SPC #68 – Bam! Back in the Saddle, Baby.

Welcome back SPC listeners today we're going to conclude my first

training flight to get current after my 11 year break from flying.

We head back to busy Falcon field and I get to do my first

landing for quite a while.

The first of many.

What a great time.

I hope you enjoy episode 68, "Bam!

Back in the saddle, baby!"

All right, so let's do this.

I'm happy to have you back with me in the cockpit for my kick-the-rust-off

flight as I attempt to get current again.

This is going to be fun.

At least it was for me.

If you haven't heard episode 67 yet go back and listen to that one first, since

that's the first part of this flight.

But once you're done, come back and let's finish it.

Before we get into the flight though.

There's a few more topics to bring you further up to speed.

I didn't talk about the flight school specifically in the last episode,

but it's not a state secret either.

I mean, we were using call signs during that whole episode and

our company traffic was too.

So you probably gathered that I was training at my buddies

school, red rock flight school.

Just north of the field there there's a beautiful Mesa or hill or mountain.

Jetting out of the desert.

Over a thousand feet tall.

It's a landmark in the area and because of its red coloration

it's known as red mountain.

In fact, my boys all graduated from red mountain high school in Mesa.

I mean, everyone around here knows red mountain.

In the last episode, you may have noticed that we were asked to start

our base over the granite reef dam, when we were coming back to Falcon.

And that's just in front of, or south of red mountain.

So it's this landmark that the flight school is named after, as

it is in fact, a giant red rock.

It would make sense if you lived here.

Oh, and I'm sure you figured this out by now, but we're flying in red rock 66.

That's our call sign for the airplane I was in that day.

Another topic I should cover real quick is how I was flying

from a medical standpoint.

You may have guessed that back in the day when I was flying a lot, I held a couple

of third class medicals over that time.

When I stopped flying.

I let those lapse.

In the interim basic med had been implemented, which allowed me to use

that to easily get back in the air.

About a year before I started flying again, I had taken care of basic

med because I wanted to be ready when I did start flying again.

And basic med is an awesome way to easily stay legal, to

fly from a medical perspective.

Nothing ever gets sent to the FAA for this, unless they ask

for it on a ramp check or because of an incident or something, it

stays in your possession only.

I have to show it to an examiner for check rides, but that's about it.

Because I had held a third class medical before, and I'd never been denied.

And because I was in relatively good health, I was just able

to go to my regular doctor.

Show him the forms, and after him doing a very thorough exam, he signed all the

papers for the physical and filled it out.

I then had to take an online course through AOPA, get that printout

along with my physical report.

And that became my medical.

I just carried around a digital scan of that whole packet and

that acts as your medical.

It's pretty cool.

And it's easy to take care of and you don't need a regular medical from an AME.

I highly recommend using basic med if you don't need the regular medical.

Seriously, do it.

I've since gone ahead and gotten my first-class medical more recently and

let me tell you it's a lot more expensive and a much bigger pain to do that.

Do basic med, if you can.

It's great.

If you're listening from another country, well, that's a bummer because you won't

have basic med and I have no idea what your jurisdiction requires, but if

you're in the US and you don't need something else, Basic med for the win.

Okay.

I guess we should get back to what you came here for.

Let's finish the flight.

So we left off last time with me doing some slow flight and we were

about to get into some stalls.

To start Ryan demonstrated a power off stall, so we'll pick it up there.

alright, what do you say we, uh, do a power off stall here real quick?

I'm sorry, on or off?

Off.

Off.

Okay.

Yeah, we'll do a power off first.

Alright.

Alright, so go ahead and turn us back to the west.

Alright.

Stargate tracks area, Red Rock 71,

3, 700 over the confluence maneuver.

Just kind of try and stay over our general little area right here.

private pilot maneuvers northeast.

Northeast practice, Red Rock 66, over Rio Verde community,

5, 500, maneuvering northeast.

