Girls Weekend In Atlanta

Robinson 44 Helicopter
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

So what did everyone do this weekend? Honesty, I would love to hear what everyone has been up to. As for my recent endeavors…I just completed another ground school last week, which was essentially a workshop called CRM (Cockpit Resource Management). It was a great workshop, and being the only female, I was put on the spot numerous times and asked to share my “female viewpoint.” Mr. McAleenan was the wonderful ex-military pilot who ran the workshop by sharing stories, showing movies about accidents and had small group activities. Great workshop, I was only disappointed to find out that Mr. McAleenan only taught that one workshop. Other than that, I have been flying; I had a great flight last Thursday night in which I did some maneuvers to commercial PTS standards. Although, I had a few mistakes here and there (I am still a little rusty) my maneuvers were awesome and I was greasing my landings left and right (all thanks to the PFD I sat on to see over the cowling).
As for my weekend; Melissa, Katie and I piled into my little Honda Civic (which passed the 200,000 mile marker on the way home) and drove eight and a half hours to Atlanta. We met up with a bunch of Melissa’s great friends, went running at Piedmont Park, had a great brunch at the Flying Biscuit, went dancing at Rendezvous until two in the morning, and went on the most amazing Helicopter ride over the city of Atlanta. Okay, so about the helicopter ride…some day I will solo in a helicopter! It is the most amazing experience, it is indescribable and every fixed wing pilot should experience flying in a helicopter at least once. Melissa, Katie and I flew in a Robinson 44 over the beautiful skyline of downtown Atlanta at night. We flew over downtown Atlanta, Turner Field, Piedmont Park, Buckhead & directly between the King and Queen buildings, all at 700 feet above the ground. I will encourage all of you to someday, whether you are a pilot or not, to go to an airport near a major metropolis and go for an evening helicopter ride – go with friends or family, maybe even a date because it is a breath taking experience that you will always have with those people (or person). For me those people are Melissa and Katie, and I feel very luck that I have such wonderful friends.

Flight Safety Guys

Flight Safety Guys
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

I just want to introduce everyone to my male friends at Flight Safety, since I have already introduced you to Melissa and Katie. You have all met Dave already, he is the one to the right of me in the picture who got his instrument rating a few weeks ago and since then has completed his multi-engine and single-engine commercial and left us to move back to Northern California. Waylan is to the left of me; his Dad is currently over in Iraq and also works for Flight Safety in West Palm Beach. Perry is on the other side of Davey. Perry tried to teach me how to surf the first weekend I came to Vero. We haven’t attempted since, but hopefully he will be teaching me again soon. He is working on his CFI right now. And Jamie is next Perry. Jamie is from London, is working on his Instrument rating, and has been a great person to study with so that we both can prepare for the instrument oral exam. So those are my Flight Safety guys – I love them all dearly and I am glad to introduce you all to them.

Girls at South Beach

Girls at South Beach
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

First of all Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone! Some exciting news; we finally got sun this weekend! I would also like to take this opportunity to introduce my new roommate Katie. Katie, as I said is from EVERYWHERE and she is in the private audit with me for the next week. She’s working on time building and then will begin her commercial. Katie, Melissa and I have been having a blast together for the past week – I love these girls to death! We do practically everything together and I feel so lucky to live with such great female pilots that have quickly become such close friends. Also, this past weekend I had a three-hour cross-country to Ormond Beach, which is just north of Daytona Beach. It was a night flight, tracked a few VOR’s up the coast, did a few touch-and-goes and saw The Daytona 500 all lit up from the sky. I attempted to take a picture but movement and taking pictures of lights is not a good combo – it looked like a firework show. I hope that everyone is doing well and that even though Valentine’s Day is superficial holiday, that everyone talked to or got dropped a line by a friend or someone they love. Thank you to all of you (friends & family) that were my Valentine’s this year.

Flight Safety Moms

Flight Safety Moms
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

Much like everyone needs a home away from home…everyone needs a mom away from home…and I have two! Meet Janice and Marlene, Flight Safety’s mothers. These two wonderful women work in the pilot supply store and I get the pleasure of seeing them almost everyday. They truly are the sweetest ladies. They know all the students by first name and take a genuine interest in how every single one of us is doing. They don’t hesitate to laugh with us (or at us) and they always make sure we’re taken care of. It is because of wonderful people who work at FSI, like Janice and Marlene, that my experience at Flight Safety thus far has been so enjoyable. Even the ground instructors joke around with us inside and outside the classroom helping us make all this aviation knowledge stick in our heads. I couldn’t ask for more…not only do I get to pursue what I love, but I have also met so many amazing people in the aviation industry –Vero Beach has quickly become my home away from home.

First Flight Safety Flight

X-Country VRB - PBI - VRB
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

Today, almost four weeks after arriving in Vero Beach, I finally had my first flight. I flew in a Cadet from Vero Beach on a cross country to West Palm Beach. As you all know I love to beat myself up and over criticize myself as well, so in my eyes I did not perform up to my standards, but my instructor (Nick Hall) thought I did a really good job considering I haven’t flown since the 14th of June (the math: 7 months ago). The first thing that is taking some adjustment for me is that the checklists are so unbelievably different from what I know, so trying to block out the procedures that have been drilled into my head and spit out the correct checklists was a bit of a challenge. Another challenge is that Winona (ONA) was a non-towered airport, where as Vero Beach (VRB) is Class D and is towered and I flew 61 NM to West Palm (PBI) which is Class C airspace, also towered. Therefore, my communications were a little rusty – but on a positive note, my radio communications were great in PBI and I tracked the VOR’s perfectly. I flew my flight plan to exact amounts on planned heading, time and fuel, almost down to the second – which their method of flight planning is foreign to me as well. All these differences! I think the strangest transition so far is the checklists and that they pitch to Vy of 79 knots (which is about 6 degrees nose up in climb and I am used to 2 ½) after rotation until 500 feet above the runway and then pitch to cruise climb of 87. It felt really good to be in the plane again and I am excited to be at Flight Safety. I have no doubt that in a few flights I will have all of this under and all will be well.
On another note, I have a new roommate named Katie (don’t worry Melissa is still my roommate, I just have two now) and she is from EVERYWHERE. Most recently she came from Colorado but she has also lived in Hawaii in the past year and the Bay Area and is originally from Texas. She’s cool – her and I are auditing the Private Pilot course together. Last week I completed the Instrument Ground and took all the FAA Exams that go with that (IRA, FII & IGI), including the ground final – trust me, it is way too many tests to take in 4 days.