Publisher's Note...

alwayslookingabove.com was originally set up with a wordpress page, but after several weeks I have still failed miserably to make it work the way I want.  So I convinced my friend to set me up with the same website name, but back here at blogger!!  SO that means I can update here and change my page the way I want to!  It also means that there shouldn't be any changes for you, dear readers!  Even if you type in the old site address (alwayslookingabove.blogspot.com) it will automatically redirect you here.  LOVE IT.

I'm going to repost my more recent entries here, and then get back to work on new material, now I'm not in a constant formatting war.  Apologies for the lack of entries lately, but hopefully now I'm back at blogger things will be sorted out!
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Gusting 29kts? Oh no problem...

Before I left my house at 8.30am this morning I had a quick look at the weater.  My immediate reaction was “HOLY CRAP IT’S HOT!”  I was so distracted by this alarming realisation that I didn’t even think to check the winds.  Had I thought to do so, I would have seen something that looked a little like this.

Right.  Challenging.  Interesting.

So we hit the circuit.  My Instructor asked if I wanted to head to Carp airport and do some circuit work there, but with the strong winds I felt more comfortable sticking close to home.  At least then if it proved to be beyond my capabilities it would be a lot easier to call it a day than if we were over at another aerodrome.

During the first circuit My Instructor remarked that we were the only plane working in the circuit for runway 22.  By the end of the second I knew why.  That was probably one of the most challenging flights I’ve had in a long time.  Possibly ever.  The winds were insane.  We had gusts of about 25kts for most of my landings (thankfully they were primarily headwinds), but towards the end they were making it up to 29kts.  Considering that if there is anything above 30kts we aren’t allowed to go flying at all, that was probably the craziest wind conditions I am likely to experience in a C-150.

I was quite surprised to find that I performed relatively well.  Not my best batch of landings, true, but given the conditions they could have been a lot worse.  There was even one landing that earned me an “Oh yeah!” from My Instructor, which made me glow with pride for about three seconds until I took off again and had to concentrate pretty hard to keep control of the plane.

I’d call that an improvement, and we’ll leave it at that for now.

Up next are some more trips out to the practice area by myself, and then my first cross country flight!  Exciting stuff.

I realised while flying this morning that I’m actually going to have to start thinking about flight test stuff.  Now I know all the basics.  After my cross countries there are really only one or two more things for me to lean for my Private License.  Now it’s all about practicing and perfecting the exercises and getting ready for that test.  Scary thought that one, but incredibly exciting!  I can’t imagine how nervous I’m going to be leading up to that flight, but I CAN imagine how wonderful it is going to be to be able to say that I am a licensed pilot.  And I REALLY can’t wait to be my epaulettes with two bars!

After my flight, I sat in the lounge with The Newfie for a while as he went over some of the math stuff I missed while I was in Calgary.  At one point I was trying to explain something to him that made sense, but in the process of doing so managed to completely prove myself wrong.  Oops?  At least it made sense after that!  No one ever said I was going to find math a breeze…