Eye Eye skipper...

I had my eye exam today. Because I have amblyopia I contacted the Aerospace Medical Division of the FAA. They were prompt and helpful with a reply. I needed to see an opthomologist and have a form 8500-7 completed before I have my medical exam. Aparantly, other than the lazy eye, my eyes are in very good shape for my age. That's done, next step is the medical exam. I'll also try to visit another flight school next week.

First flight

It's not a great photo, but see that plane behind me. I got to fly it today!

I arrived at Airport Manatee just before 7:30 this morning, the weather was perfect. CFI Bill pulled in right behind me on his Harley. He got right to it. He went over the pre-flight inspection with me, we pulled the Cherokee out between the hangers climbed in the cockpit and continued the pre-flight. By the way, I was sitting in the left seat! After going over the check list, we started the engine and I taxied the plane out onto the field, where we did some more pre-flight stuff.

Honestly, taxiing the airplane was the hardest thing I did today. Tropical Storm Fay passed nearby last week and it has rained daily since then. I believe the field was a little wet and soft and made taxiing difficult. It did not help that I may have been sitting a little too far from the rudder pedals and my legs had to work pretty hard.

After the engine run-ups we taxied onto the runway and Bill got us into the air. After we hit 1500 feet, it was all me. I practiced left and right standard rate turns, climbing, descending and level flight. FSX really helped on the turns because I knew exactly what I was doing. We flew around the practice area for about 30 minutes (seemed like 5) then Bill had me point the plane back at the airport. As we got close to entering the pattern, Bill took over and landed the plane.

Closing thoughts:
I really enjoyed flying the Cherokee 180, but paying close attention during pre-flight, takeoff and landing begins to show me how much I have to learn.
I like Airport Manatee. As soon as you reach altitude you are in the practice area. I did not waste much time taxiing around a large airport, waiting on other pilots or transiting to the practice area.
Bill seems like he would be easy to work with as an instructor.
I need to get a new cell phone that takes better pictures.

Flight instruction is fairly expensive, so I'm going to do my due diligence and check out at least two other flight schools. I'll also line up my eye exam so I can get the medical stuff out of the way.

Airport Manatee

This morning I drove up to Airport Manatee (48X). You might be able to tell from the photo that Airport Manatee is something of a small field. I met CFI Bill, who runs the one man flying school there, and talked to him for about an hour and a half. Very friendly and seemingly knowledgeable gentleman. We talked about cost, his style of instruction, his aircraft, scheduling and lots of other stuff.

I liked the man and what he had to say. I'm taking the "Discovery" flight tomorrow, which for him is a half price first lesson. The thing I liked the most is that he is first and foremost a flight instructor. He is not building time looking for an airline job. If I was to choose him, I would have the same CFI for every lesson. The biggest downside is price. For private pilot through ATP trainining he uses a Piper Cherokee 180. Yep, the rental rate is a lot more than a Cessna 152 or 172.

I've got several other flight schools to check out and medical exams to take before I make a decision. Tomorrow I'll let you know how the flight went.

FSX

I mentioned in my last post that my son's gift of Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX) was the thing that motivated me to press on with flight lessons. I thought I would tell you a little about FSX and my experience with it. Since we in Florida are still putting up with Tropical Storm Fay, meaning I can't get any yard work done without getting rained on, now is as good a time as any.

Be warned: FSX is very processor intensive. If you don't have an up to date computer, don't even bother. I have a 1.88ghz dual core intel processor with 2 GB of ram and a GeForce 8800 video card. In my opinion that's the minimum configuration. I usually get a new computer every two years, so I'm about due. The next one will be a lot stronger and should run FSX a lot smoother. Enough of the technical stuff, and that's good because that's about the depth of my knowledge on the subject.

I was not too thrilled with FSX at first because I enjoy military flight sims and have not had a civilian flight simulator in decades. So I install the program and fly a few beginners missions. Pretty cool. I start the flight school that comes with FSX and fall in love with it. I'm practicing steep turns, VOR navigation and all kinds of good stuff. Funny thing was I never moved on to the twin engine planes or the jets, just the single engine prop planes.

Yea, that's a virtual me in my virtual Cessna 182. Well, flight simming is fun, and as long as it's a military sim I don't get the urge to fly because...well I'm 47 and I don't have perfect eye sight. But a civilian sim, I wonder? A little research and an email to the Regional Flight Surgeons office tells me that I can indeed fly. The new sport pilot licenses don't even require a medical exam, but I would prefer the private pilot license. At that point, the fun with my wife begins.

This is the sad mess that I've been "flying" so far. Notice the stick and throttle controls typical of a military jet. I'll most likely get a control yoke like on a Cessna. Of course, that will depend on where I take flight lessons. One local school uses some of the new light sport airplanes that have a control stick.

One resource that I hope will help is a book I picked up. Microsoft Flight Simulator X for Pilots Real World Training. That's a mouthful. It was written by flight instructors as a companion to real flight training. I hope it helps and saves me a few bucks on plane rental. If it does not help, I won't use it. At $130 per hour I need to reinforce good habits, not learn bad ones.

The icebreaker

I've always wanted to be a pilot. Real life has a habit of getting in the way of dreams. Work, kids, money tend to postpone the unnecessary. My kids are mostly in college now, and while that may have made the money situation tight, my job is such that I can get some free time when I like.

I had not thought too much about flying lessons until my oldest son gave me a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator X for my birthday. That was like throwing gasoline on a fire(which I've been stupid enought to try). I wanted to fly for real. One little bitty problem arose: my wife was not nearly as excited by the idea as I was.

Fast forward to June, my wife and I take a cruise to Alaska. I'm able to talk her into taking a seaplane flight to a lodge near Juneau. That's us on the dock with the Taku Glacier and a seaplane in the background. Turns out that the wife did not have such a horrible time on the "rickety" little plane. Matter of fact, she was to busy snapping photos of the scenery to notice much about the flight. This is one of the glaciers we flew over that day. If you're going to Alaska, I would highly recommend this trip. If you want to read more about the Alaska cruise, you can check out a blog written by one of my table mates http://www.timstravelblog.com/

At any rate, the whole thing has the effect of softening up my wife a bit, and what do you know, she finally says I can fly!

That's what this blog is about. I've read other blogs about flying. Most start with their first lesson. I'm going to start now. I have to select a flight school and get my medical certification which will be more complicated than most since I have amblyopia (lazy eye). The amblyopia is the reason I did not try to fly when I was younger. You can't fly for a living with that condition, but it is possible to get a private pilot's license.

I hope you enjoy.

Tony