10/4/03 Pick-up Mission - I flew a 172 from Dubuque to Clintonville with another pilot and got dropped off there for the night in order to fly the 150 back to Dubuque the next day. Aside from continuous light chop, the flight was nice. I logged 1.7 hours.

10/5/03 Special Delivery! - This morning I flew "my" Cessna 150 from Clintonville to Dubuque on a nonstop two-hour trip. What a beautiful day! It's like the weather knew my plans. The plane is parked at the FBO for now. I don't own it yet, but if enough people are interested in flying it, someone will buy it for me. So it's sitting out there advertising itself. If it becomes mine as planned, I'll move it into a hangar for the rest of the school year. For now, it will sit on the ramp and I'll take it out flying whenever I want. Rides for friends and river sightseeing, here I come!

10/6/03 A Ride and a Solo - One of the people interested in using the 150 flew it with me tonight for just under an hour. After that I took the plane up solo for about half an hour. It was a hazy evening but the river and early fall colors still looked nice.

10/7/03 Fourth Trinidad Lesson - Switching from a slow plane to a fast one again, I flew the Trinidad on this extremely hazy evening while I let my roommate go for a solo flight in the 150. I practiced steep turns and learned how easy stalls are in the Trinidad since you don't do them to a full break. I made three landings and logged an hour.

10/12/03 Sunset Over the Mississippi - I took a friend up for about an hour in the 150. We cruised up the Mississippi River and turned around at Cassville, Wisconsin. The sunset, the fall colors, the bluffs, and the river were beautiful. I let my friend get his first try at an airplane's controls on the way back.

10/16/03 Still Faster than Driving - One of my classes took a field trip to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, Wisconsin (MTW) today. Despite delays in getting to the airport and taking off, and despite the slow speed of the 150 combined with a headwind, I still managed to beat the majority of the group to Manitowoc by flying instead of driving. I landed at 5:15 p.m. and logged 2.4 hours. I also saw a neat sight on the way: a prescribed burn at Horicon Marsh sent billowing black smoke up to 6,000 feet. I can't wait to see that picture. I parked the airplane overnight while my classmates and I spent the night on a World War II submarine.

10/17/03 Morning Fall Colors - What a beautiful morning. The sun came up between Lake Michigan and the layer of broken clouds at 8,000 feet. Everything glowed with rich color at 8:00 in the morning. It took two tries to start the 150 in the chilly air, but I got her running. Once I took off, I flew at only 1,500 feet above the ground all the way from Manitowoc to Clintonville because the view was just so great. The trees looked awesome. Everything was still wet with dew. I zig-zagged between Outagamie County's and Green Bay's controlled airspace so I wouldn't have to talk to anyone and destroy the peace of my flight. I cruised across the landscape for an hour listening to my CD player. I was so low that a flock of ducks flew over me. The air was so still that I didn't want to come down.

10/18/03 Maintenance and Night Flight - The 150's owner and I spent part of the afternoon troubleshooting the plane's minor radio problems, washing the dirt off its belly, changing its landing light bulb, talking, and watching other people fly. We installed a different radio. After dark, I went flying for half an hour to see what I thought of the radio. Of course I also took the opportunity to look at the stars and lights and circle my friend's house. P.S.: Happy birthday to my former CFII Steve!

10/19/03 Flying Back to Dubuque - It wasn't necessarily the best night for crossing half the state in a Cessna 150. I had to go back to Dubuque from Clintonville. At first I climbed to 4,500 feet but only stayed there for 15 minutes. It was so hazy at that altitude that I could hardly see forward into the sun, and there was such a headwind that I was barely moving faster than cars. I descended back down to 3,000 feet, which reduced both problems slightly. I could see much better but was still doing only about 75 knots over the ground with the headwind. So it took 2.4 hours to get to Dubuque, which only took two hours last time. Over half of tonight's trip was in darkness, and it had been a while since I had done a night cross-country in the 150. I did just fine, especially since I had flown the night before. The flight was long but I didn't mind... it was time in the air, the scenery was good, and the ride was smooth. I had my music playing and I was good to go. The plane is tied down in Dubuque again, but I don't know how long it will be here.  

10/22/03 Third Time's a Charm - Every pilot has a bad day now and then. For some reason things just didn't click with me today at one point in my lesson! My instructor and I flew in a 172 and I practiced some basic commercial maneuvers. One of them was a simulated engine failure, during which I discovered that Lancaster's airport was nearby and tried to glide to it with the intention to land. But I misjudged my glide angle and overshot the field. Oh well, I would have lived had it been a real emergency, because the airport was surrounded with flat fields. After my go-around I entered the traffic pattern intending to do a short-field landing. I came in so high and fast that I had to go around again. I had never done two go-arounds in a row and this was a blow to my confidence! At least I could laugh about it. It's much better to do a go-around than put yourself at risk. I landed fine on my third try-- good, I still know how to do it!

Ryan introduced me to chandelles on the way back to Dubuque and I did a few. This is one of the commercial maneuvers I will have to perform for my checkride.

I logged 1.3 hours today, doing steep turns, slow flight, a power-on stall, a power-off stall, a simulated forced landing, a short field landing, a short-field takeoff, and chandelles.

10/28/03 Preparing for my Longest-Ever Flight - The 100th anniversary of powered flight is on December 17th of this year. There's a lot of hoopla associated with it. EAA hopes to reach its goal of one million Young Eagles prior to that date, several organizations are sponsoring celebrations honoring the Wright brothers, and Microsoft even released a special new version of Flight Simulator to commemorate the anniversary. I'm thinking of it as a day to be thankful for being able to fly.

What will I do to celebrate? I will finally take my first airline trip and fly to The Netherlands on December 17, 2003. I thought there would be no better day to depart. 100 years ago, the Wright brothers started what would become a revolution in travel. Thanks to them and all who have contributed since, I have the ability and the privilege of flying thousands of miles across an ocean.

I will be spending three weeks traveling throughout The Netherlands and other European countries. I'll finally experience flying on jet airliners, which I have ironically never done.

The reason I am going to Europe in the first place is to spend time with a very special someone who I haven't seen in three years. He has gone through flight school and is looking for a job with an airline. Meanwhile he has been working as a flight attendant. He and I will likely do some flying in a small general aviation airplane so I can see what Holland looks like from low altitudes.

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