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Renter’s Insurance.  How did I not know about this.  I’m so grateful for JetCareers, because not having a background in aviation on any level, there are a LOT of things that I don’t know that people just don’t tell you.  So I’ve decided that I need to talk to Ryan about renter’s insurance and get it at least before I solo, which is probably sooner than I think. However, because I’m broke and paying for all of these lessons out-of-pocket, I’m going to have to tell him that I need to skip a lesson to have the money for the insurance.  I’m disappointed about that.  I’ve heard that most of the time when students pay for lessons out-of-pocket they get overwhelmed by the financial burden of it and begin flying less and less a month.  I however, have not missed a single lesson or a single week since I started.  This will be my first.  I shouldn’t feel too bad though I guess because the money is still going towards my flight education.  Hmmmm…

 One of the cool people I’ve met since being a member of JetCareers has just got stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base and is actually going to be living only a couple of miles from me.  I’m very excited to meet him.  He’s supposed to come with me Thursday to my flight lesson and meet Ryan, my instructor, so that he can get started on finishing up his PPL training.  I’m going to be introducing my new friend to someone at the very same time that I’m meeting him for the first time.  Kind of neat, kind of weird.  At any rate though, I’m very excited about it. 

So, I’m very thankful for everyone at JetCareers.  They’ve brought a lot into my life. Lots of cool new friends and valuable knowledge and experience about aviation that has helped me a LOT.  I don’t think it would be as easy or as much fun for me if I didn’t have all these experienced pilots who have gone before me to help dirct and encourage me.

I love the new instructor. He’s great and I really feel like I’m learning and getting somewhere now. I have 10hrs now and I’ve gone over all of the 15 requirements to solo, however, there are a couple of things he wants to work on some more because I learned them with the old instructor and don’t have them down very well and I need to work on landings a bit more and then I’ll be ready to solo. He’s already told me what I need to know and read over before my presolo written. I’m getting very excited.

I love practicing go-arounds and ground reference manuevers. I’m getting pretty good at both. I probably need a little more work on my turns about a point though. IMO that’s the hardest of the three ground reference manuevers. My landings are improving but they still need quite a bit of work. Probably a lesson dedicated to some touch and goes would do it for me at this point. Then he just wants to go over power off and power on stalls and stall recoveries with me.

I love lesson days. I grab some extra clothes in the morning and watch the weather closely all day hoping that it doesn’t turn nasty and ruin my day. Then, after I get off work, I drive straight to the FBO and talk to all the other students and instructors while petting the dogs and waiting for Ryan to finish up with the student before me. Then I run out to preflight the plane while they are debreifing. Ryan always does ground instruction with me before we go up to make sure I understand the concepts of what we are going to be doing in the air before we go do it and it helps a great deal. With ground reference manuevers he used the model plane and dry erase board to explain the effects of the wind so that when I was up there I just had to do it.

My favorite part of the flight experience so far though is take off. I love the way it feels when suddenly you realize that you’re no longer on the ground. What a rush. God, I love it!