000 feet, steep turny boys, northeast.

Steep turny boys.

Alright, that's about a good heading right here.

Okay.

Alright, cool.

So we'll do this first one together again, just kind of shadow me on everything.

Okay.

Alright, so power off stalls are nice because the setup is pretty

much exactly the same as slow flight.

So, we'll go to 2, 000 RPM here, about.

100 miles an hour, we'll get our first onto flaps.

You want me to do it or you got it?

Yeah, I'll do it the first time and then you just shadow me again.

Alright.

Then I'll have you do it the second time.

I again use trim, there's 100.

I go a little bit below 1, 800 just so I can do it a bit quicker.

I'll slow down.

There's 90.

No one about to kill us.

At least that I don't see.

Not that I can

see.

There's 80.

We'll get our last one.

Then before we go and pitch up to a first stall, we're going to pull the

power out to idle, and then we're going to let our nose drop for a stabilized

descent of about 500 feet per minute.

Interesting.

Right

there.

Yeah, that's what you got to do on the private check ride.

So we just kind of like to keep it like that.

After you do that, we're smoothly, don't pitch up super high, but just, just above

the horizon, like you're coming into land.

Now we'll just hold her back until it stalls.

You gotta pull back pretty dang far.

You'll feel it.

There it is.

Full power.

One notch flaps out.

Let it get a little bit of speed and then slowly bring that

nose back up to the horizon.

And just get a very, very slight rate of climb.

We're just trying to climb away from the ground because we're

pretending this is a, uh, you know, approachable landing stall, right?

So, positive rate of climb in 80 miles an hour.

We'll get our, uh, second notch out.

And then at 90, and a paused rate, get our second one up, er, last one, sorry.

And that's it.

Just kind of nose it over and reset your power.

And you want to still climb back to your original altitude?

Yeah, so

you can keep on climbing up.

and do a 180 back that way again?

Or just actually to the south will work over that, all

those little orchards there.

Yeah, yeah, so go ahead and turn.

There's someone over the street pattern.

Got it.

Get out of their way.

Oops, I was letting it descend a little.

So now it's my turn to try a power off stall again.

So here we go.

Alright, get her up to 55 and you can start going through it.

Yeah, that's hard to get out too.

Yeah.

Okay, back to 2, 000.

Right?

Yep.

Or a little less.

100, right?

Yep.

190, 80 for your flaps.

Yep.

90.

Alright.

And then go ahead and pull your power to idle and kind of relax some back

pressure on that yoke and stabilize about a 500 foot per minute descent down.

There you go.

That's more than enough.

Right there.

Yep.

Okay.

Go ahead and bring your nose up above the horizon.

Pretty much in like a flaring attitude.

So bring it up a little more.

About right there.

Just hold it there.

And ready on the throttle.

We'll keep pulling back.

We'll try to get it to a full stall.

So keep pulling back, back, back, back, back, back, back,

back, back, back, back, back.

And there it is.

Nose down.

Full power.

Get a notch of flaps out, keep that nose down for a sec.

Get a notch of flaps.

And another.

Oh, I'm already there.

Yep, just one first and then start bringing your nose up

above the horizon a little.

Okay.

Just get a nice, gentle, positive rate of climb.

We're already past 80, so get that second one out.

That was the last one.

Yeah, I think he accidentally got two out there.

Sorry.

No,

you're good, you're good.

We're

still alive.

Still positive rate.

Good job.

Yep.

Nice job.

Alright, I'm gonna go ahead and turn back, uh, towards the lake out there.

And keep climbing us up to 55.

Good job!

That looked really nice.

Good job on, uh, getting your nose down, but not too much.

Usually people put it into a second stall, or they point the nose,

like, straight towards the ground.

Yeah, these are pretty docile airplanes.

Yeah, they

are, they are.

You gotta really try to actually get them to stall.

We'll do a power on next.

You'll see you can't even get it to stall.

