Studying

Wow. I haven't had to study for stuff like this since... well, college, really. That was quite a while ago... I'm coming up on four years out in the "real world."

Yeah, I haven't flown in a while. It's because I'm trying to study for the final exams. I honestly don't even know what else is required by the club, but I guess I'll find out.

I wish I had more to say, but I really don't. Trombone Troupe and the Ithaca Community Orchestra have started up again. That's about all that's going on in my life lately. Yeah, I'm boring. Sigh.

Oh, Dear...

Yup.

So today's frustration of a student pilot is that I'm all set to do my studying and get ready for my review flights, and I can't find time to DO any of it. I'm still full time at work, and the past two nights have been taken up by Red Cross trainings. This past weekend was pretty much devoted to family, since my sister had her birthday and my grandmother from Tennessee was visiting. So when the heck do I have time for the studying?

And let's be honest - given the choice of studying or games... :-[

But anyway, it was a great visit with the family. I went up to visit my sister on Thursday night, because she was hosting us all for supper, and then they all came down here on Sunday afternoon for supper (we went out. I don't want to subject my family to my cooking!). We even got my cousin at Cornell into the party on Sunday - and she's from my mom's side of the family; the grandma in question is my dad's mother. Good sport, that cousin o' mine. Then again, she got supper at ZaZa's out of the deal!

I have such mixed feelings about the Red Cross. I love the opportunities to help people who've been hit by disasters, yet when I'm on-call, I dread getting called. I love the kind of work we do, but sometimes the people I work with drive me nuts. The classes I just took are great cases in point. Monday night was "Fulfilling Our Mission" (there's some subtitle there about "Translating Your Compassion Into Effective Community Action" or some such dumb, let's-use-way-more-words-than-we-need-to title). I liked the old title better: "Intro to Disaster Services." It said what the class was about. Anyway, National Headquarters decided that the old course was too old, so they're making us take this new one. Waste of time, if you ask me. The second class, last night, was on the new Client Assistance Cards (CACs. Yes, "cacks." I don't name 'em) - basically a debit card the Red Cross gives clients now, instead of paper disbursing orders. Better class, but more annoying classmates.

I apologize to any of my classmates that may read this, but it is absolutely infuriating to hear so many questions asked on a topic that THE CLASS IS DESIGNED TO ANSWER ANYWAY. If they just had the patience or presence of mind to WAIT FOR THE COURSE TO EXPLAIN, they might find that their question will be answered. Seems like I learned that concept... oh, in about kindergarten. But that's just me. Another concept I learned that it seems the other folks in this class missed was that if you actually pay attention, you might learn something ("You can observe a lot by watching" -Yogi Berra). I was amazed at how often people asked a question that was just answered. Sigh.

Well, anyway, now I'm trained in how to translate my compassion into community action or whatever. Problem is, my compassion was wearing pretty thin at the end of last night.

Haven't been doing any flying (other than simulated), either - and that's probably got me a little cranky. I was reflecting on this a while back - it doesn't matter how bad my day goes if I've flown. If I've gone flying - even just patternwork or whatever - it's a good day. I need to get myself up there again, apparently!

In other news, I'm seriously trying to plan out how to spend my vacation time. I have two weeks to use up, and I'm thinking I'll use 'em like this: rent a car. Drive across the country to a flight school I'm seriously considering. Take some introductory lessons. Sit in on a couple classes, maybe. Drive home by a different route. Take lots and lots of pictures.

I think I'm up for a nice, long road trip. It would probably be cheaper to fly it, but what the hell? This sounds like a whole lot more fun. What kinda car should I rent, d'ya think?

Good News/Bad News. Good News First.

Good times this weekend... met by one hell of a heavy day yesterday.

Friday, the club had a "Tailwheel Barbecue" at a member's place. He's got his own grass strip, which is pretty awesome, I have to say. So anyway, anyone who had a taildragger was invited to fly in... although, I'm not tailwheel certified (haven't ever even SAT in one!), nor were there any seats left available, so I drove over. Kinda glad I did - everyone that flew in had to fly out in a hurry because we got hit by a pretty nasty storm. According to one of the pilots, by the time he got back to KITH, he was fighting 40-knot winds! Not my idea of a fun flight, thanks - in that Citabria he was flying, that's almost flying BACKWARDS on final!

