Well I've been busy flying since my last post. Right now I'm on pace to finish this phase of the training ahead of schedule and get in the waiting line for API (the navy groundschool portion of training). I talked to the people in the office and it looks like I won't start that until late January/early February, which is actually a great schedule since it'll allow me to enjoy Christmas/New Year's back in VA and MD! On Sunday night I had my first night flight, and unfortunately I don't have any pictures since they just won't turn out at night and using a flash to take a picture in the cockpit is out of the question since we'd lose our night vision. I took the plane out on my own and flew around for a bit to kill some time before picking up my instructor at the terminal for the night portion of the flight. Before the sunset we flew to a grass airfield and landed there a few times. It was a little unnerving to be landing in a grass airfield...the field was much shorter and there was a picket fence around it to keep cows or other animals off the field; however, it was a great experience to have since it's unlikely that I'll get to land in a grass field with a Navy or Coast Guard aircraft (at least not on purpose!). We took off as the sun was setting and flew around as it got dark and the lights came on around the city of Pensacola. During flights like that I can't believe I get paid to do this! We did some touch-and-goes at Pensacola regional airport inbetween the jets flying out of there and then flew back to Milton to land for the night. Milton airport is actually unlit at night, and you turn on the runway lights by clicking the microphone 7 times on the airport frequency, and then adjust the brightness by clicking a certain number of times for different brightness.
Today I did my first "Cross-country" flight, which was actually just to Mobile airport, about a hundred miles away. Since my instructor is out of town I flew with Steve instead. After landing in Mobile we took a little break and sampled the cookies they had in the reception area there...I felt like a glass of milk and a nap, but instead we hopped back into the plane and flew back to Milton. Along the way we basically just talked about how awesome flying is (just kidding, he was mainly teaching me things). We also flew over the Coast Guard base in Mobile and checked it out while we were there.

On Monday I went and took advantage of early voting in Florida. I think it's a little bit ironic that Florida has early voting since it's the land of the infamous butterfly ballots and hanging chads. You would think that they would ensure that their elections were running smoothly and were constitutional, but anyone who has read the constitution knows that early voting shouldn't even be allowed: "The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States."
Of course, it doesn't seem like the Constitution means that much anymore...apparently it's just an inconvenient document that prevents government from "doing more for" the people (or more to the people). Anyway, the line for early voting was wrapped around the building and it took about an hour or so to vote. There were people holding signs for various local candidates and asking me if I'd heard of their candidate. I told a few of them that I'd researched their candidate and there was no way I would ever vote for them. Before voting I dropped by the local Escambia County Republican Party office to get some information on local elections since I didn't have much background knowledge to base my vote on. I also volunteered to drive people to the polls on Election day if they needed it. They didn't have anyone at the time that needed a ride but I'm on call. So, with that in mind I went to the Escambia County Democratic Party HQ and signed up to drive their people to the polls. I figure I can drop them off in the woods somewhere and disenfranchise their vote (maybe it'll cancel out a few dead people or Acorn Mickey Mouses who will be voting democrat this year). Just kidding of course, but I was seriously tempted.




I've been reading through Isaiah lately and was encouraged about the elections through my reading. There are so many occasions listed, both in that book and many others, where God used rulers, both good and bad, to bring the people's hearts back to Him. Not only that, but it's good to be reminded that He is in control, that He is worthy of our trust, and that when our trust is in our God then we're placing our faith on a rock and not the shifting sand that is so evident in our culture. "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:3-4)." If our only source of strength and shelter was in our government than we would have good reason to worry, and it's still important to pray for our nation and its leaders; however, it's good that this election campaign has reminded many of us that our sense of security has been misplaced. I'm hopeful that even if this election turns out poorly for our country that God will use it to bring us back to Him.

Well, we finally flew down to the beach and I was able to get some decent pictures. On Tuesday we had to kill some time so I could get the required 10 hours for my check ride and solo. We decided that since it was a nice day we'd spend some time flying around the beach and taking pictures. The first one is just my instructor looking cool and trying to show that we pay attention while we're flying. Most of the time we're actually busy talking about football or something completely unrelated to flying. When we've been talking about it for a little bit and he's starting to get me distracted he likes to cut the power to the engine or do something else that requires going through emergency procedures. I guess it's good practice but it always makes me a little wary when he's getting me to talk about something unrelated to what we're doing at the time.







Once again, my instructor assured me that I looked cool and it'd be a good picture for Lisette.
The only problem with flying over the beach is that you see the sharks that are swimming along the coast and it makes swimming in the gulf a little less palatable. After the morning flight I went on another flight with a different instructor for my stage check. Before flying solo they test pilots on all of the different maneuvers they've learned so far to make sure they'll be able to fly safely and also be able to deal with any emergencies that might occur. At the end of the stage check the instructor cut off the engine and I had to coast in for a landing. Normally when making an emergency landing you come in a little high because it's easy to lose altitude but really hard to make the plane go higher without an engine. It's probably my favorite kind of landing because you get the opportunity to use forward slips or some other maneuver to lose altitude. Basically, in a forward slip you push the rudder all the way down to throw the plane sideways and use the ailerons to keep the plane going straight. It makes you lose altitude without gaining too much speed. Right before touching down you straighten the rudder so you don't land sideways. It also looks pretty cool from the ground when you see someone pull it off.Pulling a little steep turn over the beach...makes for good pictures.


Tuesday afternoon I went and played a round of golf with one of the other flight students. I had to practice for the Navy tournament the next day. I played with two of the OCF group leaders and the Deputy Commodore. We finished in a respectable 3rd place (out of 25 or so teams) but should've won the tournament. None of us had been playing much golf recently so that didn't help our cause.

