Journal entries in 'Flying Lessons' for June, 2007

Wow, flying at night is actually quite pleasant. It feels a lot more relaxed and peaceful than flying during the day. I think a big factor that contributes towards that is the fact that the wind is a lot calmer at night, but it also had to do with the fact that you can't see most of the world below you, so it feels like flying over nothingness. Kind of like at the end of the Langoliers, except you don't have to fly through a time warp while asleep to get back home.

Landing wasn't too hard either. You do have less visual reference with which to judge your altitude, so you have to be careful not to flare too high from the runway, but really I never felt uncomfortable or out of control while landing. The runway lighting actually makes the dimensions of the runway easier to see than during the day.

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Today Mike and I flew down over the lake to the New Orleans airport, MSY (or Moisant Field, as apparently every other pilot knows it — apparently the name was changed in 2001 and most people still use the old one), to give me a taste of flying into a Class B airport (the busiest classification). I had the option of flying to Baton Rouge instead, but I wanted to try flying into an airport that I had actually arrived at as a commercial passenger. It went surprisingly well. And when I checked my logbook later, it turned out this was my 50th landing. Hey, look at that.

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Today I set off with Mike on my first cross-country flight. We flew from Hammond to Gulfport, Mississippi, and then back again. Of course, it didn't start there. There's actually a lot more involved in planning a flight than I would have thought.

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Woo, I soloed today. When the lesson began, I did a few touch-and-gos with Mike, my instructor, just like we'd been doing for the last few lessons. When I landed the third time, Mike told me to pull off the runway and let him out. Hehehe. He signed the section of my logbook that says I'm endorsed to fly solo, grabbed a handheld radio to keep in contact with me, and off I went. I didn't expect it to happen so soon — I only had 9.1 hours of flight experience at that point, and I'd always heard that your first solo usually happens around 12-15 hours. But, surprisingly, when I was off on my own, I felt very ready and in control, and didn't feel frightened or anything.

Heh, and the fates didn't wait long to throw a little test in my way.

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