Flight Time: 2.7 hr.
Total Time: 50.4 hr.

This was my long XC, which was actually 0.1 hr. shorter than my "short" XC. ;) It was a gorgeous day. Matt wanted me to not waste any time, because they were expecting showers around Ocala in the afternoon. They ended up staying much further south, and most of my trip was with unbelievable gorgeous skies, especially for FL in mid-July. The first two legs, I stayed low (3000'), expecting the clouds that were in the forecast. No problem with the EVB-SGJ leg. Just said student pilot as usual on each initial callup, and I fretted a little bit during the taxi back to runway 31 at SGJ. (We used 13 last time I was there, and the taxiways are a little more complicated at the 31 end. (Nothing too complicated, but I was still a very wet-behind-the-ears pilot. Now I'm only slightly wet-behind-the-ears. ;) )

I took off and headed for OCF. I actually got the same JAX controller over central FL, and chatted with him for a short bit. I was offered a direct routing, but I said that I wanted to follow my flight plan, and I needed the XC time anyway. Aside from the added stress of heading into an uncontrolled field - EVB has me spoiled with the tower, and I probably only had about 10-15 landings at uncontrolled fields up to that point - I landed at OCF without any major issues.

I taxied back to the beginning of 36, and was soon airborne. I did have one interesting thing on takeoff. OCF was probably around 95 deg. at this point (a little after Noon). The heat of the runway made a nice mirage making the runway look about half as long than it really was. It freaked me out for a second or two, until I realized what it was. After I passed near Leesburg, I asked the controller for 5,500. The clouds were not around yet, and I wanted to enjoy the smooth air and cool temps. I landed back at EVB without incident.

Flight Time: 2.8 hr.
Total Time: 47.7 hr.

Some of my problems getting my XC in have already been detailed back when it was happening. Matt came back and endorsed my log book, so I wouldn't have to use Andy's endorsements. He left for a vacation, anyway. This time, I had the planning done, and the weather was pretty good. I left in the morning, so the usual scattered to broken layer had not formed yet. I flew to Lake City (LCQ). It was a pretty good trip. I was able to stay up around 4,500', and I even chatted with a JAX controller on the Saturday morning. There were some clouds forming in over LCQ, but I was able to easily get under them before landing. I forgot that the tower was closed on the weekends, but after calling the unicom, I was reminded of that fact. I did the landing with no major problems, and then proceeded over to the FBO to close my flight plan and stretch my legs.

Heading back, the good ol' Florida clouds layer had formed. No precip, at least at that time of day, but I had to head back under the clouds at about 3000', where it was warmer and much bumpier. (At least it won't be like it was in Sep and early Oct where the clouds still often formed but over 1000' lower. Later, I'll get to my trip to Naples and had to head across FL at 1,700'.) No problems getting back into EVB, and I had just done my first solo takeoff and landing at another airport and made it back.

Lesson Time: 1.7 hr.
Total Time: 44.9 hr.

This was my prog check for solo XC's. As you can see, it took a while to finally get it in. I did a short ground session with Eran, one of the assistant chiefs, which I passed with flying colors. For the flight portion, I did pretty well. We transitioned through DAB's airspace to the north. The only problem I had was I was cleared to go up to 3,500', but I could only really do about 2,500' VFR. I stopped climbing and I was late talking to ATC. I also told them I couldn't maintain VFR to 3,500, but I didn't ask the controller for 2,500. That's when he came back asking what I wanted to do, and I asked for 2,500.

When we were headed towards Palatka in the middle of the state we did a diversion, and headed back towards Flagler. I had some problems computing my groundspeed at this point. We did a landing at X47, and proceeded back to EVB. Everything else was fine, and I was cleared to go on my solo XC's.

Lesson Time: 3.1 hr.
Total Time: 43.2 hr.

This was my a cross country to SGJ and OCF in preparation for my long cross-country. I did it with Andy, another CFI as Matt was on vacation. (As an aside, Andy is now flying freight around the Caribbean out of the Miami area, I believe.) I was late getting my planning finished, once again. The first leg was pretty normal. I used my flight log with dead reckoning up the coast to SGJ. When there we stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the restaurant at the FBO. The next leg, we used the GPS with me hand flying it. We did a quick touch-and-go at OCF, then proceeded back to EVB. We got permission to go through the restricted areas in the middle of the state, and used the GPS and auto-pilot with rental power, as Andy had another appointment to get to. All-in-all, a good flight, and I knew I was ready to do it on my own.

