Been a busy week so far. It's Thursday evening- flew up here to New York this morning for a series of meetings with a client from Europe as well as potential client from Atlanta. Got up this morning at 5 to drive to the airport and catch a Delta flight up here- good thing I wore a blazer! Was overcast and chilly most of the day, and tonight it was in the LOW 50's here in Pelham.

Had dinner with my two partners and their families. First time I met Tony's wife Allison- what a sweetheart! Really enjoyed the cookout and sitting on the patio, but it really was a bit too cold for my thick southern blood. My European client was over from Belfast regaling us with tales from his many varied travels.

Monday through Wednesday was pretty much about working the phones and working to stay on top of several business deals we have working, including our motorcycle company we're working to take public. I think I'm making some headway on that one- still not sure, but we'll see. I'll spare this space the details on that one, since this is a public forum.


Flying last Tuesday morning was good. Got in seven good landings- some better than others, but all perfectly acceptable. Working on flaring better at the end and in keeping the plane hovering over the runway while it slowly settles itself into a smooth touchdown. Right now I'm at about 17 hours of flying time, so I'm still pretty green.

Tonight I'm at the Radisson hotel in New Rochelle, and will be heading back to Atlanta tomorrow morning at 11:30. Could have caught the early flight home, but this way I can still get breakfast with my client in the AM before heading back. I've got plenty of work I can get done at the airport.

In short- pretty good week so far. Several high profile clients and projects that are coming along very well. I'm pleased. Also very pleased with flying progress- so what's to whine about?

Last Monday at work was busy, busy, busy. Have several hot projects going at work, some of which are better along than others, but no shortage of things to do. Tuesday morning early had a flying lesson where I practiced emergency procedures by flying from Gainesville to Jefferson, including a "dead stick" landing all the way to the ground from 6,500 feet. Back to the office for a full day, then an evening of vegetation central. Crosswords and a book.

I've decided to stop posting details on my flying lessons here, but will simply put them on my web site (rossstatham.com).

Another busy three days at work, where we're bringing our motorcycle company to the market, working hard on our investor relations projects as well as our small "raise" I'm working on with a colleague. Will have to go to New York next week, may have to go to Boston and London later this month. We'll see. Lost a contract I was hoping to get with the State Department, but you can't win them all- no huge setback.

Had a nice Friday evening date with Mizaud. Dinner at Moe's.

Saturday morning I practiced takeoffs and landings. My takeoffs are pretty good- maybe not quite enough right rudder on a couple of takeoffs. Landings remain a challenge to tweak as I get ready to solo in a couple of weeks.

Audrey and I are really enjoying being down to just one at home, and Cathy's getting to be pretty low maintenance any more. So when I got back from flying I did a few small projects, took a nice 90-minute nap, read, watched a movie, worked on my sermon, did a crossword, got in a 3 1/2 mile run.

It's a nice feeling. I'm enjoying it.

On the drive to the airport early this week I was able to get immediately through on my cell phone for a weather brief, and the forecast from the meteorologist was superb for flying. 10 miles visibility, virtually no clouds. Called the automated airport observation station, which was reporting 4-6 knot winds from 270. Sounds like flying weather to me!

Ground school I had covered at home(the Cessna training CDs) had covered emergency procedures- what to do if an engine quits on takeoff, on landing, during flight; what to do in case of engine fire, what to do on electrical fire in the cockpit. The videos were very factual, and really stressed learning checklist NOW. So I had. At the airport, Matt and I discussed emergency procedures as well as flying without specific instruments- altimeter, airspeed indicator. He told me we'd fly today to Jackson County, Georgia and simulate an engine fire, but we'd fly there on limited instruments.

After an uneventful preflight, taxi, runup and takeoff on runway 29, we headed for Jackson County while climbing to 6,500 feet. Just after we turned left after takeoff, Matt put a black cover on my airspeed indicator. Since I should always climb at 75 knots, or about 550 feet per minute, I had to only use my climb indicator and altimeter. No problem. We also worked on using instruments to find and maintain course heading.

Leveled out at 6,500 and continued on to Jackson; passed it just a bit to the south, then we practiced steep (45-degree) turns, first to the left, then to the right. You can't depend on just your instruments on steep turns, since they lag about a half second behind actual- actually about all you have to do is line up the horizon with the dashboard and maintain it while watching the angle of turn and altimeter. Add power and HAUL BACK on the yoke, of course.

