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Oh, So THAT’S How You Land In a Crosswind…


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This was a pretty exciting day. We flew to Bridgeport, Connecticut (BDR) for more crosswind landing practice, along with the practice of navigating to a new airport. BDR isn’t too hard to find; we just head out to the Northport Stacks (the VFR visual checkpoint near the north practice area, we’ve discussed it before), then head northeast across Long Island …

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My Longest Lesson

This was the longest flight lesson, I’ve had so far, at 1.9 hours. And we did it ALL. Steep turns, slow flight, power-off and power-on stalls, S-turns, turns around a point, rectangular courses, forward slips, no-flaps landings… Sometimes, this stuff feels a bit esoteric. I’ve absorbed everything I could about flight training for years: read books, websites, blogs, watched videos. I …

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Touch and Go Landings at ISP – Private Pilot Lesson #6


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For Lesson #6, we worked on touch-and-go landings at Islip (ISP). I was glad to be practicing landings rather than maneuvers, after my rough, bumpy day of slow flight in Lesson #5. My CFI introduced me to “the option”, which we request from the control tower, and which allows us to do whatever type of landing we want: I also got …

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Preflight Checks on a Cessna 152

Before yesterday’s flight, I set up my GoPro to do a little timelapse while I did my preflight checks on the good ole’ Cessna 152. You’ll get to see exciting things such as: Me hitching up my pants! Me climbing up on the wing to check the fuel in the tanks! Me hitching up my pants again! Me, holding the …

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Private Pilot Lesson #5 – Slow Flight

I went up with CFI #2 again, and today cemented my decision to fly with him as my primary instructor. He is instructing full-time, so his schedule is much more flexible. I think his teaching and my learning style mesh a little bit more, also. I may still fly with CFI #1 periodically, if our schedules match up, because my …

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Movin’ Pictures! And a talkie even!

I’ve been focusing most of my energy on getting the blog moving, but I’ve also been getting video of each lesson with a GoPro! It’s mostly for my own review, but I’ll eventually get most of them up on YouTube. So, without further ado, here is Lesson #2!

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Private Pilot Lesson #4 – My First Bad Landing in a Cessna 152


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The Pre-Flight I’m switching instructors. That sounds more dramatic than it really is. I was flying with one of the co-owners of the flight school. He is a great instructor, but he also has a day job like me and I was starting to get the feeling scheduling would be an issue. He was one step ahead of me and …

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Private Pilot Lesson #3 – First Landing in a Cessna 152


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  Lesson #3: In Which Our Hero Lands A Plane ALL BY HIMSELF A few friends have commented on the pure joy and enthusiasm dripping from both this blog and from me as a person for the past month. I won’t apologize! I say things that make me sound like a 5 year old, and I love it! I did …

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What It Takes

According to the FAA, at least… A lot of friends have been asking me about the particulars of flight training, i.e. when/how does one get their license, how much/often do you have to fly, what do you have to do, so I figured it would be easiest to outline the requirements of the Private Pilot Certificate here on the blog. …