Machining continued

Okay, so this is neither aviation or music, but I thought that you all would probably want an update on my machining project. I finished my hammer! It seems totally insane that I made most of it by myself. Machine shop was probably one of my favorite classes this past semester even though we only met once a week for two hours. I just love the hands on aspect of everything. I loved the repetition of everything that allowed me the time to progress my skills at what I was doing.
As a recap of the project, I used a lathe to make the handle of the hammer out of a steel cylinder. I used a mill to create the head of the hammer out of a steel rectangle. I then put it together by screwing them together, using both a tap and a die. On the lathe and the handle, I felt like I had a decent amount of time to finish everything that needed to be done and was almost always satisfied with the outcome. The timeline for the head and putting everything together was a different story. Unsurprisingly it took me a while to learn and understand how to use the mill. Due to that I was stuck facing the sides of my rectangular block for a few weeks to get the proper size rectangle that I wanted. One thing that was especially frustrating was trying to do the finishing on the rectangular block. For most of the sides, I couldn’t get a smooth finish like I wanted. This was because the tools that were using were rather “well used” and too dull to get a cleaner finish. One solution for this was to use a tool called a fly-cutter, which has a much wider radius as a tool on the mill, but gets a better finish. Another con of this fly-cutter is that it takes more time to set up. So, on some of my sides I got a clean finish with the fly-cutter, but on other sides, the finish could be more clean.
The last 3 weeks of class though, I did a lot with my hammer. I learned how to do placement to put a whole in the middle of my hammer head for the screw of the handle that was going to go in later. I went to the bandsaw to make a diagonal cut in my rectangle to start getting my desired shape. I then went back to the mill and did some placement magic that allowed me to get clean sides for the triangle that I cut off.
The last time I went in, I went in during my own time, so that I was sure I could complete everything else in one go. I learned how to use the belt sander, which, not gonna lie, I was intimidated by. With the belt sander I added most of the finishing touches and idiosyncrasies to my hammer. I used it to round out and smooth out the edges of my hammer head. Other tasks I had to do was the chamfer at the bottom of my handle and round out the hitting part of the hammer head. I rounded out the head by putting it in a clamp and using a file. To get more smoothness, after this was done, I used a special cloth on it. I did the chamfer by using the lathe. I then used the belt sander to take off a little length on the other end of my handle that I needed so that the lathe could clamp onto something earlier.
And, with that I was basically done. I screwed the two pieces together to make sure they worked. It was almost perfect, I just took off a little too much length on my handle. I used special glue to keep the parts screwed together. Then I put wax on to keep it from rusting or whatnot, using a cloth soaked in wax that dried onto it.
I have yet to find an occasion to use my hammer yet, but I am super stoked and proud of how far I have come.

In my next post, I will give you an update on my flying and how music has been going for me lately.

Cheers,

Jovie

Here are some photos of my progress in chronological order.

photo of the mill in action
Finished project!

Aviators…Aviadores?

