4/20

Yesterday I went with my instructor in my plane up to melbourne,florida.  Home to the best waves in florida. On the way there I got some more time under the hood which I desperatly needed. We got there no problem in about an hour and a half.  When we were there we went inside florida techs aviation school for a little bit.  We then had to cut our visit a little short because I had to be back for practice..all in all I felt like I got a lot done yesterday..lookin forward to doing a longer trip.

April 13

Today I had family from spain come over and my dad told me to take them flying.  So I took them down to ocean reef club which is a private island with a runway and a marina with huge houses and a golf course.  The only reason why I can get in is because my dds partner is a member there.  So anyways I took them down to get some lunch and show them around.  On the way back I was about to land back in ft lauderdale and right before I was going to land, one of the airport security vehicles blew a tire while crossing the runway. So they had to shut down the airport for a little while so I had to land at pompano airport and wait for them to open it again. 

April 12

Today I just stayed home and watched the dvd's on instrument flying.  I'm learning how to do missed approaches.  A missed approach is when your coming in to land during instrument conditions and you have reached your minumum altitude in which if you do not see the runway by that time you have to execute the missed approach which is in easier terms just going around again to try another approach.

April 11

I took a couple friends down to the keys to get some lunch and do a charter fishing trip. I was surprised to find out tht the cabs down there are only 8 bucks to anywhere on the island.  I will definetly do that again.  On the way back I showed them what zero gravity felt like. Its like the feeling u get on a drop in a roller coaster times 10.  I haven't done much intrument training with my instructor. Hopefully I will have more time after baseball season is over.

April 1

Today I do not plan on flying because I have a big district baseball game against Western tonight.  I hope everyone comes out to support us.  Tomorow I will have another journal as I plan on taking my friends to the keys. :)

March 31

After baseball practice I went home and decided that it would be a good challenge to go flying today, because of the gusting winds.  When I got to the airport it was kind of funny seeing other planes battling the winds as they were coming in to land.  So I took the plane up and just stayed locally and did 3 decent landings.  These crosswind landings are very interesting as you have to bank the wings into the wind as u keep the rudder in the opposite direction to keep you flying straight, its a skill that only devolops the more you practice crosswind landings.

March 28

I took my friend flying for the first time, he really enjoyed it and to my surprise he was not too scared.  We only flew for about an hour because there was some severe thunderstorms moving into the area, I actually made it back with only minutes to spare before the winds started gusting and before it started to pour. All in all it was a good first flight forhim.

Mar 22

I went flying with my friend danny today(he is also a pilot).  We did a VFR flight to vero beach and back.  The whole way there and back I flew under the hood to get more instrument time. I also handled the radios while danny looked outside for traffic.  Nothing too exciting about this trip except that I got to land at an airport I've never been to before. Weather was good which allowed for a very smooth trip.

march 10

today i am using my time to catch up on make-up work that i have accumulated  over the last couple weeks.

march 9

i helped my dad set up his new office at ft lauderdale executive airport (KFXE).  His old one was at the same airport but only had one room, this new one was offered to him for about the same monthly rent and had two rooms, one for him and one for me.  This summer i plan to work with him and help him out so this new extra room is really a dream come true for me because now i dont have to be stuck in the same room with him all day :p .  I cannot wait to start working for his business because i will meet so many new people in the aviation business and hopefully i can meet a potential employer for me. :)

March 4

I took my friends flying after school just to show them how much fun it is. We did a local flight, I took them down the beach and turned around at the lighthouse on biscayne bay, also by the lighthouse is "stiltsville" where there are only a few houses left. I'm guessing the others were destroyed by the hurricanes. But anyways it was a good flight except for the fact tht it was pretty windy but they enjoyed it and I got more time flying.

March 3

My instructor and I did another instrument flight to the Labelle airport on the west coast of florida.  Nothing new on this flight, our goal is for me to just build more time flying by only instruments. And I only have 35 more hours to go :(.  I'm planning on flying to new york soon with my dad so I can knock out those instrument hours in a couple flight but I don't know when I'm going to have time for that yet.

Correction:  I flew this flight on Wednesday March 2.

Feb 27

Today I had a flight scheduled with my instructor to fly to an airport in midwest florida for a cross country instrument flight. But I had to cancel that because I got really sick this morning and I don't have a voice.  But my amazing girlfriend came over and helped me today:)

Feb 26

the past couple of days I've done a lot more studying than flying.  As I have said before the flight school gives me a book of DVDs and it has helpe me tremendously. the instructors in the dvd takes the class to the skies, doing tutorials in midair.  This benefits everyone because they show you in real time what to do in certain situations instead of showing in a classroom on a whiteboard.

These past couple of days I haven't been able to do as much flying as I originally would have liked to do because of time constraints with baseball practice everyday.  So in its replacement I have been studying with these DVD's that the flight school has given me.  Although it isn't very fun I am learning a lot of valuable information pertaining to instrument flying.

Tuesday February8

Today Scott and I took the plane up and he showed me how to control the airplane without my attitude indicator and heading indicator.  I also learned how to recover from unusual flight attitudes even when my attitude indicator fails.  and in the efent that an unusual atttitude gets me into a stall, I'll know how to recover from the stall using both full and partial panel.

So up to now I know how to recognize both nose high and now low unusual flight attitudes and recover to staight and level altitude flight using power, pitch and bank in the correct order.  I now know how to control the plane with the loss of your altitude indicator and heading indicator by maintaining the specifid rate of descent or clim within 150 feet per minute.

Saturday February 5

Today we did not go flying so we studied inside the flight school.  Scott showed me how to determine when an instrument or system has failed or is failing, and which one it is.  I also learned how to control my airplane if my vacuum system fails while im in the clouds.

Friday February 4th

Today I learned how weather can affect my IFR flight.  Scott taught me the causes of various wether conditions, frontal systems, and hazardous weather phenomena.  I also learned how to recognize critical weather situations when I see them from the ground and in the air, so I can plan to avoid them.

Tuesday February 1

Scott and I went over the details that I will have to know on IFR low altitude charts and some procedures to follow when using them.  I also learned about some techniques for writing down an ATC clearance, and ways to be organized for an IFR flight.

Saturday January 30

Today me and scott used the simulator instead of going flying.  so he showed me how to use a ground-based VOR station that gives me useful navigation information in the cockpit.  I also did more turning, including flying at a faster airspeed and learning how to use the magnectic compass and a clock when my heading indicator fails.

Friday January 28

Today my instructor and I took one of the flight school's planes, tookoff and headed to the training area which is just west of US 27.. in aviation there are certain sections that are made just for flight training and usually these sections are over non populated flat areas (like the everglades).  So on our flight today, my instructor (Scott) gave me a pair of glasses that do not let me see outside, I can only see the instruments. the common name for these glasses is "the hood".  so I learned how to fly straight and level and we did turns, climbs, and descents solely by instruments.

Thursday January 27

  Today at the flight school I learned about which of my sensory systems deceive me when im flying in the clouds, and which I can rely on.  It really was not as hard as I thought it would be to control the airplanes using just instruments when I cant see the usual outside references.