9/6/04 Always Read the Fine Print TWICE - Here's my case for plain-language FAA aviation regulations. Read my 8/31 entry. I thought I needed a 2-hour night solo cross-country. No. It has to be dual instead. The word "training" is hidden up the column, on the opposite page, several paragraphs away. With all the headings and subheadings, and the nonexistent words that have already been implied, it's a miracle anyone can understand anything from this book. I can't tell you how many times I looked through FAR 61.129 to make sure I am ready to take my commercial checkride. It's a good thing the weather has been too hazy the past few nights, or I would have wasted a couple of solo hours.

Tonight I took care of this last flight and the landings I needed. I am lucky to live with a generous flight instructor who didn't mind getting home at 1:00 in the morning! I flew in a 172 to save money. Every time I fly one lately I can't get over how different it is from the Trinidad. It was a beautiful night. I went to Appleton (ATW), Wisconsin.

9/7/04 Commercial Checkride Scheduled - I should say "rescheduled." My commercial checkride was scheduled for Wednesday the 8th at 8:00 a.m. Turns out the examiner has to fly a trip Wednesday and Thursday. My checkride is now scheduled for Friday the 10th at 8:00.

9/9/04 Rescheduled Again - My commercial checkride got rescheduled again. The examiner is doing another corporate trip. My checkride is scheduled for Monday the 13th. More study time!

9/13/04 ...And Again... Checkride Tomorrow - I'm sounding like a broken record, but my checkride was rescheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday). I flew 0.8 hours of takeoffs and landings tonight with my instructor. We did the necessary paperwork for taking a checkride. It's getting late and I still need to plan a cross-country to Memphis (not actually flying the whole thing), review a few things, try to get some sleep, and be out at the airport bright and early around 7:00. I know I'll be tired tomorrow morning but I should have enough excitement to run off of!

9/14/04 Incentive - I spent the whole day at the airport today, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m., minus a couple errands. I have never done that before. My day started much earlier, at 5 a.m., when I finished planning a sample cross-country flight from Dubuque to Memphis. Then I began my commercial checkride with the FAA examiner at 8:00. After two hours of questioning, the examiner was satisfied that I passed the oral. The weather wasn't good enough to do the whole flight portion. I decided to wait a few hours and hope it would change. I spent most of that time hanging around UD Flight Ops. After lunch, I got a call from my friend Thom at Cirrus that he would be on his way to Dubuque soon. The Cirrus "mobile showroom" and a few planes will be on display tomorrow. The truck was already here being set up. The weather wasn't improving much so I called the FAA examiner to reschedule my flight for Thursday morning.

I went to the FBO to wait for Thom. There, I passed the time by talking to the line service employees I knew, and watching business planes and pilots come and go. When Thom arrived, I said hello for a while and then let him get to work. Then I spent quite a while at the maintenance place talking to the employees there. (I put in an application a while ago, too.) I also talked to the driver of the Cirrus semi a lot. When I hung out with Thom again, I got to climb around on the roof of the big truck and watch him install an antenna to receive XM satellite weather on the Avidyne display inside. It took a while, but when it was done and it worked... oh boy. Drool. Slobber... Ahem... well, it was awesome. Not only can you see radar on your multifunction display, but you can see the outlines of temporary flight restrictions (TFRs), AIRMETs, and SIGMETs. You can also see text weather.

It's been a while since I have seen the latest and greatest at Cirrus, and Thom told me about even more things that the company is working on. I sat in the cockpit mock-up and recalled the flights I have taken in Cirrus SR22s as they evolved. I have always been interested in working for the company, especially after Thom started working there and could tell me what it's like. Something about those airplanes and that place makes me dream.

I saw a possible life unfold in front of me within a day. I spent the morning working on earning my commercial pilot certificate. I spent the afternoon talking to flight instructors, line service employees, mechanics, freight pilots, corporate pilots, and someone who flies Cirrus airplanes all over the country. Suddenly I have a clear reminder of who I am and where I want to go.

9/16/04 Passed Commercial Checkride! - I'm a newly minted commercial pilot!

I did the flight portion of my checkride this morning in the Trinidad. I flew with the examiner for 2.1 hours, with a stop at Davenport, Iowa. It's an incredible feeling to finally reach the goal I have been working on since 2001, when I got my private certificate and started doing cross-countries while training for my instrument rating. It's been three years and a lot of hard work. Next I will immediately begin training to become a flight instructor. This is a great milestone, and I can hardly believe it's real. I'm too tired to write more!

9/30/04 Flew in my 40th Type of Aricraft - I got to fly with a UD instructor who has a 1947 Stinson Voyager. It's a four-seat fabric taildragger. It was fun to fly something antique again. It had also been a while since I had flown in a tailwheel airplane. I logged 0.8 hours. We flew around Dubuque. This is the 40th type of aircraft I've ridden in and the 28th type I've flown myself. Wow!

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