Hi everyone,

I have some pretty exciting things in the works that I wanted to share. Towards the beginning of the last semester, I made a friend who was also interested in aviation, and had a PPL. Her name is Elisa, I think I may have mentioned her in a post awhile back. It was so cool to meet another person in the same boat as I, struggling to fit flying into the busy-ness of Vanderbilt. I asked her if she knew anyone else in the flying community at college, and she said that she did know a few people, but we both yearned to have a bigger sense of community. In college we’re supposed to find our place, our people, and we felt like this was part of it.
Eventually we came up with the idea of an aviation club, like all the other clubs on campus. We realized that there had been an aviation club at Vanderbilt, but it didn’t exist anymore.
It was really fascinating trying to figure out what they did and what happened through their old Facebook page and through online searching. They did everything from Discovery Day’s, getting a lot of members to go on discovery flights to bringing in professionals from the aviation community. The club eventually died out due to lack of interest and the university not liking the idea of professors flying students. It was cool to see that something like this had existed at the school.
We reached out to others including someone who used to be part of the old aviadores and threw around ideas of making a club and how trying to make it an official club could affect what we do.
Eventually we met up with a few other students who were pilots who were willing to invest their time into this idea. I enjoyed meeting them and hearing their stories of how they got into aviation and where they are now. It made me appreciative of how we were all on our own timelines of getting licenses.
The next step was to take action and to make this idea on paper a reality. We created a group chat and the interested pilots asked around if anyone they knew would want to join. We made a few posters and hung them up around school. That’s all it took. From that we had a whole community of interested people and a time and place to meet.
I was slightly nervous for the meeting, but excited as well — seeing something finally turn into fruition of our planning and goals. There were about 20 people who showed up, so we had a mostly filled classroom. The original pilots who took on this idea (including me) went around and introduced ourselves and we talked about our goals for this club. We want to eventually set up a mentor program where students get matched with each other to give advice about where they are in their process of becoming a pilot and getting their licenses. Afterwards, there was a good amount of people who wanted to stay a little while and introduce themselves. It was nice meeting so many people interested in aviation and learning about their stories.
There were all sorts of friendly people who showed up. There were two guys in the back who also were pilots as a job. We asked them about details. They were visiting town and walking around campus when they came across some of the posters we put up and decided to come. They are survey pilots who are also building their hours. I thought this was just a testament how aviation can bring people together.
I am so happy that all of our collective ideas were able to come together to create a community, even if it is right now only a group of people who have a shared interest of aviation. I can’t wait to make it more and create experiences together.
That’s all for now,
Jovie
this is our in progress logo that I have been working on. I’m thinking I need to add more color
Doodles and drawings from our interest meeting
My friend Elisa and me with our first poster
making our second poster

 

Music and Machining

So y’all are probably wondering what I have been up to this semester so far and what interesting classes I am taking.

I am taking a good amount of STEM classes, but on top of that I am in machine shop, orchestra, and flute lessons.

News! I officially declared my music performance minor in flute! I had to wait a semester before getting some signatures and turning in some paperwork. I feel like now that I have that officially declared I truly can say to people I meet that I am majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in flute performance.

The pieces I am currently playing in orchestra are the first movement of Prokofieff’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor. The soloist violin won the school’s concerto competition last semester, so it has been really top-notch quality. I really love the reoccurring musical themes in the lower instruments throughout the movement. The other piece is Variations on a Theme of Julia Perry and was actually composed by an undergraduate senior in the school of music. I thought this was a really cool opportunity that we get to see the music firsthand and be a part of putting something like this together. Our professor was saying that this is one of the better student-composed pieces that we’ve played. Overall, my impression on orchestra class with all the music major students is that it is a very professional environment. Everyone respects the conductor, Dr. Fountain. I enjoy orchestra, something that I had missed coming to college from high school.

The solo piece that I am working on one-on-one is Karl Stamitz Concerto No. 3 in D Major. I just started learning it, so I don’t have very many thoughts on it yet. One interesting thing about my music though is that it doesn’t have any dynamics written in, so it’s up to the players interpretation. A long-term goal I’ve been working on for music in general is to have a very precise beat and rhythms while also taking the music off the page, with gestures and dynamics that are able to tell a story. I often feel like I either have one or the other and not both in large quantities, so that is something I will be working towards this semester. I think though that this goal is one that you can always be striving for no matter how much you improve at it.

One thing I’ve been also working on with my flute is extended techniques. Specifically, what they call singing and playing. It is rather hard to explain, so I’ve attached a video. I got into it because I needed to play with a more open sound and practicing singing and playing helps me get to that.

So, I am in a machine shop class. This honestly doesn’t relate too much to aviation, but I thought that everyone would be interested in hearing my experience with it. And I guess I could say that this gives me better insight in how airplane parts are made. Anyways…my choices were CS, statics, or this, and if I took a different option I would be maxing out the amount of hours I could take. I think I would’ve taken machining anyways. The whole class is a project, which is to make a hammer. At the end of the semester we get to take the hammer we made home. The main machines we will be using are the bandsaw, lathe, and mill.

At first, I was intimidated by the class, with classmates who were mostly older than me and mostly males. I thought to myself, welcome to engineering! But, by the second class I met more people and felt slightly more comfortable even though I didn’t know what I was doing.

