Celebrating One Year of Flight
It has been one year to the day since I first took to the skies with an instructor to begin flight training. In that time, I have logged 82 hours in the air and earned my private pilot certificate. I've flown the standard Cessna 152, Cessna 172, Glass Cockpit Cessna 172 (with all digital instruments), a Piper Arrow, and a twin engine Piper Seneca. The twin normally rents for $300 an hour plus $50 an hour for the instructor, but they ran a special for a while where you could take it out for $200 for the first hour, so I jumped on it just for the experience. I can train in that airplane with an instructor towards my multi-engine rating, but I can't rent it solo until I have 500 total hours, so it was just for fun at this point.
Overall, I'm proud of my progress. Looking back I believe this is one of the best things I've ever done for myself. I'm constantly learning, and I'm still excited about the idea of someday sitting in the cockpit of a commercial airliner. Growing up I always had the dream of learning to fly, and always looked on airplanes with a sense of awe and wonder. Unfortunately I didn't have a mentor to guide that dream to reality. Over the last year I've been stumbling my way through the process mostly on my own. I do have my instructor to look to, and a great support system in my friends and family, but still nobody to really connect with who has been where I want to go and can show me the way. One of my goals this year is to find a mentor who can really help me shape a path for the future in aviation.
The other great thing is that the dream got me back in school. I'm a reasonably smart guy, and I can get by with my own research and intuition, but the college is great to fill in the gaps and bring up topics that I normally wouldn't spend time with otherwise. It's not exactly been challenging from a mental standpoint, but trying to juggle a full-time job and full-time school (with flying on the weekends) has put stress on me in other ways. To combat this I'm switching from in-class instruction to a more self-guided on-line program. It's the same degree program through the same school, but the delivery is more flexible and self-paced. Most of the time I spend in class is, for me, wasted listening to the instructor go over the same things over and over again for those who don't learn as quickly as I do. Most of the class is lost, and I'm ready to move on to the next topic. With the on-line instruction I will be able to learn and complete my assignments without having to wait for everyone else. In the grand scheme of things I will not be able to move through the program more quickly, but I will be able to have more free time after work to focus on other things.
The rest of this year I will be focusing on learning everything I need to know to pass the written exam for my Instrument Rating. I still need a lot of "hood" time flying in simulated instrument conditions before I really start getting into my instrument training with my instructor. To that end I've been sharing some time with another pilot to cut down on the hourly costs. We're usually flying a slower airplane, so trips take a little longer which results in more hours logged for both of us. I still have a long way to go. The plan is to keep building hours and study for that written exam. Once I have the knowledge and hours in place, I'll jump into the instrument training with both feet without a lot of interruption.
Looking back I've had a lot of great experiences, and I'm looking forward to the next year of continued training as well.
0 comments - Posted by Justin Scott at 10:20 PM - Categories: Flight Training