Finally I solo, now on to the next tests

Sherman Bilbo

This was the week that was, in terms of my finally reaching that point where Sherman turned me loose in Venice, Florida to do three landings without him in the aircraft.  Later that day, back in Sarastoa, I signed the wall - next to where my son signed when he completed his private pilot license.  He is currently working on his IFR (instrument flight rules) rating - he has a test to take and then has to fly with an FAA examiner to prove he understands all that is required to fly on instruments.  I think I 'll stick right now with VFR (visual flight rules) and be happy.  My next things will be cross country work.

signing the Wall of Fame (and lost Fortune) 

N817SP on day of solo

After I soloed I hitched a ride with CFI (Certificated Flight Instructor) Elina Lunin in her personal twin engined Piper Apache Geronimo, down to Punta Gorda.  She flew down to fuel up, but I suspect she just wanted to visit friends. Elina used to teach at a flight school 40 NM south of Sarasota (KSRQ), where she is the newest instructor at Universal Flight Training, my school.

So, after I soloed, Sherman asked me to work up a flight plan for my first cross country, which I had set for Lakeland (KLAL), via Wauchula (KCHN).  We had flown once to KCHN, and back, but that flight wasn't more than 50 miles, so I couldn't count it anyway.  At this point, with 70 plus hours, I'm going to try and make every mile count toward a requirement, lest I go broke before I fly directly to the poor house.  It helps to own your own plane, and on Saturday I figured I was ready, but needing a few extra miles, I chose to fly to Bartow, Florida rather than Lakeland.  Bartow has twin mains 27R and 27L, and we landed on 27Left, which is an east-west runway, with its reciprocal being 09 or 90 degrees on the compass (due east).  The other runway was a single strip, that being runway 23 (meaning 230 degrees or oriented SSW) and runway  05 (NNE heading).   I was supposed to fly on Saturday with Sherman, but when I got there Elina was available, and since she had given me a lift in her plane, I figured turnabout was fair play so she got to fly in my much smaller, less powerful Cessna 172.   There is a minimum requirement to obtain a Private Pilots license, calling for 20 hours of flight training from an authorized flight instructor including at least 3 hours of cross-country, i.e. to other airports.  So, that one trip ticked off 2/3rds of a minimum WITH an instructor - one more ought to do the trick.
                                                     

At the Bartow Air Base Museum

Back to Barlow however, where I had Elina take a picture of me standing in front of some Colonel's Air Force Blues.
In the late 60's, I wore this same uniform, in the enlisted variant of course.  My dad, the late Colonel Jack (called that behind his back) was a pilot, with several thousand hours including 132 missions flying cargo planes from India to China.  He flew C-46 Curtis Commandos and C-47 Douglas Skytrains, better known as Gooney Birds.  While my son wants to keep going I think I'll stick with fair weather flying.

Bartow airport is six miles north of the City of Bartow, carved out of 900 acres of former farmland.  Ground was broker on December 8, 1941 (the day after Pearl Harbor) and the field was operated as a P-51 Mustang Replacement Training Station, where graduates went on to Europe and Asia.  Deactivated in November 1945 and turned over to the City of Bartow, but reactivated for Korea in 1950 and finally closed by the Air Force in 1961 and the facilities were turned back over to the City.   The new terminal was completed in 2007.  The town may not be much, but the terminal is pretty nice - and the place where I made my first landing for a required cross country.  My next cross country trip is the one I should be working on tonight (instead of this blog) and will go to Sebring, Florida.  That's where Corvettes are raced for twelve hours once a year, a mini 24 hours of Lemans type endurance race.  I'm looking forward to flying there, although I know I could get there quicker in the Corvette.  I'll fly over to Sebring at Normal Cruise - 112 knots (129 MPH).  No cops.

Elina Lunin - checking the oil on her Piper PA-23