Hello!
Yesterday, I had my first training flight to a tower controlled airport, Capitol City Airport (KCXY). It was a bit intimidating, but also a lot of fun. I thought I was going to do pretty badly with communications, but under the pressure of actually making the calls, I did pretty well. I also learned how to do a touch and go. I did three yesterday, two at Cap City and one at Carlisle (N94). A highlight of that training flight was flying right under Air Force One! My flight instructor told me that Air Force One often does practice and training flights in the area.
Today my instructor, Jon Still, took my girlfriend and my little sister up for an EAA Young Eagles flight in his North American L-17 Navion. I got to ride along, and it was great! It’s such a cool airplane. North American produced the L-17 for the Army and fledgling Air Force at the end of WW2 in order to keep business going as they began to slow down production of the P-51. Although Jon’s is painted with a Navy paint scheme, the Navy only tested the Navion for its suitability and never really used it that much. When you look at the Navion, you can see some very similar design characteristics to the P-51, such as the designs of the tail and canopy.
I have around six or seven hours of total flight time now, and I believe I am about halfway to my solo. My passion for aviation has gotten even deeper during the course of my training so far, and I am extremely motivated to finish through solo and get my pilot’s license. I’m really looking forward to it and to hopefully continuing my training afterwards if I can find the financial means to do so.
Here’s some pictures and videos of the Navion flight as well as one of me with the beautiful Bristell NG5!
