Pinch hitter training complete- Flight on 1-29-12

Yesterday, the Shane and I completed a family goal of ours.  That goal was to have him train me to be able to handle the airplane in case of emergency.  We flew a total of five times and flew 50 minutes each time.  Pilots would call the flight time nine tenths of an hour.  The weather was awesome and the sky was smooth!

Shane added quite a few elements to this lesson which made it more challenging!  We still had a lot of fun!  This flight we took off circled the town, crossed the runway, and then flew a heading to Knoxville.  When we got close to Knoxville we prepared to fly the pattern in order to land. This wasn't something I hadn't done in the airplane before, but we'd talked about during a ground lesson.  I was slightly worried about it, but Shane did a great job of coaching me through it.  We worked our way through it and then it was time to land.  We went through all the procedures/tasks and soon we were on the ground.  Shane looked extremely happy once we were on the ground.  It was then that he enlightened me to the fact that I had landed the plane on my own.  The icing on the cake was that I'd even had a decent landing.  I was totally pumped!!  I honestly thought that he had been assisting me in completing the landing.  I am now crossing land a plane off my bucket list!

I've had many people ask if I am going to move forward and obtain my pilot's license.  At this point it's a wait and see. I don't want to commit and then realize that it's not for me.  So I guess I'll take it one flight at a time.  As for having my hubby as my instructor we'll take that one flight at a time as well.  He is a wonderful teacher, and we've had an amazing experience so far. I want it to stay that way.  I've heard some not so positive stories about husband's teaching their wives to fly, and want to avoid that.  Shane and I have both agreed that if either of us has hesitations we'll move in a different direction.

Multi tasking- Flight on 1-28-12

I've always been of the opinion that most men don't multi-task well. I always believed my husband had a hard time with multi-tasking. My evidence came from observing him at home. It seemed as if it were impossible for him to send a text and answer a question from our two year old. Many times I'm unloading the dishwasher, on the phone, and supervising our wannabe pilot. I thought it was something that came as second nature for me and not him. Well, I was kind of wrong. I hate when that happens, just ask Shane. My wrongs can be a very pleasurable for him, and I guess I'm ok if he savors it a bit. How does this relate to flying? Ok, so I rambled a bit too long.

Earlier this week Shane and I did some ground work at home. Ground work being the principals, rules, and other knowledge needed for learning to fly. Let's face it, the boring but important stuff. I was kind of dreading this part, but it turned out not to be quite as bad as I thought. I have a pretty great teacher who happens to have a wealth of experience. Anyways, he started talking about how we would start to use the rudder in flight. It made perfect sense, but I didn't really think about how much of impact it would have on me when I was flying.

Fast forward to yesterday which was our fourth flight together. We went through the the preflight (well Shane took care of it yesterday), checklists, and started taxing to the runway. We made friends with five turkeys on our way to the part of the runway where we needed to turn around, and finished our checklist. It was finally time to take off so we went through what we needed to do and started off. There was a bit of a crosswind so Shane was more hands on during this takeoff. And soon we were up in the air.

This flight we practiced turns and flying to a heading, which I'm getting pretty comfy with. We also did a little slow flight as well as some descents and climbs. If you know me you know that I can be a bit of a perfectionist. The perfectionist in me can get in the way when I'm flying to a heading. I make my turn and shallow out, and if I'm not exactly on the heading mark it drives me insanely crazy. It really takes all my concentration to take care of this task, and then of course Shane throws in the rudder. The rudder helps to turn the airplane more smoothly and efficiently. Sounds easy enough, except now I have to add my feet while using the yoke. That's manageable enough but I also have to keep my eyes on three different gauges. All the while be constantly assessing what I need to do next to get to the heading. Slowly but surely I started to get it, but all that multi-tasking had me pretty wound up by the end of the flight.

That flight left me with questions about the male race, and gave me a whole new appreciation for Shane. Here's a guy who multi-tasking might not come easy for, but he's overcome it in the airplane. And not only that he can fly up to four different jets in one week. Google the cockpit of a Cessna 172 (what I'm learning to fly in) and the cockpit of a Lear jet (one of the jets Shane flies), and you'll have a better understanding of what I'm talking about. Here's my question, are men really good multi-taskers and just keeping it under wraps? The aviation field is totally dominated by men (poor multi-taskers????) and women (strong multi-taskers) are rare. That makes no sense to me! My last thought is what would happen if women started showing more of a presence in aviation? Just a little something to think about.

The beginning

The original and first of my flying posts. This was originally seen on our family blog.

My decision is up in the air

I haven't been a very faithful blogger as of late, but oh well. As my husband would tell you I'm a dabbler, and blogging on our family was one of my dabbling experiments. Sometimes my dabbling experiments stick (ex. photography) and some not (mosaics plus many others). Anyways, that brings me to my latest dabbling experiment, flying. I guess it's kind of shocking that I haven't experimented with it yet especially since I've been with a pilot for 10 years, gasp! It really doesn't seem like that we've been together that long.

As a family we do our fair share of flying, and to say that Sullivan loves it would be an understatement. While I don't exactly share his same level of enthusiasm I do enjoy going along for the ride. After some discussion this fall Shane and I agreed it would be wise for me to take some very basic instruction as an extra precaution. I guess as a parent you become a little obsessed with your child's safety, and that was my main reasoning. Yes, I am the mother who despises play areas at fast food restaurants and the mall.

Fast forward a couple months and we find ourselves at the airport with child in tow. Shane, Sullivan, and I had a great little flight. Shane was able to teach me some basics, and as a bonus the lesson did not push us to the brink of divorce. Our perfect little angel was the cherry on top. Initially, I was worried about Shane teaching me but it went amazing! As someone who knows a few things about teaching I have to commend him on his abilities as an instructor. After that flight I was feeling pretty good about the decision we'd made!

A week later we decided to tempt fate and try it again. To say it was a bit of a nightmare was an understatement. We took a different airplane while it was the same model it was slightly different. And apparently the airplane and I didn't mesh real well. To make matters worse our son talked, sung, and at times screamed for 35 of the 45 min flight. At one point Shane pulled the cord on his mike and that just made him mad. I was very distracted and at odds with the plane which resulted in some snapping. Poor Shane bore the brunt of it. I did edit that part out of the movie we taped. I don't want Sullivan to see it someday. By the end of the flight I was exhausted and so was Sullivan. After all that he fell asleep right as we're ready to land. I was ready to write our little experiment off after all this.

Shane was not quite ready to give up and suggested we try again a couple days later sans Sullivan. We took the airplane that we took the very first time and I did ok. We had a great flight and I learned a lot. He even brought out his flight instructor voice for me. It was weird but I actually enjoyed the experience which thrilled Shane. I'm actually kind of excited to see what the next time brings.

Now I have to decide if my pilot's license is something I want to pursue or if I rather just dabble when we go flying as a fam. I've started a pro and con list. High on the pros is a sense of accomplishment, making my husband very proud, having a better appreciation for my husband's field, and being able to understand to an extent what he is talking about when he comes home at night. Most nights I just smile and nod because he might as well be speaking chinese to me. High on the cons is stressing our relationship, having to study (especially content that doesn't get really excite me), and having to talk on the radio (this goes back all the way to Shane and I's first flight together, but that's a story for another day).

So I guess it remains to be seen if the flying experiment sticks or not. Who knows maybe I could aspire to being the only female flight instructor in the state (I've been told female instructors are pretty rare).