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Project Timeline July 15, 2004 I went flying this evening after work. This was my first ever evening flight and it was hot! Close to 100 degrees on the ground. Half the lesson we did air work; S turns, tracking, etc. and the last half we did patterns, take offs and landings! I made 5 take off and 5 landings, and two go arounds (I flared to high one time and came in to low another). My landings weren't bad at all, we even had a slight cross wind. Bob helped some, but I think I did most of it myself. There's definitely a lot going on all at once and I didn't really have any time to be nervous. This was definitely one of the funnest lessons I have had so far. I like the challenge! July 11, 2004 I went flying this morning at 7:30AM, wow! was it nice! The air was perfect. Bob told me today I only have 5 more lessons before I can solo! Yikes, I better get it together and figure out what airplane I'm going to get. From here on out he said we'll mostly be doing a lot of take off and landings. Then we'll do a cross country flight to another airport so I can land and take off from some place different. Probably Madera or Reedley. July 5, 2004 I made my first landing today! My instructor Bob talked me through it, and may have helped a bit, but I did it! :) June 28, 2004 It's been a while since I have put an update on this site. Basically I haven't 100% decided what I'm going to do yet. I may buy Roger Anderson's Ultracruiser, or I may get the complete quick-build kit, or I may go with something completely different. My instructor is advising me against getting a tail dragger for my first plane, which Rogers plane is, but I can build one with tricycle gear or convert Rogers. Someone else I know told me flying tail dragger, especially this small is no big deal. Ugg! decisions decisions! My flight training is going well, but there have been a few delays due other things coming up, yada yada yada. I now have 7 hours of flight time and can do pretty much everything but land. Taking off still makes me cringe a bit, but I can do it with no problems. Slips give me the willies, and I still have a hard time recovering smoothly from them, just need more practice :) I'm doing mock landings now, where I fly the plane down to about 25 feet above the runway and try to keep it flying right down the middle. It's harder than you might think! I have noticed the air is more turbulent at lower altitudes and seeing the ground that close makes me over work the controls, still just need more practice :) As far as flying above 500 feet I feel pretty comfortable and can fly without thinking about what I'm doing. Piece of cake! Check back once in a while to see what decisions I have made :) March 27, 2004 Today I had my first real flight lesson. It was windy and bumpy as hell! and I have to admit it was kinda scary at times :) I think I did pretty good though, I'm already getting a feel for it and when I forced myself to quit thinking so much and just went with the feel I was able to correct for the turbulance fairly well. We mainly focused on keeping the plane flying in a straight line while maintaining an altitude of 2000 feet, and some 90 and 180 degree turns @ 15 degrees. I still need practice knowning when to use the rudder or the ailerons or a combination of the two. I kept focus on the horizon and tried to determin if I was gaining altitude or loosing it based on that and the engine sound. I rarely looked at the instruments. By the time we got back my legs were aching a bit from being so tense while working the rudder due to the turbulance. All in all I had a really good time and look forward to my next lesson, I just hope it's a little calmer! March 28, 2004 Well I didn't get around to cleaning out my garage or building a work bench, some over due yard work had to get done first. I still have plenty of time before I get the first kit so I'm not worried about it. March 24, 2004 Other than weeks of research into various kits and plans, and setting up this web site, I haven't really got started. I plan on cleaning out my garage and building a work bench this weekend. 31797 visitors since March 25, 2004 |