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!