Headed for Jackson- then Matt reached over and pulled the throttle back to idle. "Your engine's on fire. Now what?" Nose down and 120 knots, then sweeping turn to the left, then the right. "Ok, fire's out. Let's land the plane. Haul back on your yoke until you slow to ideal glide speed- 68 knots." Got the speed down, trimmed for 68 knots, then as we headed for the airport, Matt called on the radio we were practicing engine fire and other emergencies over the Jackson airport.

Amazingly, I landed the plane dead stick (engine still on idle) and made my instructor very happy. We taxied back to takeoff position, re-trimmed for takeoff, hit the takeoff check list and back into the air for a barely acceptable touch and go. Oh, well.

Back in the air and Matt says, "Take us back to Gainesville. You're on your own." Ok, program Gainesville (KGVL) into the GPS, tune the radios back to Gainesville frequencies to see which runway's in use and what the wind's doing.

Matt wants me to practice "go arounds." Ok, that's easy, since most of my landings are pretty lousy! First and second passes we do go-arounds, the third landing is a HARD landing on the nose gear (ARRRRGG) because I try to fly the plane all the way into the ground again. Dumb stunt.

So the score today- good dead stick landing, good emergency procedures, not nearly enough concentration on landings. Next lesson four days from now, on Saturday.

Wow. Today (Saturday) I had two great lessons. This morning's lesson #8 was focused on steep turns as well as more work on flying the landing pattern. Went great. (Pinch me, I'm dreaming.)

Woke up this morning to an overcast Saturday morning, and I knew that with Tropical Storm Barry finally bringing some much-needed rain as it crept up from Florida today that we would have to watch radar and wind patterns before going aloft.

Got to the airport at 7:45 am to find Matt waiting on me, as usual, for my 8 am lesson. He and I went back over how to read METARS data from www.aviationweather.gov and we saw it looked good. The airport automated system was reporting thin clouds at 3,400 AGL and virtual calm. OK to fly for sure, and today back in 35S, an old friend and my preferred Cessna 172SP.


Normal preflight, and one of the first things I noticed as I taxied was that I could really feel the rudder pedals with the running shoes Matt suggested I try instead of the clunkers I was wearing. (Note the photo- clunkers to the left, black running shoes on the right.) Good runup, uneventful takeoff to the northeast on runway 4. We climbed out to 3,500 feet, still way below the clouds, and practiced steep (45 degree) banked turns.

Did great. Had some minor "issues" in keeping the nose up enough to not lose lift; did a 360-degree turn to the left, then one to the right. Settled back on my heading, then did it again. On the second try, I nailed it so well that we had a big "bump" as we came all the way around-- we had hit our own turbulence in the calm morning air! That shows I was maintaining my altitude. Yeah!

After about 20 minutes of that fun, back to the airport to work "the pattern" for three touch and goes, and a final full-stop landing. I'm losing my nervousness about the height, descent, procedures, flaps, speed-- and especially my stick and rudder work. Landing #3 was smooth as silk! The score this time: 4 good landings for 4. Some better than others, but all 4 were good landings. I got a "great job" from my instructor, too. (Will wonders never cease?)

I'm convinced, totally convinced, that the tennis shoes made a huge difference. For the first time I could feel the wind directly on the tail as it was transferred back through the rudder pedals.

In taxing back to the ramp, I asked Matt if he was available later today, so we set up a 2:30 pm lesson to try to get in some crosswind landings before Tropical Storm Barry's outskirts arrived.

Got to the airport at 2:15 with gusty winds from the east. Good weather to practice landings. (Oh, joy.) Normal pre-flight (different airplane, so we did it all again), but much different taxi characteristics. Now we had a quartering tail wind, with gusts. Takeoff- and immediately blown to the left of the runway just about as soon as I left the ground. No where nearly enough right rudder. Gotta remember that- wind coming from the right, dummy. No safety issues, but if I'd had a passenger in the plane...

First landing approach was certainly a challenge. With the crosswind we were blown off our downwind leg, then heading into the last "base" leg for final it took forever, and I do mean FOREVER to line up with the runway for final approach. I couldn't quite land the airplane on my own. Everything was going OK until the very end, when a gust blew me off and I didn't recover quickly enough. Matt took the controls, got it sideslipped enough to line up enough to land, and landed it with me feeling how he did it. He said, "Touch and go. Your controls." he said. (OK, here we go again.) Full throttle, no flaps, takeoff at 60 knots and a nice climb with PLENTY of right rudder.

Landing number two was mine with a bit of help from the master. Not bad. Not bad at all. I was surprised, but I was able to hold it together in spite of crosswind gusts and considerable work in holding the yoke with the left hand and keeping the right on the throttle.

