Monday, July 21st

I'm sorry again for being so behind in the updates. This experience really is becoming the grind that I was warned it would be, and my window between tarmac time and bedtime seems to get narrower each day.

Now two weeks without a break but going strong. Each day presents a new challenge, mostly in refining my technique. Still working on the pre-solo maneuvers, including stalls (now with coordinated 20-degree bank!), steep turns, slow flight, and ground reference maneuvers. Takeoffs are good, radio work is solid, and landings still need work... more on that in a minute.

We'll be soloing any day now. Was expected to go as early as today, but scheduling snafus prevented it. I also think that most of the instructors want to see better technique before letting us go, and we're all (5 of us) very nearly there. We're also quite tense about it... just want it happen soon and go well, since it's a huge bolus of confidence to digest if all goes to plan. Most of our day is spent in the classroom, waiting to get tossed a key by the chief pilot instead of one of our instructors. Each time the door opens, five sets of adrenal glands constrict.

Too many single events to catch up on, but one major highlight was my first night flight on Saturday. Ben (an instructor I've been flying with a lot lately, and a bona fide 'plane nut') surprises me by telling me to preflight 2656G at sunset, to the envious groans of my peer group. Preflight now involved some serious planning from the sectional chart. Instead of flying day VFR (visual flight rules) over barely inhabited areas to the south, we're heading north, right through super-busy Class B Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport airspace, under night VFR. It took all of my self-control to keep from bouncing in my seat as we plotted the course.

Take-off was perfect, the night was clear, the air smooth as glass. After ten straight days of flying in some of the roughest air outside of a typhoon, this was paradise. I barely had to touch the controls to keep us straight-and-level the whole way. Ben manned the radio calls and GPS settings through DFW airspace, which we hit just a few minutes after my turn to the north out of Arlington. DFW turns out to be a bit of a letdown, since there's really not much air traffic going on at 2100 on a Saturday night. The Fort Worth Approach controller seemed glad to talk to us. The view was incredible though, as we flew due north just to the west of that immense airport at 3,500 feet.

Destination #1: Gainesville. We had to go this far up to meet night-flying distance criteria for my private pilot's certificate. Past Denton, the ground landmarks become, well, dark, so Interstate 35 led us all the way there. Gainesville Airport turned out to be a difficult one to spot, even when lit. I think it was partly my eyes adjusting to the new experience of nighttime pilotage, but it really was not very well-lit. Nonetheless, I brought her down for a single touch-and-go. We even shared the pattern with another Cessna, which is more than I can say for...

Destination #2: Alliance Airport. This is really what I had been so eagerly waiting for. My buddy Dave lives right next to Alliance, and I had been staring at that airport every time I came out to visit him the past few years. It's an huge industrial airport, reserved mainly for nearly all FedEx ops in the DFW area, lots of other cargo and irregular traffic, and American Airlines has a huge maintenance hangar there for some of their bigger birds. They've got two parallel runways, each one about twice as long as Arlington's runway and as we found out, very friendly to general aviation like us. Radioing approach, we were greeted by a man who might very well have been Andy Griffith.

"Alliance Tower, Cessna 2656 Golf reporting 15 miles north, inbound for touch and goes."

"Well, howdy, 56 Golf! Boy, we just had another Cessna leave here and I thought I was gonna be all lonesome the rest of the night. You're cleared to land on... which do you want, one-six left or one-six right?"

"We'll take 16 left on a left pattern, if that's okay."

"Fine! See you here."

"No jets tonight?"

"Nope, they only bug me 4 nights a week, and this ain't one of 'em. You got the whole place to yourself."

Our very own airport! Half-disappointed that we wouldn't be weaving amongst the DC-10's, but mostly giddy to be lined up for a landing on a two-mile long runway that's lit like the Vegas Strip. About ten touch-and-goes later, Ben asks, "how many is that"? Before I can start to tally, our controller chimes in instead.

"I'm counting that one as number 11." Ben had had his finger on the mic switch.

"That'll do. 56 Golf departing to the south. Thanks for your help!"

"Y'all come back and see us!"

Back to 3,500 feet. Still enjoying the view and the smooth air, but I was getting a little worried that I wouldn't be able to find my way back, being less-than-familiar with this area, and with a jillion airports of all different sizes around us. Ben knew the way, but I really wanted to do it myself. Fort Worth Approach took care of that.

"56 Golf, traffic, 3 miles at nine-o-clock, 3,500 feet, Skyhawk also inbound to Arlington."

I look to my left and spot him immediately. Just found my way home. I pointed my nose toward him and tailed him all the way back. Won't be this easy every time, but sometimes dumbass luck has to intervene, right?

Another 10 touch-and-goes at Arlington (sharing the pattern with my lead instructor, flying a Seminole after midnight) and we're ready to call it a night.

Oh... landings. All these touch-and-goes are adding up. I'm now sitting on 95 total landings over two weeks, and today was the day I finally got one I was happy with. Good approach angle, near centerline (using some sideslip), floating down the runway, holding off, flaring for a nice soft two-wheel touchdown. Up to today I could get it on the ground, but either too hard, ballooning up instead of flaring, off centerline, or any/all of the above. An inordinate amount of finesse needs to develop in order to really get the feel for it. Everyone keeps telling that this is normal and to just keep at it, that it takes lots of muscle memory and a taught sense of timing, but I was really getting frustrated. Mucho better now, thankyouverymuch.

No pictures yet, I'm afraid. I just can't quite seem to bring myself to start snapping photos while in the air under the watchful eye of my instructor. Post-solo will change that.

My... look at the time. Gotta sign off.

Big thanks to all of you for your support, encouragement, and juju waves.

-Ace