Blew my chance to solo....

[Jon V]

Thanks guys.

And when you look back on today, that smile will last you the rest of your life.

Actually, I think tomorrow's smile will be even bigger and will last longer.

Last time I soloed it went from a high to a low really quickly.... one day I was soloing, then that CFI was gone and then I was feeling like "goingaround" in the "disgusted" thread. Obviously, I guess, considering I stopped flying.

Well, today caught me up to where I was before. Tomorrow...tomorrow I'll be moving forward again. New grounds. That's what feels really good about this - the anticipation of reaching beyond my previous limits.

(And I know I'm being unfair in a way, but I'm too happy to argue it.)

[Jon V]

Posting here even though it has less and less in common with the thread title.

The good: After yesterday's second first solo, this morning I had my first second solo. (Where's the crazy eye spinning emoticon when you need it?) Once around the pattern with CFI, dropped him off, and back for more - grinning the whole way. It was a short flight (we used up a lot of time on the ground going over "what's next" type stuff) but I got in three turns around the airport all by my lonesome and could've squeezed in a fourth without going into the next student's time - maybe - but I didn't.

The better: Hmm... I think the better is realizing that I may be past the point where a little gap is a big reversal.

Which is good given that the winds are playing up again... didn't get to fly Saturday, may not get to fly Sunday. Sigh...

[Jon V]

Did a dual cross country flight. 27NM of what should've been easy flying.

It was miserable. As in I flew a total of 1.1 hours and it wiped me out. I was barely holding altitude to +/- 200 feet the speed was between 120 and 80. I made a comment about rust from the 14-17 day gaps between flights and he said something like, "Notice that I'm not taking the controls to 'show you how to do it right'...the air is rough today - I'm not sure I could do better," ...but he believes in positive reinforcement so faugh I say.

It took far too much of my concentration just to keep the (properly trimmed) plane where I wanted it, which distracted me from things like timing between checkpoints. We did it, it worked out, but what a mess. Add density altitude which made takeoffs a struggle (nose up, eke it into ground effect, nose down to build speed, eke it up...all while being bounced left and right, up and down....) and landings... well, OK, safe and even fairly gentle, but man what a struggle. Definitely the cure for any incipient overconfidence.

Instructor's comment, once we were on the ground: "We shouldn't do that again. This is supposed to be sport flying, it's supposed to be fun, and only a masochist would think that was fun."

And it was only 38c. Yesterday was supposedly over 40c.

I think I need to go back to the 6am flying, but that means getting up at 4:45 and I'm not that much of a morning person.

Anyone remember when I first started posting here, I wanted to fly 3 or 4 days a week? Well... between weather and maintenance it seems like I'm now averaging a flight every 10 days. I'll bump that average up this week with some solo flying around the pattern but still... reality bites.

[dstclair]

Jon,

You are a hearty and determined soul

I was out at the hangar this morning doing a little maintenance and figured I'd finish up the morning with a quick lap around the patch. Well things took longer than I figured and it was 11:30am before I finished. I think it was 94F with 8k clouds with isolated cumulus building. Clearly unstable and hot air. Don't think the OAT hit the 70s until 5k.

No way was I going to go out for a 'joy' flight. Perfectly safe but not going to be comfortable at an altitude below the clouds. Did A few run ups to check the maintenance and I'll flight test sometime in the next morning or two.

6am is a great time to fly but you don't need to go THAT early to get acceptable air in Dallas. 8am is typically really good and 9am is still pretty good although ground heating will start having an affect down low. 10am is getting iffy and I'm only doing 11am or later if I am going somewhere.

[Jon V]

You are a hearty and determined soul

Or daft. The jury is definitely out so far.


The only reason for 6am is that it allows me to also work a more-or-less normal day. Otherwise I've got to take time off and I'm trying to save that up for a planned trip to Alaska/Canada this September.