Finishing Up The Semester

Wow has this semester flown by! I cannot believe that finals for my very first semester of college are already here. I have been trying to prepare as much as possible especially these last few days. My professor, Mr. Adams, gave us all study guides to help prepare for his exam which is in Aviation History. So that definitely takes off some pressure. Looking through the study guide I can say I feel sort of proud in a way that I now know more people and events than I ever did before who impacted our world of aviation. Names like Charles Lindbergh, Richard Byrd, Wiley Post, Chuck Yeager, Glen Curtiss, John Glenn and events such as the Hindenburg crash, World War II and many other events in history that have changed our world to get to where we are today. I know I have blogged about this before, but I am just so happy that I can actually sit in a classroom now and enjoy learning about what the instructor is teaching the class. Learning about these men and women and certain events in history is very inspiring and is something that we all can grow on by learning from their mistakes. That is one major lesson that I have learned is key in aviation. No matter how dumb you feel it is important to share our mistakes. It helps others grow and learn along with you. We are all human! Everyone makes mistakes… I was disappointed once again because my night cross-country was cancelled tonight due to weather. Some of the instructors have been saying they think we have broken a record for the most flights cancelled in a row. It is kind of humorous in a way, but then again it is really a pain in the neck because we can’t get work done. I can say that I feel I did make the right decision when choosing a college to further my education. Eastern Kentucky has been very good to me this first semester even with the weather being crappy. I am ending my blog again tonight by saying hopefully I will be able to blog my flight adventures next Tuesday! Until then, I’ll be studying for finals and I can say I will officially be done with my first semester here at EKU by Monday! Woohoo!!

Book Searching

I found the book, “Women Aviators,” by Karen Bush Gibson in Eastern Kentucky’s main library. For anyone who may be interested, Women Aviators tells the adventurous and heart warming stories of 26 pioneer flights, daring missions, and record-setting journeys. Gibson’s book is filled with amazing stories of women who had the courage to take action.
Women Aviators is filled with twenty-six different biographies all revolving around one main idea that they all had in my opinion, determination. The book tells about some of the most amazing women in the world of aviation including some names I recognized from my Aviation History class at EKU. Gibson even included names and stories that had a major impact on aviation, but didn’t necessarily fly all of the time. For example, one interesting story I liked was Katherine Wrights. I have blogged about Katherine before. She was called, “the third Wright brother” considering her impact she had on Orville and Wilbur Wright. Some interesting facts about Katherine was at the age of fifteen years old it became her job to care for the boys after their mothers death from tuberculosis. She arranged volunteers to help her brothers on the flying machine, and she even managed her bothers business affairs and became an officer in their company later on. Wilbur, Orville, and Katherine were all awarded the Legion of Honor by the French.
Other names and stories told were Harriet Quimby: the first woman to fly across the English Channel, Bessie Coleman: “Queen Bess”, Neta Snook: The Woman who taught Amelia to fly, Amelia Earhart: the most publicly famous female aviator in the world, and many more very interesting, courageous women. I would highly recommend this book to others, especially female pilots because you feel inspired after reading everything that these women did in order to achieve their dreams of flight against everyone’s opinions. Also, I was searching around on GlobalAir today and saw they had a directory for aviation related articles and books! I thought that was pretty neat especially if you’re interested in the field. I plan on checking some of them out after finals. Ill be waiting for the day after finals… Until next time ☺

Thankful for Many Things

Keeping my Thanksgiving break in mind it is easy to reflect on how thankful I am for so many things. For starters, I am thankful for my health. I am thankful that God created me strong and healthy. Secondly, I am thankful and blessed with the best family a girl could ask for. Everyone tends to get aggravated at some point with a family member, but in the end I know I would not trade any of my family members for the world. I think it is my sisters goal to aggravate me at times, but I know at the end of the day she is someone I can always go to for advice and she has always supported my dreams. I am thankful for my wonderful parents who have supported me in every way possible with my dreams. They are the main reason I am able to attend school here at Eastern Kentucky University and the main reason why I am able to major in professional flight. The costs of flight labs are definitely not cheap and I am thankful I have parents who support me not only with schooling but who have supported me for nineteen years by putting a roof over my head and food on the table. I am thankful for my old flight instructor, Larry, who lives back at home in WV and was in his late seventies when he decided to take me on as his last student. Larry taught me all of the basics of flying at our home based airport 4G7 Fairmont, WV and if it wasn’t for him I don’t think I would have taken the path that I am on now.
So many of us today take the little things for granted and Thanksgiving is the time to reflect on just how thankful we are. I know none of this would be possible without our God and I try my best to thank him for all of the blessings that he has given my family and I.