Yeah, it'll just kind of buffet It'll sit there and buffet real hard.

What heading do you want

me on?

Um, about north is fine.

Okay, this is about north?

About north, yeah.

I just kind of want to be pointed that way.

All right, I'm going to go to 22.

55.

You

know what, let's actually go down to like 5, 000 or so.

Oh,

okay.

Because with these power on stalls, we're going to climb.

We're going to climb and I don't want to climb through the brunt.

Or we'll just stay at 55 here for another second until we get

out from underneath this one.

Alright, but power on stall, no flaps, wait and stall.

Uh, it's a takeoff stall, so we take off, pitch up way too

high, and we stall and we're just trying not to hit the ground here.

All right.

Not too bad, a little rusty, but it'll get better.

Now Ryan was going to do a quick demo of a power on stall.

I'm gonna pull some power if you want me to descend, is that alright?

Absolutely.

So we can just stay at 55 here, we're out from underneath that shell.

Oh, you did say, okay.

I did tell you to descend, but then I said never mind, I can't make up my mind here.

Alright, so again, I'll show you this first one here real

quick, just shadow me here.

do that, you'll never slow down.

Or it'll take years.

So I set about 17 knots.

Now we're going to slow all the way down to 70 miles an hour, kind of

mimicking our takeoff speed, right?

And this is the one where we need right rudder to keep our ball

centered so we don't go into a spin.

As we slow down, just

keep pitching up.

At

70, we're going to add full power and pitch up to about 20 degrees or so.

It's just, all it's going to do is buffet.

You can pull all day and it will never stall.

So there's full power.

It's already doing it's thing, but we're just going to keep pitching up.

Keep our ball centered.

We're going to go till the buffet.

You can already start to feel it.

Yep.

There it is.

Yep.

Nose down.

Just a little bit below the horizon, just break that stall,

and slowly bring it back up.

And establish a nice little positive rate of climb.

You almost touched the ground.

Almost, almost.

We

might have scraped our wheels a little bit.

That's what they're for, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Put them to work.

They cost a lot, so you may as well use them.

And again, following the same pattern we've been seeing.

It was time for me to do the power on stall.

Alright, whenever you're ready sir, go ahead.

Okay, so I'm going to power back to, oops, that was way too far, to 18, out.

17,

18, out.

Yep.

Slow her down.

Let it come down a little bit.

That does not want to slow down.

Yeah, so

you're in a tiny bit of a descent, so just slowly pitch your nose up a tad.

That should do the trick for ya.

There we go.

Alright, there's about 70, so let's go full power, start pitching her up.

Keep your ball in between the lines there.

Step on your ball.

There you go, and once you feel the buffet, you can go ahead

and let the nose come down.

And there it is.

There it is.

About as much as you're going to get.

Nose down.

There you go.

Break that stall, and then just start a gentle positive rate of climb.

Fly away from the ground.

Away from the ground.

Away from the ground.

Perfect.

Good job.

Alright, so we get back to cruise, right?

Yes, sir.

Alright, so we're going to go ahead and start heading back

here, so go ahead and do your post maneuver checklist here real quick.

Post maneuver checklist.

Carb heat is off.

Landing light off.

Fuel pump off.

And mixture lean.

Yeah, right.

The maneuvers for the day were over.

So it was time to head back south to Falcon field.

Ryan also reintroduced me to my old friend, the Garmin 430 GPS.

We had these in the planes, in the club.

I mean, who didn't really, these things sold like crazy ever since

the nineties when they came out.

So they're pretty ubiquitous.

But again, I was well removed from my days using the 430 as a VFR pilot.

I hadn't ever done an instrument approach before.

So I was kind of barely using the 430, even back when I did.

But I did use them for flight paths and VFR flight.

And for situational awareness.

And since I was about to take on the instrument rating and most of the planes

in the school, at least the ones used for instrument ratings use the 430, it was

time I started getting familiar again.