Now that I’ve had class a few times though, things are different. The machine shop feels like home. The bustle of students working on different projects, from building racecar parts, to hammers, to whatever one can imagine. The sudden and loud clanks and hisses of machinery. I’m fully present and focused on what I’m doing in the machine shop. I lose time there. It’s an escape from everything else in life. It’s just my classmates, the TA’s, the tools, and the machines — working together in perfect harmony. I feel safe, not only physically, but in the way that I don’t feel the need to overthink or doubt myself. Everything is so simple; cut and dry — follow a method, follow a procedure, cut once, measure twice, bring your ideas to life. It’s something to show for the things you’ve learned and the experiences you’ve gained. It’s my peace amid a busy day.

I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell you everything that I’ve done in the machine shop so far, or at least name it. I’ve used the bandsaw to cut stock to a certain length. I’ve used the lathe to face, create a shoulder, drill a hole, and used the automatic power feed with dual support for doing a long turn. I don’t know if I used all the correct terminology, but I’ve added pictures of what I’ve done so far.

Overall, I’m beyond glad that I joined the class.

-Jovie

 

 

The long turn of the stock, the original diameter, and the shoulder for the chuck
practicing “singing and playing”
Explaining “singing and playing”
A little bit of snow in the background as I practice

Quotes relating to learning music and aviation

I wanted to give a quick update of where I am at with flying. Unfortunately I have not been able to go flying recently. The weather has been everywhere lately. From snow, freezing rain, and the lovely winter overcast layer, it has been a time for much patience. But, I’ve found a way to occupy myself while making sure that I am doing something aviation related. 

It’s called: 5 minutes a day. In high school my brothers always told me, it’s only five minutes a day. They were talking about SAT practice. They got high scores and told me that they credited it to consistent and every day practice. Their rule was that no matter what, they would study everyday for at least 5 minutes. Some days it would only be 5 minutes and others it would be a lot more, but they were still improving every single day. While I’m not flying, it would be silly to think that I still cannot improve at it just because I’m not in the air. So, I’m trying to implement that 5 minutes a day rule. Whether that’s reviewing emergency procedures, practicing comms, reading maps and weather, I’m still trying to learn and retain information. 

For the future I recently scheduled many flights for February, so I am really looking forward to getting back in the air. 

Here are some quotes on my mind as we head into the new year. 

“Don’t practice until it’s right, practice until you can’t get it wrong.” 

Similarly, “practice until conscious incompetence becomes unconscious competence.” -Angela Duckworth

For full understanding, I think it’s true that you cannot do a task correctly just once and have complete mastery. This can be applied from anything like math problems to specific music rhythms. Just because you have gotten something right in the past does not mean whatsoever that you will be right when it comes time to show off your skills – whether that be through a performance, test, or teaching it to others. A fuller sense of mastery is when you are completely surprised that you have gotten it wrong because you practiced it so many times. I have really seen this concept in music before with really hard passages. Where you practice a passage so many different times, from so many different angles that when you perform it, even if you are super nervous, you play it perfectly, not only because of muscle memory, but because it is so ingrained inside of you. I think that applies to flying too, that when you practice something like emergency procedures so many times, if it actually comes up and you are freaking out a little bit, you automatically take control of the situation. 

“Life is the ultimate open-note exam” 

In this same vein, I don’t think we should be focused on just learning things until the test. Because now that I get to study what I want, I’ve realized that in real life, everything I’m learning matters and can be applied, whether it happens to be on a test I take or not. That is another reason to strive for mastery beyond the bare bones. In a related thought, we don’t only have to learn things that are going to be on a test, sometimes it’s just nice to know things that you are interested in. An example of this is knowing “the why” behind something so you have a deeper understanding. 

“It was neither necessary or possible to educate people who never questioned anything.” -Catch-22, Joseph Heller

Several times, even in the past day, I’ve had a teacher ask a question to the class, and the class stays dead silent and doesn’t not answer. Sometimes the question is rather easy, and sometimes I’m sure that none of us know the answer. I think that it is all about going out on a limb and guessing the answer to the best of your ability. Sure, sometimes you are wrong, but there is nothing wrong with that as long as you are learning how to do it right. I am growing in the sense that within the right contexts, I’m learning that there is absolutely no harm in getting something wrong. Oftentimes in practice problems for classes I find myself taking up whole pages for a single problem. I let myself do that, because I try the problem with different angles until it clicks, and I think that is part of the learning process. 

