I flew to Orcas Island on Saturday. The morning was really wonderful, few clouds in sight and mountains clear in all directions.

I got flight following through Whidbey Approach. It’s a nice feeling having someone to watch your back. I just kept looking around happy that I could go somewhere on my own without having to get permission from an instructor.

When I got to the islands, I switched over to the island frequencies. Approaching the Orcas Island airport from the south is kind of fun. You come up through Massacre Bay between two large hills rising above you. I looked around during my approach and couldn’t help but smile at the thought that this would have taken me at least 2 or 2.5 hours to get here by car through the ferry system.

I landed and decided to go for a short walk. I walked into town and got some water. I had forgotten to grab a camera before I left, so I didn’t grab any pictures.

I flew back to Paine and practiced a short field approach. Of course, this approach was conducted on the 9000′ runway…not exactly short. In any case, I was following someone who was performing a stop-and-go, so I had to slow it up to give them time to get off the runway. It was a wonderful day and I hope to be able to enjoy even more good days this spring and summer.

I took Erin flying again today.  This time we prepared better.  She took some decongestant pills an hour before the flight and also used some Afrin spray.  The Afrin really has a tendency to open up the sinuses.  I also went to Walgreens and picked up some Ear Planes…ear plugs that are reported to help slow the effect of pressurization changes.

One good thing is that we were able to get a little further away from the airport before Erin’s ears bothered her too much.   We flew up to 3000′ and cruised around a bit.  I wanted to go towards Jefferson, but they had about the only low cloud cover around.  About the time I decided to cross back over to the east, Erin told me her ears were bugging her.  Not wanting to hurt her any more, I made a gentle 300′/min descent back  into Paine.  We got back after about 30 minutes, better than last time.  Now I have proof that she went flying!  Check pages 8-10 for the latest pics.

The medication and earplugs got Erin further along, but it didn’t seem to do enough.  We may investigate some ENT help.  The ear problem is more than just with flying, the flying just amplifies it.

After we got some lunch, we headed to Circuit City and Best Buy to look at HDTVs.   We’ve been doing a lot of research this past week.  We were thinking of getting a 32 inch tv for the bedroom, but ended up going with the 40 inch Samsung TV.  It is really an amazing difference.  I’m currently looking at whether I want to pay the $6/month for Comcast HD or just go get a $30 antenna.  I’m getting sick of all the monthly fees we have.  They tend to stack up when you aren’t paying attention.   Check some HDTV pictures on page 10 of the Washington album.

I took Erin flying for the first time today!  I stood up in my cube and saw the clear sky outside and I knew I had to get out.  I reserved an airplane for 3 hours, enough time to go get a $100 burger.

Of course, Erin didn’t know that I was taking her flying today.  We’ve had a whole lot of bad weather on the weekends and most days we can’t both get away from work.  Ever since I’ve had my license, Erin has been a little reluctant to go flying with me.  She’s never been in a small airplane.  When I got home, I had to drag her out the door.  Well, I convinced her that I really would end the flight if she had any trouble.

My plan was to go a couple of times around the pattern to make sure she was doing ok.  Erin’s sinuses have given her problems on flights before and I did not want to get far away from an airport if they started acting up today.   She was covering her eyes as we took off.  Once we got to pattern altitude, she started looking around and looked like she was enjoying it.  As we took off the second time, I looked over at her and this time she looked in pain.  Her ears were really hurting.

We got back around and down and I ended the flight.  Erin was in a lot of pain from the flight.  I don’t know how I’ll be able to take her flying, maybe some preemptive decongestant would help.  In any case, Erin took some pictures while we were up, I’ll try to post those tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I didn’t grab the camera from her, so I don’t have any proof that she was there.  Oh well, perhaps we can figure something out later.

I took Doug, Erin’s dad, up on the 24th.  He’s my first passenger since I got my license.  The day wasn’t looking that good, but we saw a break of sky through the dark clouds.  I called up and reserved a plane just to fly around.  I did the preflight and took off with the clouds coming down a bit more than I expected.   I got up about 700 ft and had to turn onto my outbound course earlier than I’d expected due to a cloud right over the departure end of the runway.  We left just as the airport went IFR.  I figured that would be fine since I could see paths around the PAE airspace through which I could traverse if the clouds dropped in the east.