Lesson Time: 1.3 hr.
Total Time: 40.1 hr.

This was my first solo time after my solo. It was weird doing everything without my instructor around, but I'd soon get used to it. I did some steep turns over the shoreline, but it was pretty busy in the practice area (at least for me at the time), so I headed back to do some landings. I finished up proving to myself that I could take a plane out alone, and come home alive. :)

Lesson Time: 3.3 hr.
Total Time: 38.8 hr.

This was my night cross-country. Having recently done my first cross-country and solo, my confidence was pretty high. The planning was good and pretty much on time. Having flown at night 6 days before, I was much more prepared for what to expect. We had some showers dissipating over central FL, so I was just barely able to get the trip in. In fact, we had canceled the previous night's flight because of almost the same conditions.

The trip over was pretty uneventful. I got my first class B experience in MCO's airspace. The only annoying this was trying to fill out my flight log with the low light level in the plane, even with the map light in the control wheel. We landed in PIE, took a little time to switch papers around, then took off. I got a little bit of my first experience with a false horizon and a little false sensations. We took off to the south and did a 270 deg. turn back to the east. At the end of the turn, the sensations made me feel level, and the coastline of Tampa Bay kind of supported it. My AI showed a 5 deg. turn to the right, which was supported by the DG. It's a minor thing, but it's something I carry with me today about trusting your instruments over the feel of the plane.

We headed back to EVB. On the way back, we headed south and flew over Disney World (above the TFR, of course). We then flew over MCO, and headed back up to EVB. There, we did some extra landings in order to get my required 10 landings for the PPL.

Lesson Time: 1.2 hr.
Total Time: 35.5 hr.

This was a simple lesson. It was just to learn VOR tracking. It was one of those normal Florida summer days with clear skies over the coastline, and pretty big buildups starting just 5-10 miles inland. My confidence was sky high from soloing the day before.

Lesson Time: 0.9 hr.
Solo Time: 0.5 hr.
Total Time: 34.3 hr.

I'll include what I posted on CaaM that day:

After 32.9 hours (including my first 2.8 hour cross-country yesterday), I soloed today at about 1000 at EVB. I was actually ready two days ago, but I didn't have enough time left with the plane. I have had some frustrating practices the last couple of weeks where it seems like things just wouldn't come together, especially my landings. Today made it all worth it. :) Here's an account of the flight.

The morning started with a little bit of rain, but it cleared up. My instructor and I went up for some pattern work. After 3 trips around the pattern with some shaky, but safe landings and one go-around where I didn't feel comfortable, we checked to make sure that ATIS was reporting a high enough ceiling for me to solo. The wind was a good 30-40 degrees off centerline, but only at 10 knots, nothing I couldn't handle. The ceiling was high enough, so we went around for two more trips in the pattern. With just 20 deg. of flaps to help with the crosswind, I greased the first, after which he said "Another good one, and you're going up by yourself." The landing wasn't as good, but still pretty good. I was heading back to the ramp.

After some final words, my instructor stepped out with the engine running at idle so I wouldn't have to do another runup. I called ground, and headed out to the runway, by myself for the first time. Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous, as I had done it many times before. After my before takeoff check, I called the tower and was cleared to taxi and hold on the runway. Just as I was stopping, I was cleared for takeoff, and I gunned the engine. First trip around the pattern, I accidentally let it up to 900 feet on the downwind (pattern is at 800 at EVB). Wow, it does climb better without an instructor on board. ;) I came in for landing, with only 20 deg of flaps again, and made a pretty good one. I taxied back to the runway, and was soon off the ground again.

This approach was interesting. There was a CFI and student in a 172, follwed by another first time solo in a 172, folowed by me in N298SP. There was a twin waiting to take off, followed by an IFR jet, who was also waiting for an IFR clearance. I'm sure the controller was sweating a little. I was told to wait for ATC to call my base, while the other two planes went in. My base was finally called when I was almost over the ocean, and the twin took off. I think I handled the long final pretty well. My CFI said that I hit pretty hard, but it didn't feel like I did, but I was a bit sideloaded. By far the worst landing of the three, but not unsafe. It did unsettle me a bit, and I accidentally turned the airplane a little too hard onto the taxiway, and I heard a bit of a squeak from the tires. I also made my big mistake of the flight. I missed a radio call for me while the jet was about to take off behind me. I got off the runway and waited for the other radio traffic to stop, then made my call, so it wasn't too big of an oops.

