PilotMusician – FMA Solo Program

My first Flight Hours & Solo at Johnson Flight Academy!

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.

Hey Everyone! – Who I am

First of all, I’d like to thank the selection board and Mr. Zapp for the honor of this solo award. I cannot wait to use all this support to continue my ground school training and begin my flight lessons this summer. I’d also like to thank Mr. Knight for taking his time to mentor me as I start my flight training.

About Me

My name is Cameron Milleman and I am a Junior at Burris Laboratory School. I first got interested into flying through my uncle who is a pilot for Southwest Airlines. Later on when I was 11 years old I got introduced to Civil Air Patrol which I joined a year later. Civil Air Patrol really helped me to find in my love for the skies through my 5 orientation flights and an in-depth ground school/simulator course. After earning the Carl A. Spaatz Award and leading Indiana Wing’s Government Relations Program, I began striving to earn my private pilot’s license through Civil Air Patrol’s Cadet Wings program before I graduate high school.

Moving towards my musical experience, I started playing piano at the age of 5 with my brother then I picked up violin in 1st grade then eventually trumpet in 4th grade. After picking up trumpet, it became my primary focus for my musical education. In my time playing trumpet, I have earned two gold medals at State Solo and Ensemble, been selected for IMEA honor band twice, participated in two years of Junior All State band, and recently I started teaching trumpet lessons. This past month, my high school’s advanced wind ensemble got its first ever Group I gold rating for the Indiana State School Music Association’s band contest. This was very exciting for me as the trumpet section leader to become part of such a huge accomplishment for our ensemble.

In closing, I look forward to meeting all of you and hearing more from you about your flying and musical experiences while also getting any of your advice!

Best Wishes,
Cameron Milleman

PPC and Instrument Training

Wow, what a crazy 2 months it has been!

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!!

Flight Day One, and a Musical Update!

Hello all!

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.

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.

See you soon!

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 All!

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.

Bye for now!

Hangar Jam

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.

Flying Lesson!!

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!

The Importance of Health When Flying

Hi all! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the warmer spring weather. In February and March, my flight training was placed on hold because of my health. I had an ear infection and bad stomach/digestive issues and therefore was forced to tend to myself rather than fly. As a result, I became rusty. I forgot how to execute steep turns and stalls properly, among other maneuvers that I was well versed in just weeks ago.

Finally, after three months, I am much healthier. I can consistently weight train to my liking in the gym, and I have found great additional health benefits in going to the sauna every day and adopting a regimen of supplements. I have also had one flight since.

All this is to say, that health is paramount in aviation. Without a healthy body, nothing is possible. Fight training takes discipline in scheduling out days to a lot for flights, studying, and ground classes. Additionally, it also takes discipline in taking care of your body and treating it as if it were a high-performance car. If you fuel your body with bad fuel and neglect to care for it by exercising, your body will not perform well, and vice versa. Flight training is so much more than flying!

Here is what I did to turn around my health (I hope this can help someone who is looking for ways to improve theirs too):

-Sleep early (sleep is everything, our body recovers during sleep, and sleep changes the chemistry of our brain and body)

-supplement regimen including multivitamins, vitamin C, and more

-weight training at the gym every day

-daily sauna sessions for 15-25 minutes at or around 290 degrees Fahrenheit

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