Starting flight training and all thread

[MikeD]

Re: 3rd day of flight training

The only thing I noticed is the program is definitely geared towards males. Just small things that I have to comply too, like wearing my hair up above my shoulders, which I hate to say is a pain because it goes all the way down my back,

Get a haircut, hippie.

not allowed to wear earrings, and I have to wear a school boy uniform, (Khaki pants and a navy blue polo) at least til I get my flight suit.

Theyre likely a pain in the butt with headsets or helmets, whichever you use. The schoolboy uniform....well.....YOU are the one who applied. No gun to your head,

Other than that, I definitely am adding diversity to the classroom. Everyone else was in the military and had very similar stories. They are really good classmates though and the structure of the school so far looks really good. Very professional and efficient.[/QUOTE]

 

[flyinmomof3]

Re: In it two days...

What kind of place only has one restroom for 25 people?

The flight school has two restrooms, but only one has a lock. There are roughly 25 people in and out daily, maybe a few more, so we are not all there at once, yet the effects of there being that many men in the restroom is apparent. They are relatively clean guys actually, but they do leave the toilet seat up. I just felt weird leaving it down...like I was in their territory...lol

 

[subpilot]

Re: In it two days...

Make it your own. Bring in flowers, oprah magazines, and a box of tampons. I bet you it will become your personal restroom overnight.

 

[flyinmomof3]

Re: In it two days...

Make it your own. Bring in flowers, oprah magazines, and a box of tampons. I bet you it will become your personal restroom overnight.

Oh my gosh...LOL

 

[flyinmomof3]

My first flight complete!

Went up yesterday. We accomplished straight and level flight and level turns, that took about 15 minutes. Then we went into normal climbs and descents. The coordination of all the controls was a little tricky, but lots of fun. My instructor was very happy with my performance and he said I did very well. So hopefully I can keep it up...I see some chair flying in my future...LOL. Can't let him down.

The greatest part was my door being off. When we took off I was like "OH BEEP!!!" LOL I made the mistake of looking straight down, but i got used to it real fast. On approach when my instructor had the controls I had my head dangling out thinking "wow, this is awesome!" I know I should have been paying attention to the approach a little more, but I'm never going to forget looking straight down at those strawberries from 500 feet up then 400...very cool.

This Friday we are going to accomplish takeoffs into a hover. There is a whole hour reserved for this, so I'm thinking it will be a little tricky. But can't wait to do it!

ground is going good too. Lots of information to digest. I may have a few questions this weekend if I can't work through them, but I'm a little ahead on my homework so i'm using the time to review everything and make sure I have it down.

 

[flyinmomof3]

HAD THE MOST INCREDIBLE FLIGHT TODAY!

Today was a review flight of all the basic maneuvers, climbing turns, descending turns, speed control, he had me going from 50 knots to 80 then back to 50, traffic pattern departure and approach, and radio calls. He was super excited with my performance and rewarded me with a confined landing! We landed in a little clearing with trees all around us and it was the most exciting thing I've ever done!

Oh man...i got bit by the airplane bug at one time, thought that airplanes were the greatest thing ever, but man...helicopters trump airplanes hands down... there is no comparison in the two.

 

[ASpilot2be]

Re: HAD THE MOST INCREDIBLE FLIGHT TODAY!

Awesome! If you hear a Seminole early morning flying over BFL, it is probably me. I have been over that airport alot lately.

 

[flyinmomof3]

Re: HAD THE MOST INCREDIBLE FLIGHT TODAY!

I fly around 11am Mon, Wnd. & Fri out of KTLR, so if you hear a helicopter with a female voice...it's me...LOL

 

[flyinmomof3]

Today I'm going to log my first official IFR approach....Hopefully two of them. An ILS at Visalia Mun. and a VOR A at Hanford. Super excited to do something besides circles in the sky. I feel ready, just have to prepare for some convective heat I'll be battling on my descents.

 

[murphfly]

Today I'm going to log my first official IFR approach....Hopefully two of them. An ILS at Visalia Mun. and a VOR A at Hanford. Super excited to do something besides circles in the sky. I feel ready, just have to prepare for some convective heat I'll be battling on my descents.

How's the training going? Any new stories??

 

[flyinmomof3]

Well...I'm working on my commercial in an R-22 and my Instrument in a R-44. My training has stalled for my instrument because the examiner for the area is always busy, so I went from having a checkride last March to a checkride April 23rd, so now it looks like the end of May. I have 30 hours simulated instrument time in the heli., so I'm holding off until closer to my checkride because I have 40 hours budgeted.

Meanwhile my husband and I started working on my fixed wing ratings. I'm just about ready to solo, I just need to do some work with different approaches and I'll be golden. We did our 250 NM IFR crosscountry to Santa Barbara, then Santa Maria and back to Shafter. It was a very challenging flight (well, for me...not him, LOL) because we had no DME and no GPS, which isn't the end of the world, but it really limits the approaches you can do. Also the controllers would try to give us DIRECT instructions to intersections, which wasn't happening, so they were a little thrown off too that we were flying a dinosaur. We even had a confirmation that we were a Cherokee w/U. We were kind of chuckling because it seemed the controller was a little surprised we only had U. We had lots of fun though and I learned a ton.

Also, another meanwhile my husband and I are now working at Memley aviation. We are loving it there, but we are living in Bakersfield and working in Fresno, so it's about 2 hours drive...we are looking forward to moving soon! We are looking forward to our first flying season at Memley's. We need more planes and instructors to make it a total success though.

I'm taking my commercial written next week along with my private ground instructors and possible my instrument ground instructor too, but that will probably be a different day. I'm really excited to start teaching. My husbands going to mentor me for awhile which is a relief. I'm really glad that I have him to back me up, with his experience and extensive knowledge I know I'll be fine.

So that's what I've been up too. Lots of learning, reading, flying and test taking....I've made a ton of progress in the last 8 months and just keep marching forward!