Taxiing back to runway 29, I took things a little slow to settle me down. Once I was ready for takeoff, I went around for one more trip. This time things had cleared out. After a nice approach, I came in for the landing. I started my flare with a little bit too much energy left, but I let the nose drop a little, and when it was ready, I flared again. I was greeted by a nice little squeak as I greased it! :D I then taxied back as I received my congrats from the tower.

I parked it, and after getting congrats from my CFI, I headed inside to get my shirt cut. This was a HUGE confidence boost that I needed. I've already started night flight and a cross country due to scheduling, with a night cross country to PIE coming up on Sunday. I think in 2-3 weeks, I'll have my Private!

Sorry I let this post go a little long, but I'm sure this will be a day I look back upon for a long time. The smile hasn't left my face yet. Here's a picture with me and N298SP. (Yes, it's getting a little hot in FL. :))

Lesson Time: 2.8 hr.
Total Time: 32.9 hr.

This was my first cross-country. The day didn't start out well. I was way behind on planning (over an hour), but Matt pushed his schedule back and let me finish up. We went to Lake City (LCQ) which has the distinction of being one of the few towered airports without class D airspace. As it was my first XC, I felt a good bit behind of things. Just filling out the flight log took a lot of thinking, along with learning how to talk to the FSS and DAB controllers to pass through their airspace, things that are second nature to me now. All-in-all, it was a pretty good weather day for June, and it was a good flight, although I still had the bad taste in my mouth from the long delay at the beginning.

I can't believe it's been 3 months since I posted to this last. Several times, I was going to post, but I just took the lazy way out, I guess. Well, not anymore. I'm going to start logging my flights on here again. I'm going to make a seperate post for each of them, just to break it up, so expect to see a bunch on here to start out.

Other events in my life have been my mom, sister, and the three kids (2 nephews and a niece) coming down to visit me with a trip to Disney World. It was an awesome time, even though my feet are just now recovered from all the walking. Otherwise, not much else has been going on.

There was a big cell building north of Titusville moving northwest which was just enough to scrub the flight. There's also some smaller showers around EVB, including one that was raining pretty hard when I arrived at the airport. I'll try again tomorrow at 0900.

I finally got around to taking the knowledge test today. I passed with an 88%. Piece of cake. I'll be attempting my solo XCs starting Friday again. Tomorrow, I have to wait for my couch, then go meet up with Matt to get squared away since he is back in town.

I just got a call from the lady working dispatch, and conditions are below student pilot minimums. In the summer in Florida, it is either storming and clear or hazy and dry. Well, it's a little hazy and dry today. The vis is 7 sm at EVB. There's also a scattered layer at 1200 ft. That probably also kept me from going. The stuff up to the north is as good as it could be. 3000 feet altitude would get me there, but it is not meant to be. This sucks.

Yesterday's weather was pretty bad with the front still to the north, but the front came through and is south around Melbourne today. However, there's always those stupid Florida cumulus clouds sitting around 2-3 thousand feet. Add to that some buildups around EVB that popped up in the last 30 minutes right before I was going to go, and the CFI there didn't approve the trip. Lake City was clear, but Gainseville reported a broken layer at about 2300 feet. Of course, they are now reporting less. I probably would have gone, as I don't think I'm going to get a better shot for some time, but maybe it's for the best. I'll try again tomorrow at 1300, as there are no planes available for 4 hours in the morning. Chances are highly likely that I won't go, even with the more favorable weather pattern. Florida afternoons are almost always stormy in the summer. My next chance will be on Wednesday, as I have some business to attend to down south. I have a bad feeling that I won't have my instrument rating in time for Meatball's party. *sigh*

I will be updating my old flights today.

Yikes, I haven't updated this thing in a while. Today, I passed my prog check, and I will be soloing cross-country tomorrow if the weather doesn't hold me back. Over the next few days, I will be making posts with the flights I have done, and getting this thing current again.