Traveling Tuesday

This past Tuesday I was able to travel multiple ways. My classes finished for the break on the following Monday and then Tuesday I had a flight from twelve to two and a drive back home afterwards. The flight I made was supposed to be to Bowman Field, LOU. My instructor and I finally got off the ground at Madison Airport but realized we were running short on time. Especially since we had somewhat of a headwind, which didn’t help with timing. We flew towards Bowman Field but knew we were not going to make it back in time for a round trip, so we called flight following and told them our plans to just turn around and head back home. I was able to practice talking with Lexington Approach again and I requested flight following with them. Things felt even better this time on the radios and I could tell I was much more confident. So, practice does help with those nerves. I have also been listening to LiveATC.com to help. I type in Lexington’s tower and listen to their ground, tower, and approach online and listen to it while I do homework online. It is pretty neat to listen too and something that is free and open for everyone to use and listen too. After my excitement with my lesson, we landed back at I39 and I then made the five-hour drive back home to spend Thanksgiving break with my family. On my way home I couldn’t help to think that one day I will be able to just fly myself home! Little thoughts and things like that motivate me to keep working hard. Even though I am home, I will still be studying preparing for finals ton finish off the semester. I also realized and counted that I only have nine more flight lessons left! I’m hoping the weather will be kind to me on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I am ready to hold that license!

Russell County Flying

I was able to complete my second cross-country Saturday for Eastern Kentucky! The wind was pretty high, but it was blowing straight down the runway at Richmond Madison Airport (I39) so it worked out well for us. I chose to fly to Russell County (K24)… Our flight was definitely longer than usual because we had such a strong headwind! It took us around thirty-five minutes just to arrive at our chosen destination. (K24) Now, on our way back to Richmond it only took around twenty minutes with our tailwind being so strong. Our ground speed on the way home I calculated on my E6B before the flight to be one hundred and fifty knots! So that was definitely appreciated with our timing. Every pilot loves a tailwind! I learned that there are definitely some checkpoints you should use if available and then there are definitely some checkpoints that never seem to work out. For example, just picking a road when your crossing over can be a little tricky. There are roads everywhere while flying! My instructor told me that it’s easier if you choose an intersection where two roads meet or an interstate that way things are definitely easier to spot. Other checkpoints I decided to use included a lake and a VOR checkpoint. The lake was easy to spot because it was a giant body of water near a town. Secondly, I am learning more about the VOR so it was interesting to see when we intersected with the VOR and the needle centered up. Another helpful tool I used for my flight was learning everything about that airport by using different tools. some of these tools included Global Air, and Google Earth. They allowed me to see visually and know statistics about the airport. These certain tools became very helpful because there just so happened to be a drag strip right next to the airport!
Choosing the right checkpoints and using all available resources to learn about where you are flying is something I will keep in mind while flying anywhere. It is especially helpful for dead reckoning. I can’t wait till next time!

Summer Decisions

Well, today I had another flight lesson cancelled due to weather. We have really had a hard time keeping flights scheduled, which tends to make me think about my future plans. I have been thinking a lot recently about what is best for me for this summer and figuring out a way to put my decision into action. The decision I need to make is whether to find an apartment here in Richmond, or head back to West Virginia for the summer and be with my family. There are definitely pros and cons to both situations. For one, if I find an apartment here in Richmond I would be able to keep training and be able to continue building my hours with flight, which would help me in order to stay on top of the game and not get behind with my flight path I have here at Eastern Kentucky. The pros of going home would include being able to stay with my family and flying around once every two weeks. By typing out my options and looking at both and considering all of the weather cancellations I have been having it is real clear what the best decision is for me. I need to stay in Richmond and fly. I have already made sacrifices in order to fly and staying in Richmond over summer to keep up with my schooling and flying is just another one I feel I need and have to make. This blog has definitely helped me to finally come to the conclusion of what I need to do. Now I need to start looking for my next step, which is finding a place to live and talking to my friends! Tori, my good friend on the flight deck has been interested in getting an apartment together. So, I guess we should start planning!

My First Cross Country for EKU

I was finally able to complete my cross-country from I39 to KEKQ! The weather turned out to be absolutely perfect this past Saturday. It was a little chilly, but all in all it was a perfect day to fly! We traveled fifty-three nautical miles to our destination (KEKQ) and it took us around a half an hour. The views from the sky were absolutely gorgeous! I was expecting a pretty flight but it was so much more once we were actually flying over the beautiful Lake Cumberland! It would be interesting to read about how large the lake is because it just seems you could travel on it forever… Like I said in my last post my instructor, Dalton, has allowed me to plan everything on my own. My training started out a little frustrating when I didn’t understand some things, but I eventually was able to click with the cross-country planning and get the hang of the way EKU likes things to be. Our actual flight down I did feel a little unsure of myself on the radios just because I was not used to it yet. So, Dalton did all of the radio calls down to KEKQ and then I called them on the way back just to get in the hang of things. Even though that’s not a big deal at all, I was proud of myself for accomplishing that. It was a little overwhelming to me at first and I’m still not very comfortable on the radio, but my instructor told me it comes with practice. I think all pilots have felt that sort of pressure and embarrassment before… My instructor told me at the end of our lesson how I did a good job and his story of how he completely butchered his first cross-country. Everything bad that could have happened seemed like it all happened on his! So, that story made us laugh and made me feel like I did an ok job. Hopefully the radio calls will come easier for me this week and I don’t feel those nerves. Now, lets see if the snow holds off because nice weather would be greatly appreciated for this week!

