Long time, no blog from me here. The last time you heard from me, I had just returned from Germany and said my next blog would go into more detail about my travels in Bavaria and Austria. Well, you're still going to have to wait on that one but I do intend to talk about some of what I did all summer in this post.

Standing at the Fortress in Salzburg with the Alps behind me

If you go way back to my first blog, you know that I have always wanted to learn to fly and planned to write about my flight training. While I went through ground school last fall to do much of the "book work" to learn the general knowledge necessary for flying, I had not yet taken to the sky. However, back in June after returning from Germany I finally got started. I have indeed been blogging about it after each lesson all summer long, just not on here. If you're interested in all the details, check it out at http://amileofrunway.blogspot.com. I've even managed to record a few videos from various flights that are posted on the blog.

That's me flying an Aeronca Champion near the airport

What an amazing thing it is to be able to fly. I still can't say for sure exactly what got me into aviation, but I think it's fair to say that it is my ultimate passion. Out of over 300 million people in this country, only about 600,000 are pilots. It's hard to believe how few people have ever tasted flight from the cockpit. In a stroke of incredible fortune, there is a wonderful old airport near here named Red Stewart Airfield. It has been family owned for four generations ever since Red Stewart himself was a barnstormer many years ago. Here they start pilots off the old-fashioned way in a taildragger, also known as a conventional gear airplane. Instead of two main wheels and one under the nose, there are two mains and one under the tail. It takes a little more training to learn to properly fly one but I'm told you end up a better pilot for it.

Looking down on Red Stewart Airfield from 1,000 feet above

Since June I have accumulated nearly 30 hours in the air. I also made it to the first important (and one no pilot ever forgets) milestone when I soloed back on August 3rd. You can hear a thousand times how much better the airplane's going to perform when you're in there without the instructor's weight the first time, but I was still blown away by how quickly the Champ climbed. Since then I have transitioned into a Cessna 150 and am now working on other things I need to learn so I can pass the checkride for my pilot's certificate. You know, there sometimes really are no words to describe the beauty and joy that can be experienced, photographed, and filmed in the air. If you've ever thought about being a pilot or just going up in a small plane, head over to your local airport and sign up for a lesson today - you won't regret it!

A beautiful summer day over Caesar Creek Lake

Comments