Also in my life, my COBRA insurance is running out in a week, and I'm stressing over that. I also wanted to get a dentist appointment in before it went bye-bye, but I let the date sneak up on me, and I don't think I'll get an appointment. (I've tried with a couple of places already.) I let the date sneak up on me, like I do with a bunch of other things. I know it'll all work out in the end, but it's stressing me out right now.

Lesson Time: 2.2 hr.
Total Time: 27.9 hr.
This was a three-hour scheduled lesson. We went out and did some steep turns, followed by flying to the north over the top of DAB's class C airspace. We then did some stalls, which I was a little rusty on, but nothing horrible. That was followed by an engine out into Flagler. One more quick trip around the pattern, and then we stopped for a quick restroom break. We then left Flagler, and went straight home to EVB, transitioning through DAB's class C. We then landed. I had a little trouble on landings with the lesson, especially with my flaring.

Lesson Time: 1.1 hr.
Total Time: 29.0 hr.
This was my first night flight. Boy, it was different. I didn't expect how hard it would be to see the airport lights, and how much different approaches would look. I did a landing in Deland, and a landing over in Massey Ranch. Finally we did some traffic work back in EVB. I wasn't great, but I did ok for my first night flight.

Lesson Time: 1.1 hr.
Total Time: 30.1 hr.
This is the flight I have been waiting for. Just traffic work, but I was confident from the beginning. Six landings total, with a mix of normal, soft, short, and one engine out. The beginning of the flight was different with them reversing the active runway, just as we were on the runway taking off. I got a little confused as we went straight out to 800 ft, then did a right turn to set up base. Thinking about it now, I realized what was being done, but at the time, I couldn't picture it in my head. That landing, we went around, but I then settled things down. The next landing was normal, and I had a bit of an unstabilized approach, but I got it down. After that, things got much better. The engine out, I didn't point the plane directly towards the numbers soon enough, but I still just made the displaced threshold. What I believe was the next landing, I did a soft. It was almost perfect! If you didn't hear the tires do the alight squeak, you wouldn't even realize that I landed. I kept the nosewheel up, too. :) I did some other landings. I had slight problems with the shorts, but nothing serious. We headed back in, where I thought I might solo, but we needed to have about 15 more minutes than what was left available. I also had a slight need to take a restroom break, anyways. My logbook has been endorsed for solo. :) :) :) :)

So, I'm flying my first cross country tomorrow to Lake City (LCQ). Then on Friday, I am flying what should be my solo. :)

My instructor is still sick. I'm heading down to Juno Beach to visit my parents for Father's Day and tomorrow. I'll be back on Monday night, and I should be flying again on Tuesday.

Lesson Time: 1.3 hr.
Total Time: 25.7 hr.

Yesterday was some landings with three engine outs spaced in. I had 5 landings and two go-arounds. We also practiced some shorts and a soft. Overall, I did well, but there were some things that I let slip. During my turn from upwind to crosswind, I was letting my airspeed get too low (below 70 kts). I was also turning about 15 degrees too shallow, even though I was picking out landmarks to use during the turn. At times, I let the plane go up to almost 900 ft in our 800 ft. traffic pattern. At the other end of the pattern, I flew some unstabilized approaches. On the emergency side of things, I did well on the first emergency, but the other two needed work.

Here's the positive side of this. I still feel I was pretty safe with the plane. The flares were still good, although on some of them, I was probably a foot-and-a-half too high and came down a little hard when I ran out of energy. None of my landings would I label unsafe. It's all a matter of polishing things up, and remembering all of them in my head. I'm now juggling more things in my mind to look out for than I was when I first was doing patterns. They are starting to become more ingrained now, and I think that landings soon won't be as hard as they feel right now.

Right now, I was supposed to be preflighting my plane for the lesson that possibly could have been my first solo, but Matt called in sick. I'm still on for tomorrow, and I think it'll be the day. :)

Lesson Time: 1.3 hr.
Total Time: 24.4 hr.

Today, I finally got flying again since Sat. In between, I had two ground sessions with Matt, where I did a flight plan. There was a good wind blowing today, but no rain or strong winds that we had the previous three days due to Alberto. We took off and flew up to 5000+ ft, above the cloud base, but not above the tops. We did some steep turns, which I had trouble with due to the lack of horizon, but that's not a good excuse. We then descended below the cloud deck, where I did some more turns, which I did much better on.