So let's head back towards Falcon and get ready to land.

Damn, nice pull.

Got that perfect.

That was pretty good, wasn't it?

All right, let's start heading back.

Are you familiar with these Garmin 430s at all?

Yeah, I used one for a long time, but I'm way out of practice.

Ah,

you're good.

They're really easy to figure out, so.

Direct KFFZ, right?

Yeah, let's say just hit the D with the arrow through it.

And then, you can either type it in if you want the hard way.

Oh.

Since we're pretty close, you can actually just scroll down to that nearest, and

it's probably going to be in there.

And then use the little knob, and go to the right, and it should be right there.

Here you go, hit enter.

Oh.

Enter, damn it.

Yeah, hit enter.

Oh!

Jeez.

Scroll down, now hit enter.

And enter.

Boom.

There we go.

Negative.

Where'd you say you were?

Sorry I missed it.

And, uh, let's start

also de descend That right turn.

Perfect.

We'll, we'll have good separation.

We're just, what's a descent?

yeah.

Two thousand's.

Fine.

Like a cruise descent.

Yeah.

We're turning off to zero six.

Time to five.

Let the come down.

Yeah, we're good.

Thanks all.

While we're starting to head back too, we'll start getting

our ais and all that stuff.

Okay.

Uh, if you just wanna click it back on there.

Right here, right?

Yep.

point six.

Arrivals north of runway centerline, contact tower one one niner point seven.

Advise on initial contact, you have information, Oscar.

Oscar.

Talcot Tower, information Oscar one six five four Zulu, wind one one zero at

four, temperature five, dew point minus one, altimeter three zero two niner.

Visual approach in use, landing and departing runways

four left and four right.

Notice air missions, attention all aircraft, 5G NOTAM's in

effect for Falcon Airport.

For further information, contact flight service frequencies.

Arrivals south of runway center lines, contact tower 124.

6.

Arrivals north of runway center lines, contact tower 119.

7.

Advise on initial contact, you have information, Oscar.

Falcon Tower.

Oscar.

And I'm going to go ahead and stay on this practice area for a little bit longer.

Okay.

And then just about before we hit Fountain Hills, I'll go ahead and switch over.

Got it.

All right.

So I like to kind of be at least below 4, 000 before I even touch Fountain Hills.

Just because that Bravo shelf, if he could be at 3, 300 before you

get there, that's even better.

But cool.

This is a 4, 000 shelf?

Uh, this is a

6,

000 shelf.

Okay.

This is seven and that's eight.

And then that line right there, right above my fingernail,

that's four and that's five.

Headed back to Falcon, last call, Northeast.

Seeya.

Seeya..

All right, you can go flip over now and then Go ahead and throw on 124.6.

Go off to cross runways and talk to

four five Quebec.

Make left traffic.

Alright.

Then basically we'll just call right over the middle of Fountain Hills.

That's about 10 miles,

50 48 traffic.

Do I say Fountain

Hills or do I say 10 miles North

Mile?

You

could say

either.

I just say Fountain Hills.

Okay.

It is a VFR reporting point, right?

It is.

Okay.

It is has its own GPS waypoint too.

Ah.

All right now that we were over fountain Hills, I needed to

call Falcon tower to get pattern entry and landing instructions.

You might listen to some of my radio work at least thus far and think, ah, that's

not bad for being out of it for so long.

But the truth is I listen now and the amount of prep before I pressed

the push to talk, the slowness of my requests, and now you'll see

me miss radio calls completely.

Then you start to see how crazy out of practice I was.

When you're flying a lot you don't even really need to think that much about the

radio and you generally don't miss calls.

There's like a weird piece of your brain always listening for your call

sign or tail numbers subconsciously.

Well, I wasn't there yet, so you'll hear that quite a bit coming up.

Luckily Ryan took over some of the radio work when I got a little task

saturated and my brain was ignoring stuff.