Weather Cancellations

Well, it has been quite the week! This past weekend I celebrated my nineteenth birthday with my family in Burnside, Kentucky. We rented a house around Lake Cumberland and celebrated my birthday, which was November 9th, and also my fathers birthday whose was the tenth. I had my cousins, aunts, grandmas, mom, dad and sister all come to visit me. We had a blast! It was so nice to just relax and see my family again after what felt like forever since I had not seen them since fall break around early October. We had perfect weather! Believe it or not we actually were passing frisbee outside with my four year old niece wearing shorts! Remembering my awesome weekend throughout the week it just did not seem real or right that the temperature was around 36 degrees! The weather has not been cooperating with my schedule the way I would like it too. We actually experienced snow flurries today, which resulted with low mile visibility. I have recently started my second semester cross-country lessons through our program and have had to cancel multiple times due to weather… My instructor allowed me to pick where I wanted to fly for our first cross- country and of course I picked near Lake Cumberland! It is absolutely beautiful around there. I started my flight plan from I39 (our home base airport for EKU) to Wayne Co KEKQ, which is near Burnside the area where I just celebrated with my family. I have been waiting and becoming more anxious to be able to see that area from the sky! Hopefully we will be able to get off the ground this coming Saturday with weather permitting … I have my checkpoints, true course, and magnetic course all prepared now to add in those weather corrections for when the timing is right! Until then, Ill be buying gloves and digging out my warm jackets and hats to prepare for those chilling pre-flights. ☺

Poberezny My Hero

The summer of 2013 I was fortunate enough to travel to Oshkosh, Wisconsin and experience EAA’s AirVenture Oshkosh! Not only was the adventure something great to experience and see, it was one I will remember forever. I attended the camp, “Women Soar You Soar” and enjoyed every minute! I developed many new friendships with girls who also attended the camp and became very close with a lot of mentors who volunteered. During my time at AirVenture our group of girls started to head over to watch the airshow in the designated area at Oshkosh. While we were walking over, Cindy, one of my mentors I was walking with said, “That’s Paul Poberezny let’s hurry and get a picture!” Now at the time, ill be honest I had no idea who Paul Poberezny was… I hate to admit it, but I didn’t… Afterwards Cindy started to say how that was so awesome, and then she started to explain who Paul Poberezny was to me and another girl from camp. Little did I know I had just gotten a picture with the man who created EAA!! Everything positive I was experiencing, and all of the opportunities that had opened up for me during my time at AirVenture were all possible because this man had created it.
Paul Howard Poberezny was an American aviator and aircraft designer. He founded the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in 1953, and spent the greater part of his life promoting homebuilt aircraft. Poberezny served for 30 years in the United States Air Force, including active duty during World War II and the Korean War. He retired with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He attained all seven aviation wings offered by the military: glider pilot, service pilot, rated pilot, liaison pilot, senior pilot, Army aviator and command pilot.
Mr. Poberezny died August 22, 2013 at the age of 91. I was able to snap a picture with him at his last AirVenture and it is one I will cherish forever. After attending AirVenture that year, I came home with a whole new confidence level that I was able to achieve anything and accomplish all of my dreams. For that, I will forever be thankful for Mr. Poberezny for creating something so special our world is able to experience. If I could go back in time, I wish I could shake his hand again and just tell him thank you for everything he has done for me.
My life changed after AirVenture, and for that I have Mr. Poberezny to thank.

Airplane Repo

After I finished watching the West Virginia football game, I found myself flipping through the channels and landing on the Discovery Channel after I got a glimpse of an airplane. My roommate Rachel and I started watching what is called Airplane Repo. I had never watched the show before but was quickly interested when I heard them talking about aviation related things. If you own an aircraft and you fall behind on your aircraft loan, your plane may come face to face with guys like Nick Popovich or Ken Hill professional aircraft repossession specialists. As you can imagine, airplane repo specialists like Nick and Ken have seen and experienced just about everything. The episode we decided to watch Nick Popovich was inspecting the aircraft and realized the airplane did not have any radios for him to use in order to get back to his own airport. It took a lot for him to have the airplane legal to fly, but these men take some serious risks in order to get these airplanes off the ground and back to their airport for the rightful owners.

Personally, I kind of hated having to see people upset when they realized somebody was taking their airplane, but in reality its something the bank can and has to do. These high dollar airplanes all have pilots flying them and it broke my heart they weren’t able to keep up with payments or something happened in order for them to be in that situation. The show was definitely one that kept me intrigued from the adrenaline rushes of them trying to not get caught for trespassing.

I would recommend it for others to watch because it was interesting. My favorite part was that they would show the type of aircraft they were repossessing and they would give you details about that certain airplane. So it is very interesting from that standpoint and something for you to check out!