In any case, I decided to bring us over to the Monroe airport, W16, to a landing.  Someone was already in the pattern when we got there, so we came in second.  The Monroe airport doesn’t have a parallel taxiway, and since we were landing on 25, there was just a little area at the end of the runway to get out of the way.  The fellow in front decided to land and hold off the runway at the turnout.  As I came in on final, another person called as coming into the pattern for landing.  I decided that I ought to hold at the end of the runway so that this other person could land.  The little turnout didn’t quite have enough room for both of the airplanes, so the first guy decided to just go out in the grass overrun section to wait.  I wasn’t sure how solid the ground was, but he had no trouble there.  We got out shortly after and headed back east.

Paine was still IFR, so we went south around the airspace with the intent to go to Jefferson.  As we went through, I overheard another pilot coming into PAE with special VFR clearance.  He was complaining that the clouds had now moved well beyond the VFR limits, up around 2800.  The ATC updated their assessment and we decided to call it a day and come back in.

It was nice to get up with a passenger, but I’m looking forward to some better days and better flying.  Since I’m having so much downtime, I’ll probably go up alone once or twice before I take passengers again.

Check pages 4 and 5 in the flying gallery for some of Doug’s pictures.

I passed my private pilot checkride! I am now officially a pilot. This is awesome! I didn’t think that I would be able to fly today at all. I haven’t been able to fly at all this week, but not without trying.  I scheduled flights every single day since last Thursday, it’s been windy and cloudy the whole time.  So when I went in this morning, I did not expect to be able to complete the test today.

I went in this morning about an hour early to get prepared.  I needed to get a new sectional and airport directory since the old ones expired today.  When I asked for them, they hadn’t put anything out yet.  I didn’t even get them before I started in with Bob, the examiner.  The lady at the front desk brought the chart and AFD in for me about 15 minutes after starting the oral exam.  This wasn’t a problem, the standards booklet just says I need to have a current chart, it doesn’t have to have my cross country plotted on it.

I had a couple of problems in the oral exam.  Nothing that was too bad or glaringly wrong, just small things here and there.  I kept looking over my shoulder to see how the weather was doing…not looking good.  It was overcast, raining, snowing and sleeting throughout the first hour or so.  At one point, I saw someone at the gas pump pushing sleet off of his plane with a broom!  Eventually, we saw a bit of blue sky in the distance.  By the time we finished around 12:30, the overcast low clouds had all cleared out.  I walked outside and could see a wall of clouds off in the distance.  I knew we wouldn’t be able to get very far, but it was at least ok to get started on the flight.

We got off with a good soft field takeoff.  I had a little trouble getting on track with few easy landmarks and no VOR usage, but I figured it out when we got over Duvall.  About the time I was on course we were presented with a wall of clouds and rain.  I couldn’t even see a mile into the weather because it was so dark.  I made the decision to turn away when it looked like there was no way to stay VFR.  Bob told me later that he would have failed me if I’d gone any further, I’d gotten about as close as I could while still having a little buffer.  We turned north to look for the Monroe airport.  We couldn’t find it since it was under a thick layer of fog.  We were sitting at about 2,600 ft under a ceiling.  I went on to perform the rest of my maneuvers.  My steep turn to the right was the best I’ve done in a while…I never really had a problem with the turns to the left.

I had an ‘emergency’ while I was flying along the sound.  There were no airports within reach, but I noticed a nice golf course with a long stretch open east to west.  I went into a left hand pattern over the field while demonstrating a mayday call.  Since we were over a congested area, I ended the maneuver at about 1200 ft, about 1000 ft AGL.  I think I could have made that golf course and possibly even without damage to the airplane.  I’d just have to miss a couple sand traps and trees.  I didn’t see anyone walking around, but I’d hope they would be able to hear me and get out of the way.

Coming back into Paine field,  I did a soft field landing that was relatively soft.  The second one was a short field with a forward slip on base to get on the appropriate glide slope.  I floated a bit too much and still came in a bit high.  I taxi’d back and did a short field takeoff and did another short field landing.  This one was much better.  We taxi’d back to park.  I’ve heard that some examiners will just hop out and wait to tell you if you pass or fail when you get picked up and come inside.  Bob was much nicer, he shook my hand and congratulated me.  I honestly had no idea if he was going to pass me.  I tied the airplane up and walked back in the office.  I saw Mike there and couldn’t resist.  I paused after he asked me how I did.  “Well….  um… I passed.”  He was about to say that I’d do better next time.

Erin got some action shots of me walking in the door…

More pictures are in the flying folder.  You may notice that the certificate on the right has my name misspelled.. “Nicolas”.   I didn’t notice this till I got back, but I did notice that the temporary license is correct, so I’m ok with that.

