Day 5 - Wednesday, May 19th
Had a night cross country this evening. We flew down to Stuart for a few touch and goes, then we headed further south to Ft Lauderdale Intl where we did some more touch and goes. This was a lot of fun as we had a parallel runway to ourselves and we could watch all the heavys landing on the runway beside us. Not only that but the approach to 27R takes you over the freeway at about 150ft! So it was rather spectacular to say the least! We had combied to 1.5hr lessons so we still had time to burn, we headed further south and flew down the coast at Miami and flew into Tamiami for a few more approaches to get the 10 take off and landings required. After that it was back up the coastline at 1000ft to stay under class B and as we were approaching Ft Lauderdale, the controler asked us if we wanted to climb over the field at 2500ft or proceed down the coast at 500ft, we chose the 500ft option as zooming along the beach at 160kts only a bit higher than the apartment buildings sounded exciting, however once we got handed off to the tower we were told to fly over the field instead
Eventually made it back to Vero, quite a fun flight with lots of cloud dodging as it was a VFR only lesson.
Day 6 - Thursday, May 20th
This evening we had another night cross country although this one would be hard to top last night's. This time we flew into the Tampa area and I opted to goto Whitted field, if you look at it on the sectional the runways are almost entirely surounded by water and it's like landing on a carrier, that and the fact it only has a odd 2600ft of landing distance! I always try to go somewhere new and my instructor hadn't been there the 2 yrs he's been here either! Anyhow flight was going fine, were getting vectored into the airport at 1600ft and as soon as we get over the bay, wham we hit all this turbulance! I quickly retarded the throttles as we were close to Vno, gear horn going off and I think my instructor smacked his head on the dash as he was leaning forward to look at the hobbs! Everyone was fine, it was rather amusing actually since the whole flight upto this point had been vertually turbulance free, and one would expect the turbluance to occur over land and not water as usually is the case around Vero. Anyhow at first we thought it was wake turblance from a helo in the area but it continued the whole 5-6nm across the bay to the airport. We did a taxi back landing as the runways was too short for a touch and go. We then departed just before the tower closed and once again experence the same chop coming back over the bay, weird. Rest of the flight went fine all the way back to Vero although not before I filed a pilot report with Flight Watch.
Day 7 - Friday, May 21st
No flying on for today but did some review for the upcoming comerical oral.
Day 8 - Saturday, May 22nd
Drove upto Orlando for a convention today, sure takes a whole lot longer by car.
Day 9 - Sunday, May 23rd
Just relaxed today.
Day 10 - Monday, May 24th
Today I had my 5hr cross country. I found out that the airports I wanted to goto weren't on the fuel list but instead of redoing everything I just decided to go ahead and pay any difference. I had thought about going to Atlanta but that would have put us about 1/2hr over and that was IF there wasn't any delays. Funny how I can now get to Atlanta in a faster time in the Seminole than it takes to get to Savana in the Cadet. Plus I'm sure I'll be seeing a LOT of Atlanta later on in my career so it can wait.
Opted todo the flight IFR cause it's actually easier when it comes to flight planning and it gave me a chance to get some actual, I didn't fly under the hood however, I kinda like being able to take in the scenery! Flew upto Tallahassee and at our altitude we got to fly though a fair few clouds, much more fun doing it without the foggles on as you can actually see it coming. Did a quick touch and go after the approach (again foggleless another first) and headed on to Jacksonville Intl. Coming in on the ILS funnly enough we were told to slow down and climb 1000ft to allow a P-3 to get in front of us. We kept our distance and eventually landed. I exited the 1st taxiway which was actually facing the wrong direction but the next taxiway was another 300yards so I got off there. I think the tower wasn't expecting us to get off there so we had to wait a bit for a CRJ and a 757 to pass before continuing. On the way to the Jet Center we also had to cross onto a parallel taxiway to allow a turboprop to pass. There was more heavy traffic here than I have envisioned, there was a Delta 767, 757s and smaller airliners too. Glad to get out as it was 92deg and we had been in the aircraft a little over 3hrs already. Gave the FBO our fuel order and took a courtesy car to get a late lunch/ early dinner at Denny's. Got back, hoped in the plane and headed back, it was kinda cool taxing around among jets and commuters, we took off after another P-3 (or it could have been the same one, not sure) and flew the 2hrs back to Vero. We were in and out of the clouds a fair bit on the first 1/2 of the trip so we got to log 1.5hrs actual. It was a lot of fun but a hit to the wallet, I'll be glad when the day comes I'll be getting paid for this instead of the other way around!
Day 11 - Tueday, May 25th
Had a 3hr breif to prepare for the comerical oral, not a lot of new things covered but it was a good review none the less.
This afternoon a ASA Captain was in to talk to us. She explaned various things about the hiring process, direct track and generally what they were looking for in pilots. Quite educational and completely free
Day 12 - Wednesday, May 26th
No flying on today, but I took this opportunity to do some more studying for the comerical oral, most of this stuff I have been tested on in the past but oh how the memory fades!
Plus I only have another 2 frascas and then it's onto the checkrides!