The barbecue itself was pretty fun. Wander around, look at planes, eat yummy food, and chat with other pilots. Score!

Saturday, I did some patternwork, just to keep the skills up (and my solo currency!). Then, that night, I had a gig in Elmira with Ageless, so that's one more thing to keep me busy.

Sunday... well, most of Sunday I frittered away reading or playing games, but then I realized that the weather was clearing. So I called up the Club and booked my night cross-country! Woo! One more step closer to that elusive certificate!

We took off a little before 10pm and headed for Sodus (KSDC), where we did a stop-n-go, then off to Syracuse (KSYR) for a touch-n-go (with accelerated approach, which was a new thing for me), then back home. Sodus is a little strip in the woods, it seems. I mean, there's neighborhoods you fly over on base and final, but for the most part, there's not much around. Syracuse, however, is a pretty good-sized town, and very brightly lit. Sodus was fairly easy to find - turn the lights up (pilot controlled lighting - yay!), and it's the only bright spot around. Syracuse was easy to lose amid all the lights of the city. Crazy.

Best part of the flight: looking down at a traffic jam on I-81 and being able to go, "Nyah-nyah!"

:-D

Well, we didn't get back until 11:30ish, so I wasn't out of there before midnight. Home at 12:30, shower, and bed by 1, to get up at 7 for work. Okay, 7:40. I overslept. Anyway, got to work, and our accountant was the next one in. He came in, and as he's pouring his coffee, he tells me about a member of our congregation who died on Saturday. She was 77, in great health, and always very energetic and cheerful. Died very suddenly and VERY unexpectedly. That was a bit of a blow, I have to say.

This was a lady who, when she learned I was leaving the youth ministry here, asked where I was going next. At the time, I'd been thinking grad school for music, but I'd just changed my mind and decided I'd go to flight school. So I told her as much. Her eyes got huge, and I could tell she was thinking, "Flight school? Why? You have so much potential in music, and I thought that's what you really wanted to do!" (which is what a lot of people say/think/think-I-don't-know-they're-thinking when they find out). But as I explained it to her - that this was a lifelong dream that I finally had an opportunity to pursue - she was immediately supportive. Every time I saw her after that, she would ask me how flying was going, where I was in the training, how much longer I expected it to take, and - most importantly - was I still loving it. She always showed a great deal of interest in it, and was supportive. I don't think she ever knew it, but I really, really appreciated that from her.

Bill, our assistant custodian here, grew up in this church and knew this lady all his life. He was a real hellion as a kid, always causing or getting into trouble. His comment on this lady was (and I'm paraphrasing here), "As a kid, everyone was always pretty down on me. I caused a lot of trouble, so they were always upset or yelling or whatever. Somehow, she always had something nice to say about or to me."

Bill suggested we all go in on a brick for the memorial garden outside the church that has her name and the phrase "Life done right."

I'm in. She'll be missed.

'Nother Update. Just 'cuz.

Okay, this working full-time thing is kind of a drag. How do so many people DO it?

At least I'm done at the liquor store for now. I'm all caught up, which means I can head for home ("HEAD FOR THE HILL!" Heh. For some reason, I found that very funny just now...) at 4:30 instead of 9. Nice switch.

I was about to complain about how I still have to get up early to be at work, but that means only getting up around 6:30 or 7 - and I can already hear any teacher that reads this: "That's sleeping IN, man!" So I'll avoid complaining.