I often feel this sense that I’m holding back questions in the recess of my brain, whether it’s for class or flying. That in a sense as we’ve grown up, after asking a million times why the sky is blue, we are taught to keep the questions to ourselves. And pretty soon, after a while, we just stop wondering all together – we stop asking the questions. But if we don’t have the questions, if we don’t have the curiosity, there is no point in learning something in the first place because we don’t really have a need for it. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve realized that I need to bring back the questions, no matter how silly they may seem to be. I think that opens up a whole world of possibilities. Because 

“there was no telling what people might find out once they felt free to ask whatever questions they wanted to.” -Catch-22, Joseph Heller

A penny for your thoughts?

-Jovie 

Me and a friend getting coffee while we study
my paper plane earrings ere part of a trinket set I ordered off of amazon and made into earrings.
the old FMA logo on top, another plane sticker on the bottom
sticker curtesy of FMA
all the books I brought to college
Seeing where the acronyms I learn come from in the FAR/AIM book
v speeds, light signals, and emergency procedures
review of emergency procedure

Engineering Musical Instruments

Hey!

Unfortunately, the weather has not been the best lately, so I have not been able to go flying. I’m going to talk more about music at some point in time, but first I wanted to talk about how I’ve really seen music become more connected with my other interests. I signed up for this short, 1 month long, intro to mechanical engineering class, going in with very little expectations. Turns out that it is a project-based class and that the goal of the class was to build an instrument out of household materials. How cool is that?

This project stemmed out of when classes were online the past few years and engineering had to be implemented from a variety of different places. What a better way to get more creative and resourceful than using household materials to build a project?

It took me forever to come up with what type of instrument I even wanted to build out of everything imaginable and possible. Within that I did some research that I’m sure people are interested in. I came across the question of, what even is music at its very core? And one response to it was this piano piece called 4’33” by John Cage and in the same vein the Monotone Silent Symphony. I would encourage you to look it up if you don’t already know about it. If you don’t have the time, it’s basically a whole piece where the performer doesn’t play a single note on the instrument, but sits there in silence, and the music that is made comes from the audience’s reaction. It’s the whole idea of how silence is just as important as everything else in music and how music is a performance. Around the same time, I saw a poem my classmate from high school wrote who goes to a music college that relates very well. He talked about how in music “space has power too” and how “maybe you have to write 99 notes to realize the power of 3.” I don’t know, I think that’s just speaking to me right now, how intentional we can be with the littlest things in music. What do y’all reading this think? And do you have a really strong opinion of what music is or can be at its core?

Anyways, I decided on making a kalimba, aka a sanza, aka a thumb piano.  The kalimba originates from the mbira instrument out of Eastern and Southern Africa. The kalimba consists of a wooden board, usually with a resonator, with attached (metal) tines that are constructed to create different pitches when struck/plucked by fingers. 

 At first I had no idea what type of materials I could come up with from living my very simple college dorm life. But, with some time, ideas came up. At college, they often give out these metal water bottles, basically like 1 use plastic bottles, but metal. I can add in a picture for reference. So, I wanted to do something with them because I had access to them. I decided to take my kid scissors that I brought with me to college and see what I could do. In the end, I just cut flat strips and realized that I could make noise with them. Thus, a thumb piano.

 The kalimba I made is composed of different length tins strategically placed on top of a bridge that is held together by a sound box. The materials I used for this are a small 22 x 6 x 1.5cm box, a hair tie, and strips of metal cut from a water bottle found in the recycling bin. The hair tie acts like a bridge: part of the metal goes under it once and over it the second time. Changing the length of the tin from the second hair tie to its end changes the frequency that the tin resonates. 

Now, this is where my project turned into more engineering, because right where I left off was nowhere near being done. My instrument had to be tunable and it had to be part of a band of other homemade instruments.

The tuning process was rather difficult. To make a long story short, most of the different ways I tried to tune the instrument did not work because the devices I was using could not pick up the frequency of the kalimba when the sound was not constant, but rather plucked. My solution to this was to set up a drone on my phone or a different device and use my ear to match the kalimba to that pitch. 