Landing number three was great. So good in fact, that it warranted a "GREAT JOB" by my instructor, who promptly patted me on the back for the first time. Right at the end Matt took his hands OFF THE CONTROLS and left them in his lap for the first time since we began flying approaches. I will definitely take that! Whew!

Landing number four was acceptable, certainly OK for crosswind. I came in high and fast, with only 20-degrees of flaps due to high crosswinds, but brought it down, leveled it off ok and put the wheels down just fine. That in spite of almost wandering over the grass on the left side of the runway due to a strong wind gust.

For those of you reading this that are not pilots, fear not. Landing a small plane like that on a huge concrete landing strip, even in a crosswind, is safe.

We got to the ramp, shut her down and pushed her back into position. I felt like I'd been rode hard and put up wet. FOUR crosswind landings in only 40 minutes. Yowza.

You know, this is getting to be fun.

Today's the first Tuesday after Memorial Day 2007, so up fairly early to the airport for another lesson. A check with the FAA Weather Briefer during the drive to the airport- 10 miles visibility, scattered clouds 1,100 feet over the deck. Maybe Matt will let me fly the pattern this morning. Goodness knows I need some practice in landings.

Got to the airport. Yep. But before we took off, Matt and I got to talking and he gets the keys to a Mooney, which we go climb into for a few minutes. Nice plane, but would be WAY too small for Audrey and I.

Back into the office, got the paperwork straight, and just as we're about to head out, a new potential student pilot drops in. Matt talks to him about an introductory ride (was that me just a few months ago??) and sends me on to preflight my 172 by myself. Cool. I guess he must trust me.

Perfectly normal pre-flight. Plane looks nice, plenty of fuel in the tanks, plus it's a plane I haven't flown much- 35S, another Cessna 172SP. While waiting I looked into the cockpits of other planes on the ramp. I would love to have a Beech Bonanza some day, but will probably end up buying a much smaller Cherokee. Will definitely need to build some hours up in a smaller plane before buying something bigger.

After Matt arrives, we get in, start it up and taxi down to runway 4. I'm having trouble using the rudder pedals- my shoes keep clunking into something on the floorboard. Arrrg. But we get down to the end of runway 4 and perform a normal runup. We wait for a Diamond to take off in the opposite direction (winds were virtually calm), then "lights, camera, action" (tax & strobe lights, transponder, mixture to full rich.)

Takeoff. Normal climb to a LOW pattern- only 700 feet AGL (above ground level). As soon as I climbed to an indicated 2,000 feet we were far enough from the airport to turn to the left for our crosswind leg, then turned to the left again to make the downwind leg and parallel the airport.

So for the next 50 minutes we landed and took off.

Did pretty well. I was much better today on small corrections (there's a natural tendency to over-correct, just like new drivers do on the highway). My sight picture is getting much better, too-- I'm getting where I can see what a "good" runway is supposed to look like.

The big thing I accomplished today was getting the airplane down to where I could level off above the runway, then bleed off airspace and let it settle down on its own.

Unfortunately, my second landing I WAY over-corrected when I was just about to touch down, so we did a go-around. No big deal. And the very next landing I didn't level out the airplane, but rather bumped the nosewheel into to runway. OUCH. That's a huge no-no.

But the other five landings were pretty good.

There's much to do right in landing any airplane, and right now I'm getting some right and some wrong, and at different times on different runs. But as long as I keep practicing, I'll start getting all of the bits together.

Matt graciously took the controls over after landing #6 and told me to "take a break." (God bless him!) He accelerated it, climbed out to 2,000 and put it back into the pattern for me for final landing, #7. Lucky seven turned out pretty good. Not as good as #5, but not bad, either. Approach was good, no over control, and I leveled off fairly nicely before flaring and setting it down on the back wheels.

After the lesson, Matt suggests that I fly in tennis shoes instead of these big clunkers I'm flying in. Good advice. I really can't "feel" the pedals with these shoes, and his thought is that I'll be more responsive on both taxi and flight with running shoes.

So could I land this thing in an emergency now? Hmmmmmm. Probably. But it sure is good having Matt's hands on the controls while I'm landing it. Last lesson I had one pretty good landing out of 6. This lesson I had four pretty good landings out of seven. And he told me after the lesson that I'm "continuing to make strong improvements in flying the pattern, in lining up and in landing properly."

Only did 8/10 of an hour of flying, but it felt like 3! Matt told me that 6 landings is about the max for one lesson, and I can only agree. Whew!