Hey everyone! This past week, I had the opportunity to attend one of Civil Air Patrol’s most sought-after flight academies—Johnson Flight Academy—in Mattoon, Illinois. During the week, 17 other student pilots and I were paired with some of the most experienced and knowledgeable CFIs. My own CFI at the academy is currently an executive pilot out of Metro Detroit who was also a pit percussionist in DCI back when he was in high school. Below is a picture of him and me after graduation.
At the beginning of the week, we had a lot of bad weather, including a tornado warning on the first full day, so we weren’t able to fly until late on the second day, which was when I got my first lesson. Before that, my wingman and I had to learn how to preflight the aircraft along with some ground school work during the bad weather. In my first lesson, I learned how to start the engine, taxi, conduct run-up procedures, complete my first take off, and perform basic aerial maneuvers.
On the second day of flying, I got three lessons to work on steep turns, power-on stalls, power-off stalls, S-turns, utilizing the G1000 and autopilot, along with introductory pattern work. Here are some more fun photos from that day with a great view of the sunset.
The day after that, I did a lot more pattern work plus some refinements on my final approach, level out, and flair. I didn’t get as much time since we had to take the aircraft for an oil change for a few hours, but I still was able to get my pre-solo endorsement at around 8 hours. I even made it on the news after doing an interview with a local station; exciting stuff!
Unfortunately, we only had one more day for flying since bad weather was rolling back in, so I had to pack in a lot more time in the pattern to work more on smoothing out my landings. At the end of the day after finishing a few more patterns, my instructor hopped out of the 172 on the ramp and told me to go do it again without him. He signed my log book with my solo endorsement at 10 flight hours and I was on my way for one last pattern for the week, this time on my own. I am very excited to say that my solo went amazing and that my instructor got a great video of my takeoff and landing. There’s also a video of me getting soaked by my fellow peers!
It was an amazing week thanks to the outstanding instructors, staff, and our hosts at Coles County Airport. I’ve got a few more pictures from our graduation ceremony at the end of the week.