Next step… fly

I am in the middle of doing the end of course test.  The test consists of a mock-practical exam.  I went through the oral examination Wednesday morning.  That went fairly well.  There were a couple of things that I could have done differently, but for the most part I think I would have passed.  I have to say, I didn’t really brush up on the requirements for commercial licenses or class 1 or 2 medicals since I only require the 3.  I muddled my way through the maintenance logbook.  I think I will be able to pick out the important pieces much quicker on the practical.

We didn’t go over any of the weather items, so she just mentioned I should know them.  That is one of the points over which I am having some doubts.  I keep reading the charts and trying to figure out what everything means, but I have a feeling that I’m just not being thorough enough.  In any case, the oral part of the exam was educational.

We weren’t able to fly that afternoon due to low clouds.  I’ve got that scheduled for this Tuesday.  The weather looks like it should be good, hopefully I can get it done and schedule the practical.  I’m ready to be done and do some flying for fun!

I finished my stage 2 flight on Sat.  It went really well.  I went up with one of the head instructors.  She had me plan a trip to Quilliyute, a place out on the Olympic peninsula.  We only went on the route for a little while before breaking off and performing some maneuvers.  We did a couple benign stalls and then made a diversion to Skagit Bay View.  Before going very far, she decided we should make a stop at Jefferson.  I performed a pseudo-short field landing….pseudo because we had to get off the runway for someone following and had to go halfway down the strip to get to the taxiway.  On the next takeoff, I mixed the short-field and soft-field techniques…I pulled back on the column as we went down the runway.  This puts less weight on the nosegear, but adds a bit of drag from the wings and elevator.

After the flight, she gave me a couple of compliments.  She first asked if I’d had prior training.  I’ve got a bit over 40 hours right now, and she thought that my flying skills were above average.  The soft-field takeoff out of Paine was one of the best she’s seen from a student.

Now I’ve just got to do a couple more flights.  I’m going to have my license in just a couple of weeks!

I passed my private pilot written exam!  I’ve done my first solo cross country to Bellingham and back.  Now I need to do one more cross country, a stage exam, another long cross country…and that’s it.  I can take my practical exam as long as I pass the stage exam.  Woo hoo!

I went flying today. At first I only expected to get one flight with an instructor in, but the weather was so nice that I decided to do my solo cross country as well! When I say that the weather was nice, I mean that it was hazy, but there was clear sky between Paine and Bellingham. The first flight was fine, I had to go up with an instructor because they don’t allow students to solo without having flown dual in the past two weeks. We did a couple of steep turns and stalls and went back for a few landings.

The solo went well. I went up to BLI and did a couple of touch and goes. It was nice to get out of the area for some flying by my self. Now I’ve just got to get one more cross country, a stage 2 flying exam and another solo. After that…I think I might be done…

In other news, I’m taking my knowledge test tomorrow afternoon. Hope it goes well.

First the flying, I’ve completed my second cross country today. We went from Paine to Ocean Shores to Chehalis and back to Paine. It was a nice trip and only took about 2hrs 45min. It would have taken all day to do this trip by car.  One interesting thing about Chehalis is that I had a bear of a time just finding the airport. Turns out that on my way there, I mistook one little town for another and thought I was off track a bit. I’m looking around trying to identify features from the map but just don’t see it. Finally, I look straight in front of me and boom, there is the airport. I was on an exact route to fly over the airport and just didn’t see it early enough. Anyway, the trip went well, planning was nice. I found this nice flight log spreadsheet that saves some of the manual calculations. One of the really cool things is that I can figure out the route to somewhere and some appropriate waypoints, then I can re-use it and just update winds.

Erin saw the doc yesterday concerning her left shoulder. Two weeks ago she hurt her left shoulder at work. It has been steadily getting more and more painful. All of the symptoms point to her rotator cuff being either torn or having some sort of swelling. This really sucks since she was doing so good before. She was almost 100% after so many months of being in pain. Well, now she’s going in for an MRI Monday evening. Hopefully it’s just a little swelling that will go down. As long as it is just swelling she’ll be able to get a cortisone injection to help with the pain. I also hope that she’ll be able to enjoy Hawaii…Hopefully not in a drugged up state. We shall see.

We decided that she needed a pick-me-up, so we went and picked up a Nintendo DS. She was looking at it for some of the Mario games. It’s a pretty cool system. It gives her something to do …books are too heavy to hold and movies get old fast…because the pain pills she’s got just aren’t enough anymore.