Actually, I was thinking about life in general today, and I realized that for all my complaints, I actually have a really damn good life. I have a comfy, safe, affordable apartment to live in. I have a job that pays enough for me to live - and honestly, there's a good deal of slow time at work where I just surf the web or play games or whatever. The work I do is of benefit to the people at the church. It can be challenging, but it's never impossible. I get to pursue my dream of flying, and it's oh-so-close. My whole future is ahead of me, and to be honest - it's lookin' good. :-)

So where am I in flying now? Well, I'm still waiting for that night cross-country, and we've got some maintenence issues. One plane just got back from inspection or overhaul or something, and they started out on a night trip, only to get some engine roughness (not a happy thing!), so they landed the plane in Sodus, NY and caught a ride home. That one's now back in for repairs. The other plane, as far as I know, is still unflyable at night because of burned-out lights. Boo. Oh, well... I'll get that flight in eventually. In the meantime, I should just try to get some practice in to keep my skills sharp.

Okay - rented another movie last night: 300. Woah. I'd stand by a review I saw that said, "It was the manliest movie ever made. It's like, 100% man," if not for all the... uh... woman-parts. Yeah. That's a safe way to put it. But anyway, BADass flick. I'ma prolly buy it. While I'm at it, I'll pick up Peaceful Warrior. How's that for a range of interest?

What a Weekend!

Yep. Good weekend. Too bad it's over so soon when you're having fun....

Saturday was great because I got some flying in. I don't know about anybody else out there, but most pilots I know agree: a bad day flying is WAY better than a good day... doing anything else. I dunno. All I know is that if I've flown, I feel much, MUCH better about how my day is going overall. All I did was hop in the plane with an instructor and fly down to Binghamton to do some crosswind practice (which went really well, FINALLY. Crosswinds have been a thorn in my side for some time now), but after that, the day was just great. I was satisfied. And I even had a headache and stomach issues after eating some leftover Chinese food for lunch. Seriously, I should just give up Chinese food altogether; it just seems to cause problems for me.

I know, I know. TMI.

Sunday was the East Hill Flying Club picnic at Myers Point Park in Lansing - beautiful park, if you've never been. I almost didn't go, because I didn't know what kind of food I could bring to contribute, and I'm not a terribly social person to begin with, but it worked out. One of the members had his boat there, so I went for some boat rides. Went once just to tool around and relax, then again to watch three other guys waterski. Now, if you know me, then you know what condition I'm in now (sunburned. Duh.), but it was worth it. I haven't been out on a boat in forever - much less a motorboat. Canoes or kayaks (flatwater, thanks very much) are much more my speed, but even so, it was just fun to hang out on a boat and watch the water go by. Plus, we couldn't have asked for nicer weather: some scattered clouds, bright blue sky, bright sun, little bit of a cool breeze... ah. That's the life.

Although, before I enjoy too much more of it, I'll have to buy stock in Bullfrog or Coppertone or something.

Also checked out some great movies. First was Stranger Than Fiction, the Will Farrell flick about a guy who hears someone narrating his life. Really funny, really poignant movie. I might buy it. We'll see. The other movie was Peaceful Warrior, based on a book with a similar title (just add "The Way Of The..." in front, and you've got it). Wow. Deep. Very interesting, and, I daresay, inspiring. In retrospect, it's kind of trite stuff about life and whatnot, but I think that kind of gives credence to what it's saying - a lot of different sources agree on these principles, so there's got to be some truth to it. Anyway, it's about a college gymnast who's in line for the Olympics and a mentor he meets who really gets him to examine his life, his priorities, and what's truly important. Naturally, it turns the kid's life around. Not that he had a BAD life to begin with (as he says, "My dad's got plenty of cash, school's a breeze, I get straight A's, and I never sleep alone unless I WANT to."), but it's hollow. He's not truly happy, because he's constantly chasing something external. If I got the idea right, the concept is more or less summed up with the phrase, "Everyone's looking for answers outside themselves. The only thing you'll find outside yourself is more questions. The only answers you'll ever find are WITHIN yourself." Like I said, kind of trite, but still deep. I feel like I need to go back and watch the movie again, only this time, take notes.

Or I could just get the book. That works, too.

That's it for me at the moment. I'm on long days, now - Sherry (the other secretary where I work) is now on a two-week vacation, and I'm still going in to the liquor store, on top of that... so I'm looking at 12.5-hour days, at least until I'm caught up at the liquor store. Wish me luck!