Wednesday morning was my first solo. It was a 7 a.m. flight, which is nice because it's usually pretty calm early in the morning and it makes it easy to land the plane. I went up with my instructor for the first half hour so he could gauge the conditions and make sure it was safe for my first solo. After a couple landings I dropped him off at the airport and taxied down to the beginning of the runway for my first takeoff. I went through the pre-takeoff checklist one final time and made my radio call to take off "Milton Traffic, Warrior three-two-niner-niner-zero, taking off runway 36 Milton." I taxied out and lined up the airplane and couldn't help but smile at the fact that I was going to takeoff and land a plane. I took off and flew around the airport and came in for my first landing. "Milton Traffic, Warrior three-two-niner-niner-zero on final approach runway 36 Milton, Full-stop." My instructor had a radio back on the ground and was monitoring just in case I had a problem during my flight. The winds were fairly calm and it was a fairly easy landing. After I landed and headed back to the beginning of the runway I noticed my instructor had a wood bat and was practicing his swing...I now just refer to him as Mickey Mantle.

Tomorrow I'm headed out on a solo flight to the beach. Obviously I won't be taking any pictures since I'll be the only one in the plane and the FAA probably frowns on pilots (especially student pilots) snapping pictures instead of focusing on flying. I'm certain the Navy doesn't permit it either. There's a saying amoung pilots: "To err is human, to forgive is divine, neither is Navy policy."

Thanks for all of your prayers and support. It's been a really good time down here so far, and I've been developing some good relationships with other Christians that have been very helpful in my walk and I know that's a direct result of the prayers of my friends and family.

Well, if you've been checking this blog in the hopes of reading an update recently then I apologize for my lack of writing. It's been a few weeks since I last posted anything.
To quickly update you I've started the civilian portion of flight school. The first week was all ground school (FAA regulations, priciples of flight, navigation, etc). After a week of instruction we took the FAA exam for a private pilot's license and then began flying the next day. The last few days of flight school I was sick but I didn't want to delay the beginning of my training and so I stuck it out and luckily began to feel better when it came time to actually begin flying (don't worry, I wouldn't actually fly if I didn't feel well). I just finished my fifth lesson today and I've been having a great time so far. I feel incredibly blessed to have a job that consists of studying for flight and flying on a consistent basis. Lately my schedule has consisted of waking up in the morning, doing some reading over the morning cup of coffee and then reviewing the aviation weather forecast to see if my flight will be canceled or not (it also helps to plan my flights since it has all of the clouds and winds so I can determine if there will be a cross wind or how high we'll be able to fly). I'm usually scheduled for one flight per day and maybe one flight on the weekend as well (it doesn't feel like work so I'm happy to fly anytime!). Afterwards I usually hit the gym, although in the past few weeks I haven't felt up to it. Last Friday morning my instructor and I took off at around 7 am to practice emergency landings and do some area familiarization. There was a low cloud bank about 20 miles from the airport that we were flying around and the sun was rising...I wish I'd had my camera (actually, I did have my camera but had neglected to charge the battery!). At this point the instructor is basically letting me fly the plane and only taking the controls or talking on the radio to demonstrate a new maneuver to me. I should be doing my solo flight sometime early next week!

By far my favorite flight so far was Friday afternoon when I took off from Pensacola as a passenger back to Virginia to see Lizzy! Unfortunately I was unable to get on an early flight because of my flight lesson early that morning and I didn't get into Newport News until almost midnight. I slept the night (I would normally say crashed, but that word has been stricken from my vocabulary by Lisette) at my old place in Newport News and drove down to Lizzy's in the morning for breakfast. It was great when the door opened and there was Lizzy again after a little over a month apart. She made a great breakfast and I enjoyed sitting and talking with her family (Clay and Katy came over as well). It felt like old times with Jappers singing in the background without realizing it.
That afternoon we went canoeing (blogger says that isn't a word!) with Clay and Katy at Northwest River Park. We had a fun time trying to steer the thing down the narrow passages and only ran into one other canoe. I may be able to drive a ship pretty well, but a canoe is another story!
We had a family dinner that night and I did a little fishin' and picin' with Jordan and Clay (despite the pictures of catching fish on their blog we caught more tree limbs than fish on this particular occasion).
Afterwards Lizzy and I headed out to the beach to walk on the boardwalk and talk. Usually we see some people wearing some funny t-shirts or doing something that amuses us, but on this occasion we were the ones dressed strangely with our Virginia Tech and Ohio State sweatshirts. We didn't plan it that way but were amused by it when we realized what we were wearing.
Sunday morning we went to Sovereign Grace and it was great to see all of my friends there! I've been blessed with Christian friends down here in Pensacola and with a church that so far seems to be a good fit for me, but it's still hard to be apart from all of the friendships that I developed in Virginia. After church we had lunch with her parents and hung out at the house before going to dinner at P.F. Chang's. Unfortunately the ferries from Portsmouth to Norfolk weren't running so we were unable to do that and were reduced to seeing a movie which was entertaining but not really that great.
Monday morning we went out to breakfast at Panera and had a good time talking and people watching (as you've undoubtedly read on her blog, all of the people in there seemed to be military enjoying their federal holiday).

Today I finally managed to get some pictures while flying. My instructor was cool about taking pictures during our lessons and told me it was fine to bring my camera along anytime. He understood that it was important to "keep the girlfriend happy with cool pics" (his exact words).


The instrument panel on the Piper Warrior (it's not much of a "Warrior" but it's cool to say your callsign as "Warrior 32990" when you're calling your approach or talking to the air traffic controllers).

My instructor

My instructor assured me that Lizzy would think I looked cool in this picture.


The view from out the windshield. Tomorrow we're flying over the beach weather permitting and I should be able to get some "cooler" pictures!