Dream Come True!

Well I have waited a long time and worked hard for this...I am now officially a certified Private Pilot! On Friday February 13th I passed the oral portion of my practical test, sadly the weather did not cooperate and we had to wait a day to do the flight portion. Even though it was far from my best flying I did good enough to pass and now join my grandpa, dad, aunt and uncle as pilots. I can't wait to share my love for aviation and flying with my family and friends. Goals I have long term are to give back and do flights such as Young Eagles, Pilots and Paws, and Angel Flights. If you are interested or have kids that are I encourage you to just go hang out at your local airport, find a fly-in or a Young Eagles and Eagle Flights (http://www.youngeagles.org). This afternoon (Sunday the 15th) I took my first passenger up when my wife joined me for a short flight. Sadly she get's motion sickness so we were not up all that long before heading back before it got too bad. I have always told her I will never do anything she is not comfortable with and will do everything in power to make everything as comfortable for her (and any passenger really) as possible. We did have a bit of a cross wind so the one big thing I did learn was to inform my passengers of anything that may seem different than the generally viewed procedure. The bright side of it I think it was one of my best cross wind take offs and landings. We are looking forward to flying around the area as well as flying back to Iowa when we are able. Since my aunt and uncle will be selling the plane I have been using I will probably get checked out in Open Airplane (OpenAirplane.com) and may even join an area flying club. I will continue to update this blog with our experiences flying and other stuff. Check back in a week for a post on a trip to a grass airfield that my instructor and I went to back in September. Also if you are a pilot and use android devices (like me) in the cockpit check out flywithandroid.com it is a new website that a guy in my home town recently started.