This past Thursday (July 3rd) was my Dad's birthday.  Rather than get him another shirt, tie, or tool he'll never use, I decided to take him for a flight - the last time he was in a small aircraft was over 30 years ago!  I had to get more simulated instrument time in anyway, so [...]...

Yesterday I had my first taste of flying at night.  It was the coolest/freakiest flying I've done so far!  My CFI and I started the flight around dusk so I could also get in some more "hood time" and practice IFR flight in case I ever got stuck in the clouds (plus there's that 3 [...]...

Yesterday I successfully completed my first solo cross country flight.  I decided to head into Illinois since I actually haven't flown in my home state yet.  My plan took me from Westosha (5K6) to Poplar Grove (C77), up to Beloit (44C), over to my farthest point, Monroe (EFT), then back through Janesville (JVL) before arriving [...]...

I had my first cross country (with instructor) yesterday and it was a BLAST!  My plan had us doing a large loop to the north and west of Westosha - hitting Dodge County (UNU), Madison (MSN), Janesville (JVL), and back to Westosha (5K6).  Being a computer-guy, I used a lot of the free online and [...]...

Based on my work schedule, we decided to have a normal lesson before my first true cross-country, which will be tomorrow. The only thing we really haven't worked long on is short and soft field landings, so we practiced those. The wind at Westosha was a moderate head-wind, so it definitely helped make my short landings [...]...