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If you have a comment about my quest, or a memory of learning to fly, send it in via email. I may post it here, subject to editing.
• I remember once after working on touch & go's I alerted the tower that I was going to make this one a full stop....
I pulled of the runway and before taxiing to the ramp threw the passenger door open (Piper Archer).......
I explained to the tower that I would proceed promptly but that my copilot was a bit gassy....
I could hear them chuckling in the tower as they called me back, I guess they had their binoculars out and were laughing about my Dalmatian Delores, sitting alert in the right seat.......
The pilot side window vent just was not doing the trick!
- David Lyles
• Max, I earned my pilot certificate in July 1987, almost 44 years to the day that my Dad earned his wings. My Dad was an Army Air Corp instructor during WWII. Anyway, it seems to me that your flight instruction is light years ahead of the training I had. My trainer was a 1967 Cessna 150 with 100 horsepower under the cowl. The panel consisted of round gauges typical of the day. I had one 720 channel Narco radio, one transponder (no encoding transponder needed). I supplied my own portable intercom and headset. I flew that airplane for my solo long cross country. I flew the same airplane to Orlando Executive to pick up the FAA examiner who signed me off on the big day. When I returned successfully to Kissimmee, my wife met me with my Dad's wings to pin on my shirt. What a day that was. I can't imaging flying an ultra modern airplane like a Cirrus. Or flying over a snow covered landscape.
When you get certified, Max, you need to fly down here to Florida for Sun n Fun. The flight would make a great essay.
All the best.
- Frank Lewis
• I look forward to your continued quest for your pilot's certificate (I am weird: everybody else wants to call it a "license," but in the USA, we have certificates, according to the FAA!). When I did my training, it was ALL in our 150, or rental 150s after I got out of the partnership due to my moving to the other side of Texas. The fanciest thing on them was the NavCom radio and Transponder. they all DID, however, have a cigarette lighter receptacle. Aside from the required primary flight instruments, it had an Artificial Horizon and a Directional Gyro AND a Rate of Climb Indicator! I've right-seated a bunch of time in friends' aircraft with some "glass" on the panel, but the Cirrus is something else! As much as I use computers, touch screens, etc in my everyday life at home and work, there's something about aircraft "steam gauges" that I really like. It's because (I guess), that when I was flying regularly (I WILL get back into it again!), all I ever wanted to do was take flights of 1 hr or so, going nowhere in particular, and navigation per se didn't involve more than the occasional VOR. I've never piloted using even a hand-held GPS (I've flown with guys who did, though).
Anyway, I'm getting too "wordy" again!
Keep us informed and keep that shutter clicking!
- Tom Griffith
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