Diary of a Private Pilot

So right now I’m not current for anything and I’m beginning to ask myself whether I am going to fly again at all. I can’t quite put my finger on why I’m not flying. I’m booking planes but then cancelling them, always with some excuse such as the wind, or a sqawk in the plane that I don’t much like. Mostly I think there are two issues combining with each other. First, is money. The almost three months I was without a job hurt my pocket and I didn’t fly hardly at all during that time, and the new job pays less and I still struggle to commit dollars to flying. Second, is confidence. I find that when I don’t fly for a time I get less confident about getting back in the plane. Its not a fear, I know I can do all the things I need to do without harming anyone but somehow when I get near the plane something in the back of my mind tells me to find an excuse.

Its been over 90 days since my last flight and I am definitely in that “don’t make me go up there” frame of mind. The antidote is to just get in the plane, fly around and come back. Then the money side kicks in and says if all I can afford right now is currency flights, never any “pleasure” flights, then whats the point? And as I go back and forth on the arguments, more days tick by making me more unwilling to get back in a plane etc etc

I’d like to think this isn’t the end of my flying as I do love to fly but it sure seems like I’m going to wake up one day and discover its been a year or more since I last sat in the left seat.

I passed a milestone of sorts this evening - 300 hours total time in flight. Sad to say I didn’t do any of the flying, I was safety pilot again, so there’s no great feeling about it like there could otherwise be. My currencies are being stretched again as I struggle to juggle time and money with my new job: the Playstation 3 launches in November and there is a lot to do to make sure that happens! But I have planes booked over the next couple of weeks to extend my PIC and to (by then) renew my Instrument currency - I only need one approach for another 4 months.

Sandwiched between here in Brawley and San Diego is a little mountain range of about 5500 feet or so at its peak. This regularly means that travel between here and there, whether by plane or car, can be a little bumpy. Coming back from lunch today I looked to the west and could see two perfect looking lenticular clouds. To pilots that means strong winds and likely nasty turbulence so it was no surprise when a couple of hours later it was blowing a treat outside in the yard.

The closest weather-reporting airport to here is Imperial and a look at the METARs show the winds from 270° at 27 knots gusting to 33 knots. All the airports on the other side of the hills are showing 6 - 8 knot winds, so I think we would not be enjoying the flight home if we up there today.

I’m still looking for work so haven’t been able to justify getting in a plane since Laughlin in December. I’ll go up pretty soon though just for some pattern work, and I have a friend willing to pay half towards a Catalina buffalo burger.

Fortunately there is plenty of aviation to be had just a few miles down the road from me. At least twice a day, the world-famous Blue Angels strut their stuff overhead in rehearsal for this year’s shows. From now until their first show here on March 11 we get treated to some great shows in the sky. There is a spot fairly close to NAF EL Centro which gives a great view and, more importantly, a great feeling as those jets roar above your head.

Like many people, when I got my initial certificate I used my social security number as my airman id. Only in the last few years has it really sunk in just how little one should use that for any purpose so when I got an email from my flying club today containing a link at which I could change it, I went straight there. My new certificate will be in the mail shortly with a shiny new identification number. If you want to do the same, and you probably should, try this link at the FAA website.

Two Christmas presents I received from my family were UK aviation-related: a chart of the southern England airspace, and a handbook containing runway diagrams and airport information for every UK airport. They were both fascinating reading but one thought struck me right away: I didn’t understand a thing I read! Loads of acronyms in replace of our Class D, C etc, and other air space designations I didn’t recognise. It all looked very difficult to get from A to B. I would definitely a comprehensive ground session before getting near any British cockpit as PIC. I had always been under the impression that what we used here were ICAO standard terms but there is obviously more than what I thought I knew.

My Dad has said that next time I visit home he might treat me to a pleasure flight with an instructor, would be fascinating to do.

There’s a google map for everything these days, and Frappr hosts a lot of ‘em. The good guy(s) at myflightblog.com have put one up for flight blogs - check it out.

We need more fast food outlets like this to keep our hungry pilot tummies sated.

So there are planes I would buy depending on the level of new found wealth I might enjoy (i.e. I win the lottery) but here’s one that is actually somewhat within my reach. Its certified for the sport pilot certificate and isn’t currently IFR certified (though it could be) but I think its very cool, and its only around $90k.

Read more about it on their website. And if you want to buy one for me, send me an email so I can arrange to pick it up.

Last night I finished my flying club-required annual review, spending an hour demonstrating the various take off and landing types. Did a pretty good job with the short-field, and the soft-field takeoff, but had to do a few soft-field landings before they were really good enough. The airport got crazily busy for a while, we were getting instructions to climb towards the tower, make ultra-short approaches, go-arounds and so on. A lot of traffic for about 15 minutes and then it died down. Pretty good fun though, and its good to be legal again.