn, and the experience that I will encounter. Some scary, some happy, but all worth it.
With a smile on my face, I can say that my first time up in the air as a pilot was everything that I expected it to be. Being at the controls had become an accomplishment, and a dream come true. Although I am still naive about the whole field of aviation, the sound of the engine rumble, and the shake that it sends through the entire plane just as you are holding short of the runway is without a doubt exhilarating.
Although I can recount my first time going up, it would take way too long to account for it in this blog. I will make it short by say from the time the wheels lifted off of the runway, a smile had crept its way across my face.
This Cessna is an older plane. An '81 152 Model. While still a bit uneasy about it being so old, once in the air, I learned that she's still airworthy. As it is, there is still plenty of lessons ahead of me. After all, it was only my second lesson that I just completed. This flight training has been a dream come true. I am still a bit anxious. There is a lot to learn, and at this point, I'm intimidated by it. There's the medical certification, the oral exam, and written exam, all before you can get the "entry" level license. That's just the way it is.
Still, I look forward to this experience, what I am going to learn, and the experience that I will encounter. Some scary, some happy, but all worth it.
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Life Lesson: Keep Your Options Open
As often as we like to make up our minds about things, one of the things that I have learned through the course of my life is to keep your options open. Yes, we like to make specific decisions (or at least I do) about what kind of car we want to drive, what type of clothes we wear, what are we going to eat for supper tonight, the list goes on and on and on. Sure, these are small things, and we can make decisions on small things. The point that I am trying to make is that we need to embrace the ambiguity of life.
Throughout the course of my experiences in life, I have come to learn that humans are life long learners. That is to say we have the capacity to learn something new everyday. One way I would like to illustrate this is in a personal experience of mine.
For about two years now, I have been developing a keen interest in aviation. I can't exactly explain it either, but I am simply amazed at the corporate world of flight. Airports run so efficiently, it takes me back to my days of theatre, where during production, the theatre is pretty much a well oiled machine. It just goes. Plane come in, they land, passengers board, plane takes off again. But it's not just that. The aircraft themselves. The sleek look a plane's angles. The scream of a jet engine. The sheer engineering marvel that we can take a piece of metal and make it fly. Astounding.
In my years of grad school, whenever I found myself to be stressed out, or if I just needed a change of scenery, I would go out to the Norfolk airport for hours, and watch the planes fly in and fly out. When it came time for breaks, I would book flights home instead of driving 6 hours. I would even look for layovers, just so I could get on another plane and experience the exhilarating feeling of takeoff and flight. But it didn't stop there. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent sitting in front of a computer watching YouTube videos of nothing but planes at airports. I think I'm pretty much hooked.
But before all of that happened, the very reason I became interested in aviation was because I flew to Pennsylvania to visit a friend to fulfill my other passion- theatre.
I didn't know that I would become fascinated by planes. Frankly, I was terrified at first, and a bit foolish. I can still remember asking a ticket agent what it was she just handed me- my boarding passes.
So I think the point of this entry is that you never know where life is going to take you. I went to UNCA because I wanted to do drama. Then I wanted to become an RA. I didn't know that that would lead me to a Master's degree. I didn't know that visiting a friend would inspire an appreciation and interest in aviation.
This Sunday, I continue to pursue that interest. I will be making my first flight as a student pilot, in my very first flying lesson. Hopefully by December, I'll be able to fly with my Private Pilot's License. It is a dream coming to fruition.
So, keep your options open. You never know where life is going to take you.
Throughout the course of my experiences in life, I have come to learn that humans are life long learners. That is to say we have the capacity to learn something new everyday. One way I would like to illustrate this is in a personal experience of mine.
For about two years now, I have been developing a keen interest in aviation. I can't exactly explain it either, but I am simply amazed at the corporate world of flight. Airports run so efficiently, it takes me back to my days of theatre, where during production, the theatre is pretty much a well oiled machine. It just goes. Plane come in, they land, passengers board, plane takes off again. But it's not just that. The aircraft themselves. The sleek look a plane's angles. The scream of a jet engine. The sheer engineering marvel that we can take a piece of metal and make it fly. Astounding.
In my years of grad school, whenever I found myself to be stressed out, or if I just needed a change of scenery, I would go out to the Norfolk airport for hours, and watch the planes fly in and fly out. When it came time for breaks, I would book flights home instead of driving 6 hours. I would even look for layovers, just so I could get on another plane and experience the exhilarating feeling of takeoff and flight. But it didn't stop there. I cannot tell you how many hours I have spent sitting in front of a computer watching YouTube videos of nothing but planes at airports. I think I'm pretty much hooked.
But before all of that happened, the very reason I became interested in aviation was because I flew to Pennsylvania to visit a friend to fulfill my other passion- theatre.
I didn't know that I would become fascinated by planes. Frankly, I was terrified at first, and a bit foolish. I can still remember asking a ticket agent what it was she just handed me- my boarding passes.
So I think the point of this entry is that you never know where life is going to take you. I went to UNCA because I wanted to do drama. Then I wanted to become an RA. I didn't know that that would lead me to a Master's degree. I didn't know that visiting a friend would inspire an appreciation and interest in aviation.
This Sunday, I continue to pursue that interest. I will be making my first flight as a student pilot, in my very first flying lesson. Hopefully by December, I'll be able to fly with my Private Pilot's License. It is a dream coming to fruition.
So, keep your options open. You never know where life is going to take you.
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