A Logbook Reflection

Listening to - Brand New - Not The Sun

In lieu of going to my Corporate Finance class, I opted to do a little personal logbook accounting (Enron could've favored from my bookkeeping skills, clearly). Looking back through all these entries, it finally hit me that - I'm getting old. The first entry in this logbook is 09/08/2002. In actuality, my first flight was 4/14/2002 (Yes, I remembered it even though it's not in the logbook, it was two weeks after my 15th birthday) at American Flyers (Has anyone notice that their name is spelt wrong?) in a Cessna 172. I don't remember the tail number, and the American Flyers outfit at ISP went bankrupt due to - poor accounting skills. I see a trend here...

I was 15 years old. 15! I am now exactly thirty days away from my 21st birthday. How the hell did that happen?!

Those first logbook entries are very interesting:

09/08/2002 Cessna-150 N63496 ISP ISP Preflight - Taxi - Radio Intro - Four Fundamentals - Climbs, Descents, Turns - Checklist - Normal T/O and Landing. 1.3 ASEL Day Dual

::Sigh:: How far I haft come.

8/13/2003 My first flight to another airport. ISP FOK ISP Class C + D Airspace - X-wind and Soft Field Landings - X-wind traffic pattern 1.4 ASEL Day Dual

I remember this flight because I went flying in Khakis, a dress shirt, and tie and went immediately from airport to a Sweet 16 party for my friend Erin. Nothing like being able to brag about why I was late to now crazy ex girlfriend then incredibly awesome girl I wanted to make my girlfriend. Oh so young... lol

Yeah it took me almost a year to go from first real instructional flight to my first mini cross country. I was flying only once a month when I was 15 as that was all I could afford. I didn't care, I was flying.

Then the big day in every pilots career:

11/23/2003 C-150 63496 ISP ISP Traffic Pattern - T+G's - 1st SOLO! 1.5 ASEL 1.5 Day 1.0 Dual 0.5 PIC 1.5 Total

Ahhh ::sigh:: Who doesn't remember their first solo?! The winds were light and variable. We were landing on runway 6 making left traffic. We did about 5 touch and goes before my instructor goes, "Well, this was fun. You ready to try this by yourself?"

"Uhhh...SURE!"

Out he goes and I get the standard, "The plane is going to be lighter so you're going to lift off sooner and be faster on approach. If you don't like the approach, just go around."

Off I went and it was amazing. My grandfather had just passed 26 days prior and I had kept a prayer card with me at all times. I'm damn sure he was with me that day. He was the one who introduced me to flight and the one I owe my dream to. Thank you Pop. I sure do miss you.

3/27/04 C-150 63496 ISP FOK ISP Great Sunset 1.0 ASEL Day PIC

My first local solo cross country to Westhampton airport. I had flown out there earlier that afternoon with my instructor as it had been a month since my last flight. As we were coming back to Islip, she asked if she thought I had enough time to make it out there and back before the sun officially set. After some mental calculations we agreed it would be. I did one landing out at FOK and brought it back "IFR", I Follow Roads, to Islip into a beautiful sunset.

07/03/04 C-150 63496 ISP SWF GON ISP X-wind T/O + Lndg + Solo X-Cty 4.1ASEL 3.9XC 4.1Day 0.2 Dual 3.9 PIC

My long private cross country. The most memorable part of this flight was going from SWF to GON, a route I had never flown before. As I got over Bridgeport the radio fell silent for almost 15mins. Finally the controller calls me up and hands me off to the next sector. I tell him I'm on my solo long cross country and I thought he forgot about me and we both got a good laugh out of that. I stopped and refueled in Groton before the familiar hop back to Islip.

10/23/04 Private Pilot Certificate Issued

That is what is written in beautiful blue calligraphy thanks to the great pilot, story teller, and artist, Frank D'Angelone. Every time I see Frank for a flight test (ok so it's only been twice but...) I always tell him I want to stop by Bayport Aerodrome and just talk about flying with him, but I never find the time to. I think the most memorable part of this flight test was flying backwards. The winds were so strong that Frank was sure we could get this plane to fly backwards. He told me to configure for slow flight but use all of the flaps. I do as told and Franks says, "My plane, you look out and see if we're going backwards."

Sure enough, I look down to see us drifting backwards towards Port Jeff Harbor, even though we're flying North!

As quickly as that moment comes its gone and Frank has me go from slow flight to power-off stall. I earned the right to learn that day, and I'd like to thank the 10kt crosswind for helping me out on that.