I have attached below, pictures of my instrument and the song that my group decided to play together. I hope you enjoy!

-Jovie

I made the Kalimba on the bottom left. Can you guess the song that we played?

Inspiration amid daily life!

Hi,

I thought that it would be cool to talk about finding inspiration amid a normal week. Sometimes I feel a lack of motivation or question if I truly have what it takes to go after my passions, but I’ve been reminded this week of why it’s worth it through the inspiration of others. This week I have been fortunate enough to be in an environment of being surrounded by inspiration. From music concerts to career talks I’ve had my fill. 

Here are some of the music related inspirations I’ve found in my week. This past Sunday my friend had her junior clarinet recital. I’ve never heard music before where the clarinet is the main instrument, so I was excited to hear something new. It was really cool to show up for my friend and see her in her true environment and enjoy the fruits of her efforts. She had been working and practicing this for months and I was so proud of her to finally come to the end of this journey. I don’t remember the pieces she played, but she played a piece with a piano, another by herself, one with a viola, and one as part of a wind chamber ensemble. It was cool to see the clarinet, and the different types of clarinets she played, in different environments. 

This past Tuesday I was able to livestream the Vanderbilt Orchestra’s concert while studying for a chemistry test. They played Tchaikovsky’s passionate final symphony, “Symphony no. 6,” and Paganini’s “Violin Concerto no. 1 in D Major, Op. 6.” I wasn’t even planning on listening to it, but at the last minute a friend reminded me to livestream it, so I did. I had definitely heard the violin concerto before and may have even been part of its performance, so it was cool hearing it again after I haven’t in forever. I think that it helped me study too and I felt good supporting my friends who are in orchestra. 

Two of my music mentors, figures in my life, recently performed a piece — the US premier of Danzón #3 for flute, guitar, and orchestra by Arturo Márquez. I was able to get limited access to watch it and I thought that it was really cool to see the people that mentor me put together something so novel. Anthony Spain conducted the orchestra, while Sarah Bassingthwaighte played the flute — both my mentor figures, and Alejandra Reyes Zamorano played guitar.

Here are some of the career related inspirations I’ve found in my week. After livestreaming the orchestra concert the other day, I was able to take a break from studying to check in on the livestream preparations for the Artemis launch. I haven’t been really following along with the whole journey in the making – just having some basic knowledge of what is going on. It was still really cool to hear the excitement of what was going on because this is an historic event.

The very next day, the timing worked out enough that I was able to attend a talk led by an engineer at NASA, who talked about Artemis. I hadn’t even considered going to the event but realized that I had some free time to use. For me, I think I was more interested in how the engineer got to where he was today rather than the actual work he was doing. He grew up in Paraguay watching planes fly above with the dream to join them and his family moved to the US for better opportunities so that he may one day get the chance to join NASA. He got his bachelors and masters in several different concentrations of engineering while also being involved in the Navy. The interesting thing was that the reason why he stood apart from the other candidates for NASA was the fact that he had a good background in engineering and the fact that he had also been a firefighter. They hired him in the area of fire engineering. He talked about the moral of that was to do what you love and not to go halfway with anything because you never know when your true expertise will be beneficial in the most unlikely places. 

In my engineering class that I am taking, two different civil engineers were brought in this week to talk about their careers as managers in construction related jobs and their companies. I don’t see myself having a huge interest in civil engineering or a future there, but I think it was still cool to see people who have gone far and are willing to share that joy with the younger generation.

And of course, we can’t forget about the aviation related inspirations that are a part of my life. One of the youtubers I follow recently uploaded a video about how she revamped old airport runway lights into house lamps. After acquiring them it was a one-day project for her. I think from this I was inspired in the way that I know that I am capable of doing projects like this and then integrating the product into my everyday life. On a different topic, I recently stumbled upon a book recommendation of Eyes Turned Skyward by Alena Dillon. I have only read the excerpt so far, but I really like the writing style of adding in details to history to make the reader want to turn back time to be there, no matter how bad the situation is. I think that this could a real rich place of inspiration for me.

