Posted by I guess I haven't been giving too many updates lately. Haven't been flying a lot is what it comes down to. During the week before the hurricane, and a few days after, I was unable to fly. Since then I have had a few weather cancellations, and a few that my instructor just couldn't schedule, or he would schedule, but would then cancel. He's taking on some new students with some additional program, and that has put him into a bind. Not his fault.
Today I did a completely solo flight. Did everything to get myself ready, and my instructor signed off on the weather. They require that an instructor check the weather with you, make sure you're not flying into a tropical storm.
After that, I went out to the plane alone. Walking across the ramp alone is an eery feeling. I haven't done it very often yet, so I'm still a little nervous. I end up talking to myself because of the void of someone there to talk to, or read checklists to.
After taking off I went north along the coast to try and practice some maneuvers. I wasn't liking my options. To the north was a row of clouds I couldn't climb over, and didn't want to go under them. Inland was pretty misty, and there was already traffic in that area. South would have required me to go a few miles offshore, so I was stuck. After trying to get some maneuvers done, and unsuccessfully so, I headed back to the airport for some landings.
You can always tell when the controllers aren't busy. I'm 10 miles out, making my first call:
"Vero beach tower, cherokee niner two one two echo, two miles north of the Wabasso bridge, mid river, inbound touch and goes, with charlie"
Who I am, where I'm at, what I need. Basic format.
His response:
"Cherokee niner two one two echo, cleared touch and go one one left, then left closed"
I'm 10 miles away, can barely see the runway, and yet he cleared me to land. Normally they will vector you in, like "Make left traffic for one one left, report entering left downwind". That means once your less than a mile out, they'll clear you to land.
I don't know, I guess it's just funny.
I didn't get to do my full 1.5 of flight time due to some low rain clouds that came in. Other than that, it was an awesome flight. Speaking of flight time, I forgot to make an entry in my log book 🙂