Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Learn to fly an airplane in a week!



As per Melissa's request, I've been asked to scribble my experience so far in IFS (Introductory to Flight Screening). Gotta love the world of acronyms! So I endured 24 hours of ground school in 1 1/2 weeks, and in my off time, I was asked to go through a 660 page large textbook...not to mention the additional books and sheets they hand to you in a handy-dandy Jeppesen bag. Jeppeson is the name of the company that has created a syllabus for private pilots. There has been a lot thrown at me, but it's good that I have had some experience in my 11 years of Navy live relating to physics/math, engines, navigation (even though i suck at it), and other navy type stuff or else I would have been in trouble. Today was my big flying day. I am no longer an aviator virgin! My flight instructor had me pre-flight the airplane, taxi the plane to the runway, and off we went. He helped me do all of the radio controls to clearance, ground control, and the tower/departure control....but other than that, i was piloting the airplane. Pretty cool stuff, except for the 8-12 knot crosswind when we were landing......my flight instructor went ahead and landed the plane for me and I wasn't going to argue with that! Now Melissa's take on it. I asked him if we had our will up to date. I still can't get over the fact he just started class last week, and he flew a plane today!! Holy crap! And in 2 weeks he will be flying solo - no instructor in the plane, just little old TJ all by himself!!! I hope they know what they are doing. Off to check the will now. Oh, and here is a picture of the beautiful piece of equipment he flew, it was made when we were born!

3 comments:

Jenn said...

Wow!! That is fast! :)

*Nicole said...

That is amazing Tj. We miss you! Take care!

Unknown said...

Melissa, I'm so glad you're so good about keeping up with your blog. I've got to get used to looking at it! And thanks for the nice comments about the bunny towel! Yes, that doesn't seem like enough time before taking to the skies all by himself! I think they ought to have TJ in the classroom for a couple of years first! :-)