Well, This Should be Fun

You'd think that I, as a pilot, would be more attuned to weather forecasts. Nope. I walked to work today, and have to go work at the liquor store after this. Did I check the weather? No, of course not - until about a half hour ago.

Thunderstorms and heavy rain, starting at around 8 p.m. I get off work at 9.

Did I bring an umbrella? Of course not! Umbrellas are for wimps!

This should be a really fun walk home... :-)

Ayup...

Yep. Another slow day at work.

Well, my streak ended. I had a post a day going there for a while... but all good things must come to an end. Mainly, I had nothing to report yesterday, and we were actually kind of busy at work - at least in the morning. Kind of annoying, really. People were in and out, making all kinds of requests (some of which really seemed low-priority to me, but to them - oh, man, it's gotta get done NOW), and there were the usual, every-day tasks to do, too. I was getting extremely frustrated with things yesterday. But that brings up an interesting thought to me: I'm getting annoyed because of all these random tasks to do, but that is my job. I think maybe I've just gotten spoiled with the summer being so slow around here. I've gotten used to not having to do much, and now that I've got to actually do things, I get cranky.

I probably just need a good, solid vacation. But first, I'd like to get my private pilot certificate. Any suggestions on places I should go, once that's all done?

I've also been called in to work in the liquor store again. Yay, bottle shots (no, it's not a way to get drunk, it's referring to photography). Even cooler is the fact that now they've got me doing their collection of magnums. One-point-five liters of winey goodness, baby! And man, oh man, do they have a lot of the things. I know I probably sound like a wimp ('cuz I am), but those suckers get heavy when you're shoving one after another into a photo cabinet. Oh, well... I've been wanting to get more exercise!

Oh, the gig in Homer went well, despite my having left my sunglasses on the bandstand. I've found out one of the trumpet players was kind enough to take them with him, so I'll get them back at rehearsal, but still - that was not the best way to end my otherwise-amazing day. I knew something was going to have to happen. Karma, y'know - the whole day had been amazing, so something's gotta go wrong to balance it all out. I'm just thankful it was "lost sunglasses" and not "hit a deer on the way home" or anything. That would have REALLY put a damper on things.

Tonight - movie night at the airport, on the ramp! The flying club's setting up a screen and everything, so I think I'll head up there and check it out. Sounds like a reasonably fun way to spend a Friday night - after another night at the liquor store... whee!

No Frustrations to Report Today!

Nope. No problems today. Today's been a good day. I finally got in that third solo cross-country flight: Ithaca (KITH) - Canandaigua (D38) - Wellsville (KELZ) - Ithaca. Put 2.6 on the hobbs, baby - that's all me!

O'course, my bill just went up by $200... oh, well. There's always a price to be paid, right?

Pretty darn beautiful day. Clear skies, for the most part (on the last leg, I started to get a little close to a pocket of clouds... but not to worry, I just dropped from 5,500 to 3,500 and kept on cruisin'), good visibility - a little haze, but no real problem, and very little traffic to contend with. Nice FBOs, too - the lady at the front desk in Wellsville was very friendly. Ma'am, if you read this - you rock! Thanks for making a student pilot's first impression of your FBO a favorable one!

Wellsville was also just a pretty cool airport - almost like an aircraft carrier, being that it's on a plateau above the city. You're probably around a thousand feet above the city when you're just sitting on the runway. You take off and the ground drops away in front of you. There's enough of a safety margin there, though. It's not like the end of the runway is the edge of a cliff or anything, but it's still pretty neat!

Anyway, other highlights of today's flight:

1) Nice views of some Finger Lakes - Cayuga, Seneca, Canandaigua, Honeoye, Hemlock, the little one next to Hemlock (Canadice?), a distant view of Keuka, Lamoka, Kayutah (does that count as a Finger Lake?).... Saw a lot of boaters out, too, and that's just a really groovy thing to see from the air.

2) Flew right over Taughannock Falls State Park. That's one of the first views I got of a gorge from the air, back in September of 2005, when I took my discovery flight. At that time, the falls were dry. Today, there was at least some water going over - just a trickle, but impressive nonetheless.