Anyway, this is us coming back in.

Oscar.

Oscar.

I'm glad you were paying attention because I wasn't.

When they turn to me and they go, what was the information like?

I was going to ask you.

But writing

it down comes in handy.

Exactly.

All right,

then go ahead and

33?

Yeah, we do 33 in, so we got 400 feet between the people coming

out and the people going in.

That's right.

Because everybody funnels to Falcon and out of Falcon through Fountain Hills.

Yep, you told me that earlier, I just forgot.

Alright, and then you can call them whenever and just let

them know we want a full stop.

Do

you usually give your altitude?

Yeah.

Falcon Tower, Red Rock 66 over Fountain Hills with Oscar inbound full stop.

Red Rock

66, Falcon Tower, make left traffic running for left.

Roger.

Left traffic for 4 left, Red Rock 66.

Beautiful.

It's

like riding a bike, man.

I say, it sounds like you haven't taken a day off.

All right.

Well, you're on a perfect heading right now for 45 for the left downwind.

Cessna

3027 Foxtrot flight straight out runway four left.

I've flown over Fountain

And then, uh, once we're past Fountain Hills, we usually

start going down to the TPA.

And that is 2, 400 feet.

Would you consider this passed?

Yeah, it's close enough.

We just don't go below it because they politely asked airplanes to stay at this

altitude, but you're, you're far enough.

Can you give me some numbers, uh, on a downwind where should I be on the RPMs?

Okay.

That'll give you about 100 miles an hour.

Okay, so 100.

100 on downwind, 90 on base, 80 on final.

Okay, one notch of flaps each time.

Yes, sir.

First notch in, a beam.

Yep.

Okay.

Red Rock 66, continue your descent to pattern altitude and enter left

downwind over the Granite Reef Dam.

Copy, I'm gonna get that.

Alright, we'll continue our descent under the left downwind

over the Granite Reef Dam.

Red Rock 66.

Alright, she's kind of telling us to hustle down here.

Okay.

Because there's people climbing up as they're coming out.

Got it.

Now the Granite Reef Dam, they'll tell you all the time to turn your

base over it or start your downwind.

And that is that right there.

So it basically just sets you up on a super wide, or like a wide base.

So if you just follow this canal, it takes you right to it.

That would be a wide base for 22.

Yeah, either a wide base for 22, or they tell you to enter your left down for 4

left.

Right now we're doing the down one for 4 left.

And she wanted

us where?

Uh, she just said continue your descent and turn your left

down over the Granite Reef Dam.

Okay.

Yeah, see that's shows my out of practice.

I didn't even know that was for us.

Yep.

I'll call

your turn.

I'm gonna turn it up a little.

Yeah, go ahead.

That's okay.

Or I guess I could just turn up my own headset.

Might be all the way up already.

You can, I turned it down a little so you can turn up.

That is beautiful

Confluence.

Stop.

So close to

the Red Rock.

Yep.

Red Rock.

71.

Red Rock, 71 Falcon Tower, make left traffic, running for left.

So the confluence is right out there, so he's coming in through this

way, so we gotta watch out for him.

9 3 Golf, are you familiar with Gilbert Road?

I don't see him.

I don't either, but he's somewhere out there.

9 They

kinda want me at pattern altitude, I'm guessing.

Yeah, but you're already there.

2400

is

TPA here.

Oh, 24, I thought you said 22.

My bad.

Nah, you're good.

9

3 Golf, turn right, suggest at 30 degrees, turn right, suggest at 30 degrees.

Right.

Who is that for?

Not us.

Cessna 27F, left turn southbound, approved traffic ahead into your

It's nice having the call sign.

Anytime you hear say Red Rock, that's kind of your cue to perk up and listen.

Cessna 4

5 Quebec, fly straight out.

Straight out, 4

5 Quebec.

Cessna 27, uh, Foxtrot, additional information, Class Bravo

airspace, it starts at 4, 000.

