Monthly Update

Okay, I certainly didn't mean for this to take quite so long. However, things happen. Lot's of things have happened this month. For example..... For the month of July, I flew a total of 1.6 hours. That's it. Not very good for a guy who is learning to fly and I probably lost what I gained from those sessions. My last lesson on July 23rd was pretty good though. I held the centerline when I taxied, something which has, at least to this point, been tough for me to do. I'd be like a drunken sailor. All over the taxiway. My new instructor was quite impressed. I like him but there's something else I need to do, more on that in a bit. I also did most of the radio work . Which after the previous lesson where I was doing a lot of stammering and trying to remember what to say. Now granted, I'm a ham radio operator and I speak on the radio a lot and not prone to "mic fright" but there's a difference. When I'm using my ham radio skills, it's socially. Except for the rare check-in to a traffic net, I don't use my skills for communication, per se. When you're in a plane, there's not a lot of socializing going on.

I'm also a member of AOPA's Project Pilot. My Mentor's name is Kevin. He's a private pilot with Single and Multi-engine endorsements and certified in Commercial and IFR operations. He's working on his instruction certification and is almost done with it. He's a nice guy and is pretty knowledgeable. He helped me make a decision fairly recently.

The decision is this. I like Tradewinds and my new instructor, but they're expensive. I'm paying $103.00 an hour for a C172 (only a couple of years old) plus $9.95 an hour fuel surcharge plus $40 an hour for instruction. That total is $152.95 an hour. 2 hours is $305.90. For that same amount of money, at Flight 101, I can get 3.2 hours of instruction. A big difference in cost. So I'm switching probably next week or so to that school. Sure the planes are older but it's going to cost me much less. And planes really don't change that much.

For those who are keeping track. 6.6 hours total time in the plane - 7 Landings.