Flying adventure

Hey everyone!

I’ve been continuing to fly quite a bit. A few days ago I went on quite the flying adventure. We went out of Renton to Tacoma, where we stopped and got more fuel. From there we did some slow flight and stalls before heading over to Bremerton to do some touch and gos. Then, we went back to Renton, but on the way we flew over Seattle. There were in general a lot of new places we went to and flew over. Before, I’d only landed at the Renton and Auburn airport.

Tacoma was so beautiful to fly into. It was such a beautiful day in general. The sky was completely clear, without a cloud in sight, which is so rare for Seattle. It was a bit hazy because of the Summer Wildfires, but it added to the beauty of everything. Coming into Tacoma, you can look down at all the water channels and see how shallow and sandy and blue the water is. It was really something flying over the Tacoma Narrows bridge to the Tacoma airport. Landing was different because I wanted to land at sea level, but couldn’t because the runway is at a slightly higher elevation coming off of the water. There we planned to do some touch and gos but ATC told us we couldn’t. So instead, we landed, got some self-service fuel, which I kind of learned how to do. Getting fuel and going on this beautiful flight reminded me that I don’t just fly to learn more and get better at it. I fly because it’s such a fun experience and adventure, seeing new places and doing new things. I was just elated to see the views and learn how to get fuel. A few months ago, doing all of this seemed very impossible. After getting fuel, we went inside to the office of Rainier Flight Service’s Tacoma location and popped our heads in. I would say that the office there looked more sleek. At Tacoma, the runway seems very long because it felt like we were taxiing along for eternity.

We eventually took off and practiced some slow flight and stalls. I can get frustrated with myself because some of these maneuvers seem so simple when you think about them, but in reality, it’s more difficult to remember everything you need to do while flying and perform all the actions smoothly. With that though, I think I just need more practice and while I’m not flying, study up and cement all the actions I would take for maneuvers while flying. It’s gotten to the point where I can do most of the things asked of me, it’s just that having an example beforehand is very beneficial.

After we did that, we flew into the Bremerton airport and stayed there for a few touch and gos. I swear I saw at least two golf courses around there, which is interesting because they always take up so much land. It was more windy there so I had to pay more attention to not getting blown off of where I wanted to be in the traffic pattern.

Overall I am getting way more confident in my landings and feel like I improved a good amount in this past week. I had been rather frustrated with my landings for a while because I didn’t feel like I was improving too much — being able to land on my own, but not smooth as I would’ve liked it. Like my instructors said though, I knew how to do everything and what needed to be corrected, I just needed to practice more to set everything into stone. So, now I continue to improve with more practice and am getting the smoother landings that I wanted. Of course though, landings still take a lot of brainpower for me — descending to the runway and making many fine tuning adjustments before rounding out at the right height and being comfortable floating there before flaring.

After spending some time at Bremerton, we went West to Seattle and went near the waterfront Downtown, before continuing West and following the freeway before getting to our normal airspace. Then we went back to Renton and called it a day.

I would say right now in my flying, I am reviewing more and perfecting the skills that I have learned so far, than learning more skills because I guess I’m slowly getting ready for my solo, which sounds so crazy that I’ve gone this far. Overall, I am happy with how much flying I put in and how much progress I’ve made. One thing I’ve been struggling with that I would think would help me, is to set aside more time on my own to reflect on my flying and bridge the gaps in my knowledge.

Something I may do in the future, flying-wise, is go to the Museum of Flight — again. I saw a billboard the other day that stated that the museum had a Disney and WWII exhibit, which I think would be really fun to explore. It is supposed to be about how Disney portrayed the war effort and propaganda to US society during WWII. For whatever reason I really like looking at old propaganda posters, I think it can tell a lot about what is going on in society at a certain time.

Along my aviation journey I have been supported by Gleim products and I am very grateful for all that I have gotten. From my Gleim logbook, baseball caps, and test prep material, Gleim provides top-tier quality to their products. Let me tell you that before this month, I hated wearing baseball caps and rarely wore them, even when the sun was shining down on my face. I can honestly say that this month I have worn my Gleim hat more days than I didn’t wear it. And that is saying a lot. I’ve added a picture and you can tell that my hat has gotten very good use. From paint, sweat, water, sand, and being dropped down a flight of stairs and going everywhere with me, this hat has survived and seems to be doing perfectly fine. And I don’t think I will ever be grateful enough for my test prep material. I got an online code from them and there is just a plethora of information for me to read up on and study, plus many many personalized quizzes that I can take from their huge question word bank. And I absolutely adore the logbook that they gave me. It has a nice thick cover and everything else included.