So,

should I still be heading towards the airport, or should I be

parallel?

It sounds like she wants you to turn your left downwind over the dam, so I'd

probably just start turning your downwind.

Alright.

It's pretty wide.

Oh yeah, it is wide.

Cessna

9 3, Golf.

Makes me nervous.

Nah, you're fine.

Ow, we got a Bravo Buster out right now.

Yeah,

Cessna 93GN2, follow Archer on the left base to a 2 mile

final, report traffic in sight.

Looking for this traffic.

5048, running 4 left, clear to touch and go.

5048, running 4 left, clear to land number 1.

Alright, I see a guy way out there turning his

left base.

Probably didn't want us to

watch.

93GN4 left, clear to land number 2, follow Archer 2 mile final.

Cleared to land, forward left, looking for the

Archer.

453,

remain outside of class delta for now.

Ooh,

we got back just in

time.

She seems quieter than everybody

else.

To

me.

monitor.

Appreciate

it.

Oh.

My

bad.

What, squelch?

Yeah, sometimes a few.

If you turn that too hard, you'll push the squelch on.

Oh, go on the

runway.

Why isn't that working?

It'll take a

few times to get

used to that.

So now that we're well into the pattern and a beam, the touchdown point, Ryan

helped guide me the rest of the way.

Again, pay attention to the runway change and the fast pace of the

controllers and pilots, which were outpacing me with my rusty radio skills.

Ryan kind of took over and with lightning speed, not only read back

instructions while I was talking to him.

But switch to another frequency.

When we changed runways and took our landing clearance.

I did not cut anything out or speed, anything up, uh, in this whole clip.

So you'll see the pace.

And.

Yeah, it's all real time.

He was obviously ready.

I was not.

So that's why he was there.

Let's take this down to the ground.

Alright, so just basically you've beaten the numbers, you can go ahead

and pull your power at about 1,

800.

Alright, I think I see the

guy we're going to be following.

Go ahead and pull your power.

I

see him.

18.

Yep, 18, and then start about a 500 foot

per minute descent.

Traffic in sight,

Red Rock 66.

Rock 66.

Roger.

Number two.

Fellow says number only four left land

number two four left clear land.

Red Rock 66.

Alright, that's our guy we're follow

off your left wing Archer four traffic site

At our 500 foot per minute descent, we should still be at about a hundred.

So if you need, if you're fast, you need to pull a little bit of power.

Go ahead.

42 60

and I would go ahead and start your base here.

58.

Do you do this before or after?

I

usually do it once.

I finish my turn before right.

Uh, taxi.

Bravo holding short.

Officer 50 48.

Oh, I'm a little fast.

No, you're fine.

Just finish

your

turn and then we can pitch the nose

up a little bit to slow us down.

Want me to hit

it?

Yeah.

Turn base now and, uh, cancel landing clearance, change to 4 right and

contact tower on 24 6, Red Rock 66.

FAC tower, Red Rock 66, left

base 4 right.

Alright, so we're on the other runway now.

Yep.

1693.

You copy, can you repeat?

That

was nice of her.

Yeah.

1693.

Disregard.

Turn base number two, runway.

Four.

Right foot lane traffic.

Turning one mile final Cherokee.

Alright, let's go ahead and start that.

Turn

a little bit low here.

Show at a schmid of power and get our nose up.

1593 runway with four right foot land and I should be on 80.

Changed your room with four right code land.

What was that?

I should be at 80?

Yeah, be at 80 and uh, you got a little airspeed you can give up, so

just kind of get the nose up a bit.

Okay.

Get rid of some airspeed.

There you go, that's good.

Now start getting your nose back down and get your last ounce of flaps in.

Looks like we got a little bit of a right crosswind here.

Okay.

So, I'll go ahead

and pull out a little power here a little bit fast

here.

These things slow down real fast, so when you pull the power it'll slow down

pretty quick.

