On August 1st, I finally got a day that wasn’t rainy, stormy, foggy, IMC, or a hurricane (I live in Nebraska, btw) and had an aircraft that was actually working. After 5 months of bad weather days and maintenance problems, I finally got the DPE in the plane and was able to secure my Private pilot license.
However, since I was extremely late posting about my private, I will fill you in on my instrument training. In a month, I had completed all of my basic Part 141 training and had to close out the last couple of cross-country flights. With a lot of two-a-days, crazy early mornings, and late-night flights, one starting at 8:00 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. with a 9:00 a.m. class the next morning, I got my training done. Now this week on Tuesday, I have my stage 3, then next week I have my EOC, End of Course.
Although I have been busy and sometimes don’t get all the sleep I need, I still wouldn’t have it any other way. In the next month, I am hoping to get my Instrument rating and get on to Commercial right after that.
Thank you all for the support and for being patient with my progress!!
Admittedly this post comes a month later than intended, but now after settling into university overseas after a hectic first few weeks, I finally had the chance to sit down during this long weekend to finish what I had started earlier.
On Friday, July 18th, I had my pre-solo stage check flight with CFI Ben, and he gave me the thumbs up for my upcoming solo flight, along with some areas that I could still improve upon (pattern work per usual, though in fairness the airport was extremely busy).
On the following Saturday and Sunday, I flew with CFI Mitch to prepare myself for the final solo flight, getting familiarized with my intended airport at Martinsburg, WV (MRB/KMRB), making all the radio calls and following all the procedures as if my CFI wasn’t even there.
On Monday, July 21st in the late afternoon, I took off with CFI Mitch from Leesburg, VA (JYO/KJYO) Airport to Martinsburg, with my mom sitting in the back of the Cessna 172N taking photos.
With CFI Mitch sitting next to me, we did a couple of touch-and-goes at Martinsburg Airport. Then Mitch felt that I was ready for the solo, he and my mom both hopped out of the airplane at the FBO, and I was alone to work on the final solo.
I taxied back onto the runway, made the radio call, took off (so much easier with less weight!!), circled around the airport only twice due to time constraints as it was getting dark (I would have loved to keep going though), then landed the airplane, taxied the airplane back to the FBO. I did it, I completed my solo flight!
We flew back to Leesburg airport, and my mom took a couple more of photos of me with my CFI, who worked with me heavily in July to help me finally complete my solo flight. When we left Leesburg, it was past 9pm, and I felt pretty great for my solo accomplishment!
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!
Musical Update
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.
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!
Flight
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!
Music
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!
See you soon!
Thank you all so much for your encouragement and support. I look forward to keeping you updated as my journey unfolds.
It felt so amazing and so weird at the same time! Not having my CFI next to me gave me a sense of independence in the aircraft and gave me a huge boost of adrenaline when flying. It went great, although I thought I could’ve done better on my landings, 3 in total, but I’ve heard that if you can walk away from a landing, it’s a good landing.
I hope that this chapter is the first of many and I can’t wait to share my future accomplishments.
I don’t have good pictures because I forget when I’m focusing on the lesson, so I usually get one before my preflight.
My CFI and I have been working on my takeoffs and landings so that I can solo. I’ve done two lessons working on them and so far, my approaches have been significantly improving but I am still perfecting the final flare when I am about to touchdown. This aspect has been a little bit of a struggle, mostly because I believe I am focusing on the runway right ahead of me instead of looking down the runway as most people encourage to look there instead. I do have better touchdowns when I remember to look down the runway, but I will just have to keep working at it and develop an “eye” for my touchdowns.
(1) My View as a Ramp Agent! (2) Editing my first batch of plane spotting pictures! (3) One of the finished Products. Enjoy!
Hi All!
I hope you are all having a wonderful summer.
2024 has been quite the year for me. I began flight lessons and online ground school and I finished my first year at college.
2024 has also been a huge mental battle for me. I remember just one moth ago laying in bed thinking about my year thus far. I had no motivation to fly or continue with ground school lessons, I thought about my dreams of flying commercially less, and I was generally unhappy. I had distanced myself from my closest friends, and I had very frequent anxiety and gastrointestinal issues which sent me to the ER after a myriad of doctor visits at one point all of which I had never had before.
That night I realized halfway into 2024; I had been depressed for six months. As someone who always had a goal in life to fly, to laugh, and to work out, I never thought I would be depressed.
I blog about this to bring awareness to the fact that anyone can deal with mental health battles and that its extremely hard for those in the midst of a battle to realize they are struggling. Life can throw us all curveballs that depress us and traumatize us as they can to fill us with utter joy and pure determination. However, realization is the first step to recuperating from any mental health battle and thus I am now doing better each and every day.
For me, for the last few months my focus shifted from flying and this wonderful community to recovering from my mental health which physically sent me to the ER and through numerous doctor’s visits due to gastrointestinal issues which went undiagnosed for four arduous months.
As I work on myself each and every day and the clouds begin to clear in my life, I am determined more than I ever have to fly again and to complete ground school as swiftly and to the best degree I possibly can. My dream of being a commercial airline pilot is once again filling me with determination and an amazing purpose! Two weeks ago, I returned to the airport to work as a ramp agent again this time contracted to Frontier Airlines where I will even be trained for loadmaster, pushback, and potentially station training manager duties! I also contacted my flight school’s owner to discuss flying again, and I have begun Sporty’s ground school training again. I also now plane spot which serves as an activity which brings me peace and tranquility. It’s a great mental reset. And like always I work out every day.
To anyone struggling physically or mentally, just know struggle is temporary. Even on your worst of days. Find your life purpose(s) even in the darkest of times, and don’t be too hard on yourself. Even when you feel horrible, love yourself and live life undeniably and confidently.
I’ve been kinda slacking on posting my flights that I have been doing but I’ll get you all brought up to date on them.
I’m still trying to perfect my landings to be able to solo but my CFI and I went to KGRI (Class D Airspace) and I worked on my communications with a tower.
Then later in the week, we scheduled the same flight again, but instead of my CFI doing the planning and helping me determine the cruising altitude and runway to use I did all of that and it was pretty amazing being able to make a plan then execute it exactly like it was made up.
I’m hopefully going to solo pretty soon so I’ll keep you guys updated on that!!
On the 29th of June, I held my very first Hangar Jam! I’ve been busy flying and working so I couldn’t get this posted sooner. It was awesome to play in front of a crowd and spread the light of aviation and music. I’ve been getting a few more hours in the seat and am starting to become more fluent with the controls and getting more proficient in maneuvers.
On Saturday I was given the opportunity to fly in my first Skyhawk 152. He is a member of the AAA (Antique Airplane Association) and wanted to take me up and fly me to my flight lesson. It was my first flight lesson with my new instructor. It was kind of a hard cross wind but it was a good time. It was great to get back in the seat and get some hours!
