28a

Once More, Into the Breach

Over the last two weekends I’ve tempted fate by doing some day-to-night transition flying into the goose… my first solo night flying. With any other airport night landings are a non event to me… no more or less difficult than during the day… but goose creek is Not any other airport. The runway lighting consists of twenty 40 watt lights in glass jars along the 2300′ x 35′ runway.. there is no beacon… and it is only lit all the way down on one end… so no matter what the winds are doing you have to land 22.

One Year Mark.. First Passenger!

Today marks 1 year since my intro flight with Tyson at Goose Creek… so of course I had to go somewhere if at all possible.. and lucky for me it was. I did my first X-Country flight in about 6 months.. and carried my first non-pilot passenger… and it was even her first time on a small plane. We took the Archer and did a quick trip out to Pinehurst… aka Moore County KSOP.

Getting Night Current at Goose Creek 28A

I went up with Matt last night in the archer… I’ve not done any night flying since meeting the requirements back in Dec. It was a nice reminder of just how enjoyable night time can be… it’s cooler.. there are no thermals to deal with… and it’s a lot easier to see other planes around you. For anyone who is not familiar with flying the goose after dark I’ll do my best to describe the experience.

So I'm a pilot now

A few delays aside… yesterday I went for the check ride.. and now I’m a newly minted official pilot.. of the private variety. So what this means.. is that the FAA considers me safe enough to carry any passengers who are crazy enough to want to go flying with me. Only about 2% of the population (US) has this privilege so that’s pretty neat. So who will be the first one to go fly with me?