Hello Internet friends, thanks for stopping by my little ho-hum blog that will, hopefully, chronicle my transition from “Guy who wants to learn how to fly airplanes” to “Guy who knows how to fly airplanes;” while trying really hard to avoid becoming “Guy who tried to learn how to fly airplanes, R.I.P.”
I love airplanes, and have wanted to fly them since I was a little kid. I even seriously considered attending several flight schools after I finished Graduate School, but ultimately balked each time. Now here I am several years later finally taking action. Better late than never, right?
What’s This Site About?
My plan, as it pertains to this website, is to write up a little ditty each time I fly. Hopefully you’ll find it interesting, if not amusing. Maybe it’ll even encourage some of you to go out and take flight lessons? At the very least it’ll make parents keep their kids indoors when they know I’m in the air.
Before I get too carried away, there are a couple of things you should know about me:
- I’m pretty lazy. While I’ll try to update this site every time I fly, there is a good chance I won’t. It’s not because I don’t like you, it’s just that conjugating verbs is a laborious process and sometimes I’m just not up for it. Don’t take it personally.
- I live in Idaho. I really love the Gem State, but my Internet provider doesn’t share my enthusiasm. My connection gets pretty shaky sometimes, which means even if I’m not lazy, it’s possible I might fall behind on updates.
- I like cheese. It has nothing to do with flying airplanes, but I just thought you should know.
- I’m not rich. Learning to fly is expensive, and those that do it typically have a good wad of cash dedicated to flight lessons. I don’t. I do have a little bit of money saved up, but not nearly the $5-$6k most people spend becoming a private pilot (not even close!). So I’ll hopefully figure out creative ways to work around this problem, and I’ll let you know how I do it. (Yes, this is a hook intended to keep those of you wanna-be pilots in similar financial situations coming back).
What You’ve Already Missed
As you’ve probably guessed, I started this website after taking a few lessons. So the whole “Write every time I fly” idea is already rubbish. Maybe I’ll get ambitious and write a couple of retroactive posts, but in the meantime here’s everything you need to know:
I’ve flown in a few small planes before, but never as a student. So my actual logable flight time was Zero until about two weeks ago.
I’m learning from a dude named Kevin Tuck at Idaho Flight Training in Caldwell, Idaho. The guy’s a first-class stud. He’s got a great sense of humor and an English accent; and I’m slowly transitioning him into a die-hard Boise State Broncos football fan. I’ll try to put a link up to his site on my sidebar, but until then you can check out him out at IdahoFlightTraining.com.
I’m flying a Piper Warrior. It’s a four-seat, low-wing, single-engine plane. It’s much smoother than some of the other planes I’ve flown in. I’ve taken a few pictures, maybe I’ll post them up here one of these days.
So far I’ve logged 2.4 total flight hours.
I’ve only learned basic maneuvers so far: straight-and-level flying, climbs, descents, turns, climbing turns, descending turns, low-speed flight, power-on stalls, power-off stalls and take offs. Anything beyond this list will come at a later time, which means you can read about it as I do it.
I’ve already messed up while talking on the radio (I said “thirty” instead of “three-zero”).
I refer to Kevin as “Maverick” and frequently tell him, in my best Val Kilmer/Iceman impression, that he is dangerous.
There you have it, you’re officially caught up. Feel free to stop back in anytime. You can also leave me a comment offering words of encouragement or personal insults; either way it’d be nice to hear from you.
