I am proud to announce that I have completed my first official flight lesson as a Flying Musician Ambassador! Between 5 and 7pm EST, I went up in a Cessna 172 (tail number N420U) from my local airport in St. Mary’s County. My CFI and I flew around the area and reviewed stall recovery, steep turns, and landing which are the areas that I am currently working on.
This past summer, I had a brief run in with a spin where I did the almost unforgivable and tried altering the ailerons while in a power on stall. That experience made it rather stressful to complete steep turns and stall recovery practices, but with the help of my CFI I had much less trouble today with those things, and I am even exited to practice them more so that I can fully overcome this obstacle!
Below I have attached some pictures I took today from the plane! (Everything looks more beautiful in a plane)
Tomorrow, I am to go up again first thing in the morning. I look forward to updating you on my flight tomorrow!
Tomorrow is Memorial Day. In honor of Memorial Day, my brother and I participate in Taps Across America, where musicians across the country play Taps at 3pm local time in honor of those who gave their life for our country. I will be participating on the flute with my brother on the clarinet, as we play in honor of our own family members who made the ultimate sacrifice.
Anyone can participate in Taps Across America. If you are interested in playing Taps in your community in honor of our soldiers, first register on the Taps Across America website linked below, then grab your horn and join us! You do not need a sanctioned event or an audience, just an instrument and a location.
Taps Across America – Taps Across America
To those who are veterans, thank you very much for your service. To those who are family to a veteran, thank you very much for yours.
Thank you all so much for your encouragement and support. I look forward to keeping you updated as my journey continues.
Bye for now!
Hello everyone! This is Lauren Compton posting from Southern Maryland. First things first, a big thank you to the board and to Mr. John for giving me this amazing opportunity. I look forward to keeping you all updated on my progress!
I was introduced to flying as a new member of Civil Air Patrol two years ago. After completing my orientation flights, I became aware of Aim High Flight Academy, which is sponsored by the US Air Force. Being selected to attend Aim High was an amazing opportunity! We attended ground school and flew nearly every day during the three-week program.
Currently, I am in the process of beginning my journey to solo with Piedmont Flight Center in St. Mary’s County Maryland, where my CFI thinks I can be ready to solo in about 10 hours because of my previous experience. At the moment, I have a total of 18.9 flight hours, mostly in the Cessna 172, through my completion of the Aim High Flight Academy and some added experience through Civil Air Patrol.
Speaking of Civil Air Patrol, I just achieved my Billy Mitchell award! For those of you that don’t know, the Mitchell award represents a CAP cadet completing half of the program and has been awarded to only 12% of all cadets!
Below I have inserted a few pictures and a link to the speech I gave when I was presented with my award!
In terms of music, I just completed my high school flute journey with a superior rating at state solo and ensemble, playing Chaminade’s Concertino- the same piece my mother played in her senior year of high school. I could not have hoped for a better conclusion to my high school flute career! Below is a video of me performing at my flute teacher’s recital, and a picture of my brother and me with our certificates!
The week prior to solo and ensemble, my school band held our spring concert on Thursday evening in which I performed as Principal flute. During the same week, I sang Out Here on My Own from Fame in my school’s (very casual) senior coffee house. Below I have attached video links for both.
As for harp, I recently performed at a Mother’s Day Tea for one of the local churches. It was such an honor to be invited back, as I also played for this event last year. Next week, I’ll be playing at a local senior center. If you’d like to see that performance, please check out my Facebook page, harptunesandtales, to learn about my playing and my non-profit organization titled Tunes and Tales.
Sharing music at so many local venues brings me great joy and has brought me closer to the people in my community! I would love to hear about your musical journey – please feel free to share!
Thank you all so much for your encouragement and support. I look forward to keeping you updated as my journey unfolds.
Bye for now!