3) Being able to recognize some of my landmarks from previous trips. Seen 'em a couple times. They're getting to be like old friends.

4) Watkins Glen State Park - can't see much beyond a beautiful, dark green strip of trees, but it's awesome to know it's there.

5) Watkins Glen raceway - never attended any races there, but it's still a pretty big deal 'round these parts. Having never been there, I thought it was ROUND. Apparently, I'm not a big enough racing fan (translation = I never watch the stuff) to know these details. Oh, another fun bit - at least one car was running on the track. On the Western side of the track, heading South, about to hit the turn. :-)

6) Flew right over Burdett, the town our head custodian at the church lives in. Never seen it before, but now I've seen it from the air!

7) Very nice landing back in Ithaca, if I do say so myself!

All in all, a great flight.

Now, I get to prepare for a concert in Homer, NY tonight. I'm playing with the Ithaca Ageless Jazz Band for a community concert on "the Village Green" there. Should be fun, as long as we're not looking directly into the setting sun, like we did at Taughannock Falls a couple weeks ago.

Did I mention I just flew over Taughannock this morning? :-D

GREAT DAY.

One last note, since a lot of blogs leave a space for "Current music," and mine is so amusing at the moment:

Strongbad - "The System is Down."

"Dah - dah - dahdah - dah - dah - dahdah - dah - DOOM!"

Two For Two!

Yay! Two posts in two days! Wow. If anybody actually sees this, they might be impressed.

So, here's my question: why is it that every day I'm stuck at work turns out to be beautiful?

See, our scheduling at East Hill is always by reservation. You have to go online to the special site, check availability, and sign up to use the plane on a given date and time. They tend to fill up fast, too, so you have to go several days in advance, if not weeks. So you sign up and hope that the day will be decent enough to fly. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. That's just the way the world works.

Well, as I said in my last (first?) post, I'm working on cross-country flying. That takes a good, long while. So the only time I really have to do these flights is on weekends, when I'm not working. Well, those two days haven't been the most cooperative of late. Meanwhile, on the nice days (like today), I'm stuck at work. Have I mentioned that I work in a basement? With no windows? Yeah. That part of the job really sucks. Don't get me wrong - it's a good job. Good pay, benefits, good hours, and decent kinds of jobs to do. And even the "no windows" thing is okay - it keeps me from getting all distracted, I guess. But still - I'm not exactly able to get out and enjoy the nice weather all too often, and we Ithacans know that nice weather is too rare to be ignored!

So here's my solution: I have vacation days that I haven't used, and no real plans to use them. So, whenever the weather outlook is for fair weather and favorable flying conditions, I'm going to see if I can get the plane. If I can get the plane, I'm taking the day off of work. They can handle it without out me for a day or two here and there. Besides, it's still summer (for another month. Ish.), and things are going pretty slow.

I'm putting this plan into action tomorrow morning. I'm taking the day off. I've got the plane reserved, the weather looks to be in the 90s, and they're saying winds will be fairly light. Here's hopin'.

I'll let you know how it goes, of course.

Woo. New 'blog.

'Kay. So work is SLOOOOOOOW this summer, and I'm running out of things to do at work. I did have a journal that I kept online for a while, but editing it by hand with the raw HTML was getting tedious, and when I was sitting at home (where I'd do the updating), I never felt like I had anything good to say, anyway. Maybe inspiration will strike more when I'm at work and editing this thing is easier. We'll see. But regardless, I don't really expect anyone to actually READ this thing. It's mainly something for me to do... or to vent with.

What do I have to vent about? Flying. It's simultaneously the source of my greatest joys and my greatest annoyances. I've wanted to learn to fly ever since I learned that my paternal grandfather was a pilot (Thunderbolts and Mustangs over the Pacific). I initially wanted to join the Air Force, but poor vision meant they wouldn't have let me fly, anyway (or at least that's what I was told at the time). In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't join up - if I had, I'd be writing this from Afghanistan or Iraq, and I would have likely been asked to go out and kill people, and I'm not so keen on that idea. Anyway, after college and having no clue what I wanted to do with my life, a friend got me a "Discovery Flight" at the local flying club, and I was hooked. So I've been learning since May of 2006. First soloed on September 21, 2006. I've been working on my solo cross-country flying for a very long time - but I keep getting grounded.