You're looking good.

Side slip a little.

Yeah, it's little Left.

A little left rudder in there and a little bit of right Aon.

And keep us lined up over the fence at 80.

Just keep that nose pointer right for those numbers.

Maintain current,

keep that nose down.

Maybe be a little less Right.

Rudder or less left rudder.

Sorry.

Keep that nose down and go ahead and pull your power out.

Look at the end of the runway and hold her off.

15 at

93 off base low Cherokee.

Nice.

That was all you.

Whoa.

Yeah, you gotta let it shopping cart for a little bit before it strains itself

out.

Turn right, Delta 6, contact ground.

Turn right, Delta 6, contact ground, Red Rock 66.

Alrighty.

That's right here.

Yep.

All right.

Still no time to waste.

I was used to the old days of clearing the runway and stopping to

complete my after landing checklist.

But there's no time for that sometimes here.

The controller and Ryan are trying to get me to get my pace up, but I

can only go so fast at this point.

Again, luckily Ryan was there to help.

We'll take this all the way into parking and you'll get an idea.

I mean, it was okay.

But, , obviously.

Everyone around me, wanted the pace to be faster than I was able to do.

At that moment.

Go ahead,

uh, and try not to take your time getting off, they'll yell at you.

Promise steering with the Oklahoma.

Ha ha

ha.

Yeah.

I'll punch ground in there for you, because I think

we're going to have someone

following us off.

Okay.

Get over, come to a stop, then we'll go ahead and flip over to ground here.

Okay.

Do we have an after landing checklist?

We'll do that once we get out of the way here, so just, I put ground in there.

Red Rock 6 6, down ground.

Red Rock 6 6.

Red Rock 6 6, start moving.

Taxi parking via Delta, trucks behind you.

Parking via Delta, Red Rock 6 6.

Yeah, you gotta be quick at that.

They usually, they rush you across.

They don't give you any time to stop or flip to ground or anything.

So, we used to be able to do our after takeoff checklist.

This is

us, right?

Yeah, so take a right here.

We basically have to do our after takeoff checklist.

I'm gonna put the flaps down.

Okay.

At the very least.

Are we parking over

here?

Yep.

Okay, I've got a little turn to go around.

Yeah, you're good.

And you can just pull straight into one.

You want to pull into this one right here?

Right here?

Yeah.

Point it this way, right?

Yep.

Okay.

Yeah, I've got to talk to this

place.

There we go.

Right ahead.

And stop just before that yellow line goes under the wing.

Okay.

About right.

There's perfect.

Oh,

All right.

How did I do for my first flight back?

It was all right, I think, but luckily it exposed a lot of things

I needed to get back and work on.

And again, luckily, I was going to have a lot of practice over the next few months.

I'll take you with me on my journey, don't worry.

So flight one in the books, literally.

I had to dust off my, my old log book and this day I filled in one more row.

With a large time gap in between, but just one small little line on the paper.

It was time to really start filling that thing out again.

Please, let me know what you think you can reach out to me in email

at bill at student pilot, cast dot com or via the contact page on the

website at studentpilotcast.com.

There are some changes happening right now with the hosting of the

podcast and the hosting of the website, so if you don't see a

contact page right now, or it doesn't seem to be working, don't sweat it.

Just send the email to the email I mentioned above because that's

all the contact page does anyway, so you could skip the middleman.

Again, the address is bill at student pilot cast dot com.

You can also find me on Twitter or X using @billwil.

That's Bravo, India, Lima, Lima, whiskey, India, Lima.

I did mention earlier that I was going to start my instrument training right

after getting my flight review done.

So I was studying for tests and trying to learn all the book

knowledge at the same time, and I would start flying again right away.

My life was going to be busy for a while and my brain was going to be full.

But I was loving it.

I was flying again.

I was learning again.

And I was going to be an instrument pilot.

Hopefully soon.