Finally, it was time for a emergency engine out. At the beginning, I did ok, but instead of going straight to Massey, I went to the right of it, "Setting myself up for landing." Dumb. Get over the field, and circle. That put me at Massey at 700 ft., too low to make an easy circle to lose the altitude. Matt took the controls, and put us into a 60 degree turn, with lots of speed. He then did the landing with 10 deg flaps, which still required full rudder deflection. After a short debrief on the taxiway, we did short field takeoff and headed back to EVB.

One mistake I did was forgetting to say that I had information Juliet when contacting the controller. I was a little sloppy getting myself into the pattern, and the wind shifted right at about 50 ft AGL and I missed it, so Matt had to help me with the landing. We then called it a day.

I just mentally wasn't there today. It wasn't as bad as the other day I had about 2 weeks ago, but it wasn't good. Matt had to squawk a lot of things today. I think a lot of it was due to some outside factors, one of which is my eating and sleeping habits. These are things that can be corrected.

I am determined and still optimistic about my training. Bad days happen to all of us, and I still think I'm going to be a great pilot.

Lesson Time: 1.2 hr.
Total Time: 23.1 hr.

Today was my prog check for solo. It was good news and bad news, but I'll get to that in a bit. I preflighted my plane and taxied out. I made one little mistake where after doing the runup at the base of the tower I turned the plane around, and almost took the wrong taxiway to runway 11. I had my airport diagram out, but three taxiways converge there, and I got a little confused as I was turning around. Fortunately, the instructor didn't mention it at the end. :)

We took off with no problem, and headed to the south. We did the clearing turns, and then I put the plane into slow flight. No problem. We did some power-on stalls, but the one wrinkle is that he had me do it with a 15 deg banked turn. I've always done it wing-level. They weren't perfect, but he didn't mention it afterward, so I don't think it was too much of an issue. We then did some power-off stalls, not much of a problem, except Matt and I always went from flaps 30 to flaps 10. (We do the same for go-arounds.) This instructor wasn't pleased with that. That was dinged later. I also got dinged for not being able to physically tell where the restricted area is to the south. I haven't gone that far south, so I knew it was there, but I didn't know where it started exactly. Another small ding.

We then headed over to the west where I had my engine taken out. This is something that I haven't worked on much and it showed. It was also something that Andy (the instructor who I had one lesson with) gave me some bad help. I pulled the "engine out" checklist out, and ran through the checks. No good. I need to have the memory items down, which I do know, but before, I was told that trying to do them from memory was making me rush. Oh well. I also had trouble with making the field (there was a grass strip next to I-95 near where the engine was pulled.) I was too high, and I had trouble with getting the airplane to a proper height for landing. Also, after he put the engine back in, he pulled it again. I should have pitched down to keep airpseed, but I didn't. These are things that I do need to know, but I hadn't practiced them so I'm not kicking myself for it.

Finally, it was time to head back to EVB for some landings. Fortunately, they were all normal landings, but the wind was a little different than they were reporting, and it was about 40 deg off centerline. It wasn't too fast of a wind (~15 kts.) but the way it was blowing was the issue. After being used to yesterday's calm weather, I didn't put in enough speed at first on approach (60-65 kts, instead of 65-70 kts.), and I was often letting myself come up a little short because I didn't need as fast of a descent rate with the headwind component. My crosswind correction was giving me a little trouble once again, too. I did one go-around when the end of my approach was getting a little destabilized. My landings generally progressively got better. We did 5 total, with the last one being a power-off 180, which I really haven't done.

So, here's the bad news. I'm not ready to solo yet. He gave me about 7 dings, most of which I have already mentioned, but the good news is, they were pretty much doing things the way I have been doing them with other instructors, or things that I haven't really practiced that much. In other words, I don't think that it was nerves or just blowing it. In fact, the part that he said needed work was the emergency stuff. The rest of the flight was pretty good. So for the good news. I don't need to fly with him again. All I have to do is work with Matt on emergencies (just one lesson, I bet) and Matt can then sign me off for solo. Also, today was HOT, and I think I handled it well. I was pretty tired when I got home, but I don't think it affected me much until near the end.

So, I'm pretty proud of myself today. I answered things to the best of my abilities, and while I was nervous, I didn't let it get to me. For the most part, I think I showed that I was ready to be PIC. And soon I will be! :)