J.P.

I have created a new blog to chronicle my adventures as a student pilot. If you wish to visit, it is located at The Third Wing.

I will still talk about flying here on this blog as well because I talk about flying a lot.

So I’m sitting here during my lunch hour staring at a snow bank. It’s quite chilly out at 22ºF but nowhere near the sub-zero temps of last month. It’s still cold though. I’m ready for spring. 39 days.

I’ve been talking to a few folks that have blogs similar to this one and they seem they’re not feeling as compelled to write in their blogs, much like I’m not overly compelled to write in my lately. Perhaps it’s the winter blues. This weekend we saw our friends Kevin and Brian in Danbury, Ct. and I mentioned that I was afraid people would be bored to death because all I want to write about is my flight training. They said they would be interested in what I have to write so maybe: a. I don’t give myself enough credit for my aviation obsession or b. I don’t give my audience enough credit for just being interested in who via this blog. This is something that I shall ponder.

Scooter is becoming adapted to his new home. He is quite chatty and he still has the habit of literally inhaling his food. He can whip through two cans of Fancy Feast like it’s nobody’s business. I think he’s still in “stray” mentality where he’s worried he won’t find his next meal on a reliable schedule. Tomorrow night he meets the vet; the first thing we’ll do it have him scanned for a microchip to see if he belongs to anyone. The second thing we’ll do is schedule his appointment to get him fixed.

As I mentioned earlier, we met up with Kevin and Brian this weekend and our activities included a visit to the Culinary Institute near Poughkeepsie. Highly, highly recommended. Excellent food and service.

We joined them for their monthly “Gayme Night” with a bunch of their friends. It was my first time playing “Cards Against Humanity”. I don’t believe I embarrassed myself too badly, since they met us for brunch the next day.

We had an absolutely lovely time, but we must be getting old because we needed to stop at a Parking Area on the Taconic State Parkway for a 15 minute power nap on the way home. The scenery was beautiful, even for wintertime.

A co-worker has a horse farm with plenty of barn cats. A few weeks ago another kitty showed up in the barn. He didn’t really get along with the others, it’s a clique sort of thing, so he slept out with the horses in the hay. None of the neighbors knew who he was. He had no marks of identification.

He is a very friendly guy and he needs a nice warm home to live in. So tonight, Scooter came home to be with his new family. He’s a little shy right now, but he’s slowly exploring his surroundings. He’s purring like crazy. We think he’s happy.?

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So on my flight lesson today we were headed out to the designated practice area. My instructor wanted to review some skills that I was taught on my lesson earlier in the week, namely slow flight. These skills would be used later in the hour as I worked in the pattern around the airport; the focus on being how to fly the pattern and position the airplane for landing. After all, takeoff is always optional but landing is always mandatory.

On the way to the practice area I took a few moments to look around at the ground beneath us, the horizon, the weather coming in from the northwest and Oneida Lake before us. I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to just look around for a few moments on my lessons because while I’m loving every moment, I’m concentrating on learning how to fly the airplane. I’m cautious but gaining confidence. And while I was doing the same today, my comfort level was at a place where I could just look around for a few seconds and enjoy the moment. I did so briefly and silently.

One of my recent realizations is that I’m learning to fly because I want to fly. No one ever suggested I should become a pilot, no one ever told me that’s what I should be doing. I’m not following in the family footsteps. While time spent in the air with my dad for almost all of my life, as well as dozens of experiences with other pilots, have certainly contributed to my desire to fly, the truth is, I’m doing this because I love it and because I came to that realization on my own. I was inspired by my dad but I found my love of flying on my own. While I’m taking in a lot of information from my flight instructor, practicing during my lessons and watching videos and studying on my off hours, I feel so amazingly relaxed when I’m in “pilot mode”. Work stress is gone. I might be worried about my performance on a lesson but overall the experience puts me in a happy place. Every time. Poor Earl, he listens to hours of my chatter about flying and how awesome the Cherokee is and how many turns I made and how I know I will do maneuver X better the next time I fly and how many times I talked on the radio during a flight. Tonight he listened to my excitement about an SUV parked on the road at the runway watching me learn landing techniques.

I will be a different pilot than my dad. He flew on small grass strips and mostly stayed in a defined radius around his home airport. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, but I have different goals. I’m liking the structure and mechanics of controlled airspace. Paved runways that can be used year ’round are awesome! I want to explore places I haven’t been to before. I want to fly to vacation destinations. Maybe someday I’ll share my skills with others that want to learn how to fly. I know that I want to share my enthusiasm for flight with anyone that holds a similar interest. There’s where I’m like my dad; I’ll tell you why becoming a private pilot is an exciting adventure and I’ll share my experiences with you, but you’ll find your path and become your own pilot.

Looking over the snow covered ground from 3000′ is a beautiful thing. I’m happy, grateful and thankful for everything that fueled me to get to that moment. I look forward to what lies on my path ahead.