More about flying
May 13th, 2010 by brianschettler
I was hoping to write a bit more about flying but with night classes three days a week it was proving to be difficult. Now that that is over I hope I can write a bit more about it.
Flying is going well. I am about 27 hours in at this point. I’ve solo’d, gone on one dual cross country and one local night flight. Next up is a night cross country, but so far the weather has proven to be uncooperative.
I took my FAA written exam last week after studying quite a bit. It’s not too bad. I definitely recommend picking up a Gleim Private Pilot study book to study. There are also quite a few places online to help study as well. I used exams4pilots.org. Now I’m turning towards studying for my oral exam, which I know will be much more difficult. I was recommended a study guide to help with that, which I’ve started reading. I think the most helpful thing you can do when learning to fly is practice, practice, practice. Time spent in an airplane is so expensive, so it’s good to know in advance. I felt bad but I asked to postpone flying lessons last week so I could study for the written exam. I think it’s been almost three weeks since I’ve been able to fly and I’ve had to mentally run through the process a few times to jog my memory. Hopefully I won’t be too rusty.
Here’s a bit more about recent flights. I really enjoy night flying. The smooth air, the city below…it was pretty amazing. You can still see pretty well at night, although this was on a full moon so it could only get worse. I was surprised how many lights were in the country…you still had a good reference for how far away the ground was at all times. Also one of the neater things is using pilot controlled lighting to light up uncontrolled airports…the lights slowly appear out of the darkness. Pretty cool. Also I need to keep better track of my flashlight, since I dropped it during the flight and couldn’t find it until we landed.
I also got to fly a day cross country. We flew from Norman to Ardmore, to Ada and on the way back from Ada my instructor diverted me to Shawnee. The diversion was very busy because there are several things that need to be done in a short time. I learned the importance of cockpit management, because it’s really easy to have papers, pencils, charts, etc. falling all over the place. Talking with flight following was also something new, and I’ve used some of AOPA’s tools to help me learn and get better with that.
I only have a few more flights until my stage two check. Hoping everything goes okay and hope I can write more soon.