I want to share that this inspiration is all around us if we look hard enough. Some weeks I feel like I don’t see any whatsoever and there are other weeks like this one, full of it. We don’t even need to go above and beyond to seek this inspiration — I was able to livestream the orchestra concert while studying instead of taking 2 hours out of my busy day just for an orchestra concert. I also had to leave my NASA talk quite earlier because I had a prior commitment that I needed to attend. Looking into the book recommendation and reading an online sample of it took me no longer than an hour. I believe that there are small things we can do to find inspiration. 

I’ve also realized that maybe I’ve had a lack of motivation because I don’t see that I am necessarily pushed by the people around me and it can be hard to change the environment. But, I think that if you can’t find the inspiration you are looking for, you might as well be it for others. 

I hope that you liked this different format of a post, and I hope to give up updates on different parts of my life in the future: music, aviation, and school.

Jovie

Follow up to 11/1 Flight

Hi!

“You become a better pilot in Nashville”

I’m sure you are wondering how my flight went. It was a fabulous time and a good reminder of why I love flying so much.

Truthfully, things started off a little rough. After doing most of the preflight and reviewing how different 172s are from my prior experience of 162s, it was time to start the engine. And it just didn’t want to start. My instructor and I added more primer, and it still wouldn’t turn. We had flooded the engine. We waited between trying several more times. Thankfully though, we eventually got the engine started and we were off to continuing on with our pre-flight processes.

BNA is such a bigger airport than what I was used to, with the multiple runways and all the different taxiways, and of course the type of aircraft around.

It was surreal trying to line up safely behind the hold-short line because of the huge 737 jets surrounding us. What had been previously a more simple task, took a lot of my brain power. I had learned about wake turbulence and all of the related concepts, but I actually had to apply that knowledge. We had to wait until the jet in front of us had turned off the taxiway that we were going to line up on, in order to be a safe distance behind them. Because there is nothing safe about being directly behind a large aircraft when it uses its engine from being stopped to rolling. That was a huge learning experience for me.

While my instructor was making all the comms that and instructing me on how to navigate large aircraft, she gave me something really important to hold onto. She told me that “you just gotta remember that you and your aircraft are just as important as the 737s and other jets around you. If atc says something you are not comfortable doing with your experience and aircraft size, just say no, and they will find another way around it.” I think that matters a lot and remembering that will keep me and my surroundings safer in the future.

After flying out of BNA, we went to the Gallatin Music City Executive airport, XNX. It was a pretty smooth, short flight, and the airport was rather easy to find because it was near some smokestacks. The flight had gorgeous views of the nearby lake and fall colors from above. Until then, I didn’t really realize how much I missed flying over a lake like I had done every single time I flew this Summer.

I should address the change over from the 162 to the 172. Previously I had been only flying Skyhawk 162s and I flew a Cessna 172. During preflight I thought that the differences would be overwhelming. During flight they were not. Yes, it was a different set up and the instruments read slightly different, but when it comes to it, it’s all the same exact instruments used for the same exact purposes. A huge difference though is the sight picture. This is due to the different shaped cowlings. On the 172 for me, there was more distance between flying level and the horizon, which didn’t take to much trouble for me to get adjusted.

At Gallatin I worked on my traffic pattern, getting back into takeoffs and landings. I did not do comms for this at the untowered airport, my instructor did for me, but I think I will get back to doing comms soon enough, most likely my next flight.

Honestly I was slightly surprised at how well I did the landings, considering that when I was first learning, it took me forever to figure out the balance of things. But, when I was flying, things came naturally and I automatically adjusted. By my last landing, it was going perfectly smooth and even my instructor was more than happy with the results. That said, I can still get better and be more aware and use more right rudder. Another thing that I still can improve on from that flight is using more trim. Trim is there for a reason, and it’s to help me and to make my life easier, and I just need to use it more often.

We flew back to BNA and I landed, (needing slightly more right rudder), and my instructor quickly got us off the runway because a 737 airliner was landing behind us.

All in all, it was a pretty fun time and reminded me of the joy behind why I fly. I scheduled my next flight for next week, where I will get back into maneuvers for preparing for my solo.

In the meantime I plan to review more of the differences between a 162 and 172, preflight wise and in general of how things work, the engine, the amount of fuel, etc.

