Ah it felt good to finally get back in the air. Earlier I was a bit anxious to see how much skill I’ve lost over the last 6 months, but it turned out better than I thought. Flying, I guess, is like riding a bike: you don’t really lose much after taking time off. My flight instructor seems like a cool guy, real relaxed, and he knows his stuff! Plus, we’re both heading for the airlines, so we can relate. Once we took off I was put under the hood (a view limiting device that simulates IFR conditions) and spent the whole time under there doing constant rate turns, descents, climbs, etc. right until I was 600′ AGL (above ground level) on final. Needless to say, getting pictures while training for IFR is going to be a challenge. But, I’ll try. Didn’t take any today, so below I’ve added a “vintage” one of me pre-flighting N6165M, the old Cessna 152 I used to fly before I switched to the 172. The biggest challenge today: avoiding the 20 mile radius TFR (temporary flight restriction) for a bunch of whales that decided to swim in to the Delta and up the Sacramento River. Darwin’s theory anyone?

Chasing the dream. Everyone’s dream starts somewhere. Mine started at SFO. Sometime before my memory decided to kick in my grandfather and father took me to watch the planes takeoff and land at SFO. Growing up this became my favorite spot to visit. The noise, size, and power of the jets roaing down runway 1R amazed me. At the ripe age of five I decided what I wanted to do with my life: become a pilot. Since that moment there has never been a doubt about what I wanted to do. My dream was to become an airline pilot.

I started flying airplanes when I was 14. For awhile I took it slow, after all, you can’t get a student license until 16. I was landing planes before I drove a car, and loved every moment of it. At the age of 17 I earned my private pilot license. To this date it was the greatest moment of my life. I wish my grandfather was alive to see it. After enjoying my license for awhile, I took a break from flying. Six months to be exact. Now I’m starting up again. I just finished IFR ground school, got a 97% on the written test, and tomorrow I’ll be back in the air.

I created this blog to document my journey from now until I reach the airlines. I hope I can keep this going for the next several years while I finish college and my flying lessons. I’m going to be taking some pictures like the ones above to make this more interesting and, hopefully, some people will actually read this! (haha) But if not, it will still be cool to look back several years from now and see where I’ve been and what I’ve done while chasing my deam.