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15:03
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure 
This is the final post on my blog.
After committing over the last few months to a focused effort in achieving my goal, I have accomplished what I set out to do. It just took three years, t
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0:47
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Flew yesterday afternoon and this evening. Mostly doing ground reference manuevers. My landings stink though. Yesterday's temperature was high and with that the thermals were climbing. We saw alti
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22:57
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Life and flying intersect and depart, too.
It's been a great while since I wrote last and in that time, I have been flying. Quickly approaching the checkride and ultimately the end of pur
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22:09
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
After laying off for so long, getting back into flying has been like starting anew. My attitude is far better and I'm not romanticizing it as I did before.
Late this afternoon, I met up w
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20:48
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
I can tell I have been away from aviation for awhile. Oh, if there are misspellings and such, I'm drinking at the moment.
Arrived at the airport this morning expecting more and more touch
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2:16
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
When I started flying almost three years ago, I was put into Cessna Skyhawks (C172). Solid planes and trainers that are also pretty good performers. Single engine Cessnas fall into a group of high w
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19:21
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
After taking a year off from flying, I'm back. New airport, new instructor and new plane.
So, here's the story. I last flew in Taylor February 2007. My wife, Teresa, was encountering a
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10:51
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
I'm a little frustrated with Blogger or my ISP. Either way, I spent time writing last night and lost what I had written. Here I go again.
Yesterday I met again with 531CP at Taylor and
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14:31
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
It has been five months since I have held the controls of an airplane. That last flight was the big XC and progress was interrupted by my then CFI moving away. During the interim I practiced for and
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8:31
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
It has been five months since I have held the controls of an airplane. That last flight was the big XC and progress was interrupted by my then CFI moving away. During the interim I practiced for and
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13:05
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
From the last post I wrote about the knowledge examination. After months and seeming like eons, I practiced, read, practiced some more, read some more, bought more text books, bought a DVD set, prac
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7:05
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
From the last post I wrote about the knowledge examination. After months and seeming like eons, I practiced, read, practiced some more, read some more, bought more text books, bought a DVD set, prac
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2:36
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
The title line says it all. In the mail today was the endorsement from Dauntless Software that will enable me to take the knowledge or written exam. First objective is to pass. Second objective is
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21:36
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
The title line says it all. In the mail today was the endorsement from Dauntless Software that will enable me to take the knowledge or written exam. First objective is to pass. Second objective is
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17:54
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Each stage of flight training is clearly defined. The constant theme during training and beyond is safety, learning, practicing and reinforcing. The stages begin with the obvious discovery flight.
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12:54
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Each stage of flight training is clearly defined. The constant theme during training and beyond is safety, learning, practicing and reinforcing. The stages begin with the obvious discovery flight.
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23:53
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
When fledgling pilots first start learning to leave the nest, they talk about their first solo. How long will it take? How long did it take you to solo? Its a notable milestone and everyone remembe
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18:53
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
When fledgling pilots first start learning to leave the nest, they talk about their first solo. How long will it take? How long did it take you to solo? Its a notable milestone and everyone remembe
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18:07
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Many days above 100 degrees. It is in the high 90s before noon. Yet, I picked this morning to fly. Hot air rises and when that happens, thermals cause planes to rise, fall, dance, twist, bump, thum
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13:07
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Many days above 100 degrees. It is in the high 90s before noon. Yet, I picked this morning to fly. Hot air rises and when that happens, thermals cause planes to rise, fall, dance, twist, bump, thum
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23:42
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Why don't I fly more frequently? The weather has been unforgiving lately. When I had time, the weather didn't allow me to use that time toward flight. Work? We'll that's always a balancing act and
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18:42
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Why don't I fly more frequently? The weather has been unforgiving lately. When I had time, the weather didn't allow me to use that time toward flight. Work? We'll that's always a balancing act and
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19:42
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
I crawled into 413ES this evening after getting my solo endorsement renewal. Work travel has been high over the past few weeks which has kept me out of the air. The weather events of the last few mo
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8:32
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
It has almost been a year since the journey to pilot..hood took flight (pun intended). Since then there began a furious twice a week workout in the cockpit, first solo by June 29th and more dual and
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13:10
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Flying is just like a gym membership, with ice cream. How nice it is to go for a chocolate malt in the ice cream Capitol of the world, Brenham. At the same time, you work off the added calories by
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15:13
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
My flight time has been intermittent at best since last fall. Work and weather have been interfering. Just where are my priorities? The first solo XC went well in December with 413ES. The transponder
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8:20
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
From the last post, I suggested that I had been feeling unmotivated about flying. From my earliest memories, I've looked to the skies at aircraft of all sorts. To this day, they still excite me and
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12:31
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Ask any pilot a basic question about flight and the pilot will look at you then look away kind of with an air of superiority earned from hours of sweating and grunting in cramped quarters. The pilot w
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13:24
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
This day, yesterday, has been long in planning with a couple of scrubbed opportunities, mostly due to weather and winds. I've read posts on bulletin boards written by pilots who were terrified of the
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14:54
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
After a couple of weeks of inhospitable wind conditions, I ventured out this afternoon to punch some holes in the sky (pilot talk, ahem). The last flight was rough and I wanted to redeem myself.
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13:08
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Okay, to get caught up with the flying thing, the bottom line is that the weather hasn't been very hospitable. More specifically, the wind hasn't provided much opportunity to fly. Well, time has bee
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16:51
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Going back to how pilots navigate from point to point was the foundation to today's lesson. Just like in a car, you have to know where you are, where you want to go and how to get there. The differe
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16:51
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Going back to how pilots navigate from point to point was the foundation to today's lesson. Just like in a car, you have to know where you are, where you want to go and how to get there. The differe
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18:51
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
The past seven days I have been introduced to two new airplanes, well new to me: 103VK and 413ES. These are newer planes than the beasts I had been flying. 103VK is a Skyhawk SP with 180 horses behi
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8:56
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
A cool thing about aviation is how to navigate from point to point. There is navigation using a sectional chart, compass, directional gyro, advanced planning and some math. That type is like putting
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17:03
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
I recall Tom Cruise on the Today show slamming some other idiot celebrity about her claims of depression. Yes it is a real disease and Tom Cruise is a twit and probably would make a good poster child
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10:56
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
It has now been one month and four days since my last flight. Sheesh, what a month!! I've spent the entire month of September focused upon hurricane response and recovery efforts by my association
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17:26
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Sort of a play on song titles. After last week's flight, I confess to be a bit shaken since that flight and over the weekend. I spent a good amount of time reading and mentally picking apart last w
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17:26
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Sort of a play on song titles. After last week's flight, I confess to be a bit shaken since that flight and over the weekend. I spent a good amount of time reading and mentally picking apart last w
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16:18
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
This was the second destination solo for me, this evening. I'm feeling more comfortable with this journey but still need to practice because my skills are really rough. Confidence is improving.
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13:44
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Just like last Sunday's cross country flight except for the presence of sun and the fact we flew to Llano as opposed to San Antonio. So, I guess is it isn't just like last Sunday.
This mor
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13:44
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
Just like last Sunday's cross country flight except for the presence of sun and the fact we flew to Llano as opposed to San Antonio. So, I guess is it isn't just like last Sunday.
This mor
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12:49
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Mike's Student Pilot Adventure
What an interesting and provocative title for this entry. Might be a good name for a country & western band or yet a band that plays both country AND western music. Yet, that isn't what happened
student