Jovie

  

 

 

Back to Flying!

Hi everyone,

I know it’s been a while, but I have some exciting news! After trying to settle into college a little bit, I’ll have a whole different post on that, I’ve been trying to fly again. Right now I am setting things up with Tennessee Flight Training.

Tennessee Flight Training is a flight school out of BNA in Nashville, and the owner happens to be Chris Erlanson, a fellow FMA member. How crazy is that?! I just love that FMA has a whole community, spread across the country. I am set to have my first flight with them this upcoming Tuesday and continue and grow on my aviation journey. 

In college I’ve met some really cool people, including my friend Elisa who currently has her private pilot’s license. 

I recently had lunch with my friend Elsia. It was really cool to hear her own aviation journey and where she is now — another freshman at Vanderbilt, continuing with aviation in her free time. Like me, she was racing against the clock this Summer to make big steps in her aviation journey. It just worked out that she was able to get her private pilot’s license 2 days before leaving for college. How amazing is that? I’m just super glad that we were able to come across each other on campus and find out that we were both pilots. She offered that someday when our schedules align that she will take me up flying with her and I know I will hold her to that. 

I’m super excited to continue my aviation journey, and I will keep you updated on what happens.

-Jovie

New Music

Hey everyone,

Now that my senior concerto is done, woo! – I now can choose a new piece to play. I was choosing between Doppler’s Airs Valaques and Popp’s Nightingale Serenade. I chose Doppler’s piece because I have had my fair share of playing music that is suppose to imitate birds. It’s a fun one, but not too hard. With this piece, it will be a quick turn around to learn and perform. I spent about a year on my concerto and spent about a month with this one. I performed in a chill and fun environment — my last performances before I’m off to college.

One thing that I have noticed is that I get way less nervous before performances. A few years ago before performances I would get super nervous because they were always a big deal. Now, I barely get nervous and don’t mind performing in front of audiences, even with super short notice. I have become more comfortable being on stage and have realized that the people in the audience are just there to enjoy whatever I have to offer and play. One thing that hasn’t changed though is the fact that the more time I have to just wait before a performance, the more anxious I get, so I usually have to distract myself.

Anyways to the performances themselves. For the piece I was playing with the piano and at first I would say that we were definitely struggling to stay together. I hadn’t studied the score too much, which may have been part of the problem. I wouldn’t say that we were falling apart per say, it’s just that we didn’t click together. But after some deliberate practice together, we figured it out. Now, to me performances are just part of the practicing cycle and a way to finish a piece off. More recently I have gotten more compliments about my playing which makes the experience better, knowing that people are truly enjoying what I put together.

I really loved playing the Doppler piece and there was something so fun about it once I learned it, putting it all together and hearing myself. For a quick turn around, I would call it a success.

My 2nd performance was very important to me even though it was a very relaxed environment. Every few months my private lesson teacher would gather all her students and have a recital together where everyone would show off what piece they were working on. Because of Covid for the past two years, it has been different. We all meet on Zoom and share videos of our performances. But, this was the first time where our recital was in person again. It was so nice to hear so many different flutes and see people from all walks of life trying to learn the instrument. I thought another thing that was cool was hearing my fellow students that I hadn’t truly heard in years and seeing all the improvements that they’ve made as players. It was also a farewell as sorts because this was my official last recital before no longer being a regular student of my teacher and leaving for college.

Something about this that I would say I enjoyed the most was the flute choir music we all played together. Flute choir is basically a group of all different types of flutes playing music together. These types of flutes include the normal flute, piccolo, alto, and bass flutes. I haven’t been a part of a flute choir for about 3 years now. It was so ethereal to be a part of something like that again — a part of something bigger that all blends together.

It’s crazy now to think that this part of flute playing is over and transitioning for me. Right now I’m getting ready for music in college.

-Jovie

 

The flute choir in the recital — me in the blue dress towards the front
Me being introduced to the audience by my flute teacher
Me and the other graduating senior, saying our last goodbyes and reflecting on how much we have learned and grew under our teacher.

 

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. 

Here are some pictures of reviewing ground work.

So, that all for now, but I’m sure to update you more soon on music this Summer.