Hence the frustration.

I don't have enough time to dedicate to a long flight except on weekends, when I don't have to work. Once I get the weekend free and the plane booked, I have to contend with the weather. It's too cloudy, or too windy, or raining, or likely to thunderstorm, or some other act of God gets in the way. One weekend recently, I had the plane booked, the flight planned (except for the last details, like wind correction and such), and was all set - until I was reminded that I was on call for the Red Cross that weekend, and so I couldn't really go anywhere. So I had to cancel the flight. Wouldn't you know it - that day was probably the most beautiful, perfect-weather-for-flying days we've had ALL YEAR. And I got to sit at home, waiting for an emergency call that never came (which is actually great news - I'm not complaining about THAT part). In hindsight, I could easily have done the flight and gotten away with it, but with my luck, the beeper would have gone off as soon as I crossed the county line. I stay home, it's quiet. I try to go anywhere, and I'll have twenty calls to respond to. Sigh.

On the upside, I have gotten two of my three solo cross-countries in (and no, it doesn't mean flying to California. I said "cross-country," not "Across THE country."): Ithaca-Oswego-Ithaca and Ithaca-Dansville-Elmira-Ithaca. I have one more solo cross-country (Ithaca-Canandaigua-Wellsville-Ithaca) to do, then a dual cross-country at night, and then all my requirements are done and I can take the exams and get the license. But first, that dart of "I think I'll try to fly on this day" has to hit a fair-weather day across all of New York.

I'd hoped to get in that last solo x-c in this past weekend, but no dice - low clouds all over. Instead, I did some patternwork. For the uninformed, that refers to staying in the airport's traffic pattern - basically, a rectangular course with the runway as one of the long sides - to practice landing technique. Because of the way the planes were parked in the hangar, I flew in 6230Q - one of the club's Cessna 152s - instead of 25028, which I've been flying a lot on the cross-countries (028 has an extra piece of navigation equipment to receive VOR signals, whereas 30Q does not). I hadn't flown 30Q - "Becky," as I've heard her called - since December, due to maintenence and the need for the aforementioned extra nav equipment. Anyway, it was really great to fly that plane again! I can't really explain it - maybe the controls felt more responsive or something - maybe it was just the fact that the nosewheel actually STEERS (028's seems to just caster) - but it was a joy to fly. Six landings, and they all felt pretty darn good.

[Why's 6230Q called "Becky," you ask? In radio lingo, you read letters out as a standardized word - A is "Alpha," B is "Bravo," C is "Charlie," and so on. The number "6230Q" is read out as "six two three zero Quebec." "Quebec." "Bec." "Becky." Pretty cute, eh?]

Before I went up, though, another student flew - and did his first solo! Very big landmark in a pilot's training, although it's really not all that crazy. You just go up on your own and do three times around the pattern, but you're alone for the first time. Man, when I did mine, I was wearing a big, goofy grin on my face the entire time. It was great. This guy seemed fairly nonplussed about the whole thing, but whatever. It's still a big day.

After I flew, the instructor still at the club (everyone else was out in Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the big airshow there) asked if I'd like to go with him down to Corning-Painted Post to get another of the club's planes that's down there for maintenence. He was going to go with another of the club members, then they'd each fly one of the planes back, and he said he'd welcome the company. Of course, I said yes - but the other pilot brought his son along, to keep HIM company, and together, we were too heavy. So I stayed behind. SAD! Oh well. It gave me a chance to get some grocery shopping done.

And yes, if given the choice, I would go flying rather than shopping. No-brainer.

Well, we'll see what happens with this here lil' 'blog (and yes, I believe there IS supposed to be an apostrophe in "'blog." It's short for "weblog," after all, right?). The inaugural post is complete! Let the comments fall where they may.

Happy flyin'.