4/30/05 C-150 N922SW ISP GON ISP IFR Clearance (1) ILS 5 @ GON to minimums (1) ILS 6 @ ISP to min. Lt to Mod turbulence. 2 Inst Approaches, 1 landing, 2.5 ASEL 2.5 Day, 2.1 Actual Instrument, 2.5 Dual, 2.5 PIC

That was the flight I had mentioned in one of my last posts a few weeks ago regarding my most valuable instrument flight experience. I believe I may have said the flight took place in March, but alas, it was April 30th.

7/9/05 C-150 63496 ISP PVD MVY ISP IFR X/Country (1) Loc 23 @ PVD (1) VOR 24 @ MVY (1) ILS 24 circle 33L @ ISP IFR Filing and Clearance 3 Inst Approaches, 3 Landings 5.1 ASEL, 5.1 XC, 1.0 Actual Inst. 3.9 Simulated 5.1 Dual 5.1 PIC

This was my long IFR XC. It was a great summer day for a flight and the fact that we did this in the middle of the summer kept my head aware of the weather. There's something about sitting with the hood on for a few hours, following two needles, shooting an approach to minimums, and finding the runway right where it's supposed to be. On the way back to ISP we encountered some thunderstorms. Nothing was embedded thankfully so we were able to spot them easily and we got great help from the NY Approach controllers. They told us where all the heavy stuff was and vectored us around everything.

08/06/2005 Instrument Rating Added

This is what is written, in red inked calligraphy in my log on this date. In my opinion, the instrument flight test was the most fun out of the two and the easiest for me. I blame all those years of flight simulator as a young kid for developing my instrument skills so quick and strong. Everyone calls the private a license to learn, and I don't know if they have a saying for the instrument but it should be something along the lines of, "A license to get yourself in trouble and kill yourself if you're not careful." I do think though, that it should be mandatory that after you get your private certificate you need to get your instrument rating tacked on. To me, it is the most valuable rating if respected.

After this date in time, there is a 4 month break. My first semester away at Virginia Tech. Tech has an airport, Montgomery County - Virginia Tech Airport but there is only one way to get access to a plane at Virginia Tech, and that's through the Hokie Flying Club. Unlike most of the other pilots at Tech, I did not have some absurd amount of money to drop joining this club and alas, did not fly. Damn you rich kids from Northern Virginia...damn you all!

Flights after this date are extremely scattered. 12/28/05, 3/11/06, 6/11/06, 1/27/07, 4/25/07. Yes in one logbook page I managed to span two years. The 3/11 flight was during my first Spring Break. 6/11 when I was finally home and working again. 1/27/07 was my first flight when I was home and then attending Stony Brook. I had no spare money between my new car to get me to and from Stony Brook, gas, and having some sort of life on the weekends.

At the end of this page though, things start to change. 7/1/07, 7/2/07, 7/3/07, 7/4 - you get the picture. I threatened to go back to Virginia so I could be happy. The main reason I came home was because I hated not flying. If I came home to fly, and still wasn't flying, why should I stay? I'd rather be living with my friends in an apartment and enjoying my college experience rather than stay home and go to a school I cannot stand. As soon as I was about to drive to Virginia to view an apartment and sign a lease, the parents made an offer I could not refuse and the only catch is I must pay them back once I graduate. I'll do anything to fly, it's what I love. I stayed home and we know where we stand now. The blog takes up most of the stories from July forward.

I had the mixture problem 9/3/07 where I lost engine power on my way to see then girlfriend in Ithaca and had a soaring EGT due to what we can still not figure out besides the engine running too lean. Clearly, it was a sign.

Looking back at all these experiences it's hard to believe I've been flying for almost six years now. I can't get myself to believe that it was six years ago that crazy 15 year old hopped into the left seat of a 172 and flew for the first time in a GA aircraft.

Now, I have acquired quite a nice amount of time, albeit all but a few of those hours are in a 150. I feel as if I have attained extremely valuable experience that I can bring with me to the Cardinal, and most other aircraft that I shall fly one day.

The 150 has another advantage to it as well. It has a tendency to be unstable and requires the pilot to work to keep things looking like they're supposed to. You know those crazy pedals on the floor? You actually have to use them! So far from what I've seen in the Cardinal, I only have to really push em during performance maneuvers and crosswind landings.

This was a nice trip through my logbook, something I haven't really done much. Maybe I'll make this a once every 6 year event.

I'll leave you with my latest totals from this wonderful legal record of mine:

103 Instrument Approaches
367 Landings 32 at Night
230.4 ASEL
2.1 ASEL-Complex
101.7 XC
208.3 DAY
22.1 Night
14.7 Actual Instrument
65.4 Simulated Instrument
173.8 Dual
178.7 PIC
230.4 Total Duration of Flight

Right now these numbers are small, but I've worked hard and have enjoyed every hour of the 230.4 I have under my belt. I still have much to learn, and much to experience before I can consider myself an, "experienced pilot".

- Matt