oops

had a great weekend of flying. saturday i flew out to block island and westerly, it was a little bumpy but nothing too bad. sunday....oooooh sunday. the whole was smooth as can be. took off out of providence and made my way southeast towards martha's vineyard. it only took 30 minutes to get there which was sweet. however, we werent the only people headed down there. if you have ever driven through boston at 5:00 on a friday with a home game ready to go, you can now understand what it is like to fly into martha's vineyard. every wealthy shmuck within a 1000 mile radius decides to head to the island and cause the worst airborne traffic jam i have ever seen. whatever, we get on the ground and had some lunch. it took us at least 30 minutes to make our way through the same traffic jam and get off the ground. Flew north up to hyannis, did a touch and go, glad to be out of airplane gridlock. tracked west towards providence (this story does have a climax so just keep reading). overflew Otis AFB on the cape and saw their 10 F-15's lined up on the ground, very cool. Ok, time to land in Providence (PVD). there is a line of airliners waiting to depart so the tower kindly asks us to expedite our approach, in other words, hurry up you shit head. we came in high so i flew the plane sideways down the ground, its called slipping, you lose altitude without gaining speed. we touch the ground, it was fairly textbook, not my best landing certainly not the worst. the front wheel of the plane is a caster wheel, you can spin the thing 360 degrees no problem. sometimes when you land it isnt perfectly straight so it wiggles....alot. you pull back on the stick to relieve pressure on the nosewheel, and it usually straightens out right away. well this time it didnt. it kept on wobbling, and wobbling, and wobbling until we heard the snap. we veer off the right, going slow now mind, onto a taxiway leading off the runway. we are stuck. not moving. at all. the tower is yelling at us to get off the runway, we are telling her, calmly, that we think we lost our nose wheel and we cant move. apparently this is not a good enough reason to get stuck on a runway. she continues to yell at us to move. finally the southwest pilot waiting to take off starts helping us out. the airport finally sends a truck out to help us out, sure enough half of the bracing on the front tire decided that this would be a fine time to stop working. we had to get the golf cart out and tow the plane down the runway. it wasnt my fault, it wasnt my instructors fault. shit just happens. but, but but but, not many people can say that they had lunch on martha's vineyard, and then proceeded to shut down a runway at a major airport. chalk one up for the pooter.

what goes up...

So I've had some time to reflect on things since my life altering first solo
flight. I am having some extreme difficulty in finding the proper words to
express what is so great about actually doing it by yourself. There are so
many things that it changes. It is the ultimate in self realization, there
is absolutely no chance that the plane just landed by coincidence, that the
winds just happened to guide you down. There is no chance that your
instructor was maybe holding onto the controls too while you landed because
he simply isn't there. His advice is there, and it ricochets around your
head like a rubber band blasted from a howitzer, but he stands on the
ground, helplessly. You only have yourself, your experience, your
perception of a landing, your reactions, your judgements, your feel, to
bring that craft back to earth. But first, you have to get to the point
where a landing is possible. Meaning you have to leave the ground first of
course. You line up on that runway, 5000 ft of land laid out just for you,
and it seems all so familiar. You have done this before. You know what you
are doing. There is the throttle, you just have to move that up to full,
and there is the rudder pedal, you just have to step on the right one to
keep you straight. And you lift off the ground and you feel more
accomplished than you ever have, youre flying. More particular than just
accomplished though, is the feeling of finally being able bodied or self
sufficient. You are finally able to deliver yourself back to the only place
in the world where you have actually felt at home, without anyones help but
your own. And you can look down on the people who are unfortunate enough to
not be where you are, or see what you see. But you stop short of wishing
the whole world could fly, because at that moment the sky is yours, and
youre not quite ready to share.

And it doesn't stop just because you shut the engine off. You walk a little
taller, speak a little louder, play your guitar with a bit more abandon, and
forget what stress is. Because you have conquered the sky, is there
anything in this world more difficult or more rewarding? I hate to think
so.

some pictures from the air

i told you i would have pictures. this one is during a soft field take off, eventhough its a perfectly paved runway. anyway, if you look at the gauges youll see that we are roughly 10 feet off the ground, doing 120mph.
2000 feet over Newport, RI
and lastly, a picture of me taking off at North Central Airport, smithfield, RI....screaming by....at 60mph.

solo solo solo

thats right, i finally flew without an instructor present. i wasnt half as nervous as i thought i would be. nor did i cause any damage to anything or anyone. we flew up to north central airport in RI, did a couple touch and go's and then Tim (instructor) told me to pull onto the ramp and cut the engine. upon doing so he promptly got out, told me to do three take offs and landings and then come back and pick him back up.....umm......ok?!?!?!?! i taxied out to the runway, lined up, put it up to full throttle and off i went. the whole time i was looking to my right, at the empty seat, the empty seat usually occupied by a highly qualified, certified flight instructor (CFI) and i laughed. there i was, at last, at 1500 ft, flying over RI, by myself. basically, everything i had ever done in my life up til then had been in building up to that moment, i was a pilot in command of an aircraft. but oh shit, time to land. take it easy, little more throttle, flaps are down, theres the swamp, okay we're over the swamp coming into the runway now sinking kinda quick keep the nose high the ground is filling up my sight keep the nose up keep the nose up line the nose up with the runway left left left left keep the nose up and then.........squeek, youre down. i did it. and, wait, i get to this two more times. oh man, dont ever let this stop. up next, conquering the world.

oven timer

isnt it crazy how bad we care about the way we are percieved by people placed against the backdrop of our pasts? when i find out that someone that i care about has, perhaps an ill perception of me, it immediatly becomes the most important thing in my life to rectify that and set them straight. whats worse is when they think that i think poorly of them. you could think about this person twenty-four hours a day, 7 days a week, setting up an altar to them in your memories, praising every single second you spent with them, but as soon as you learn that they think you hate them, its all for nothing. your mental temple (ha, thats awesome) is suddenly blackened and everything that was made of gold is really just rusted iron spray painted to look shiny. and you sit there and say "excuse me???!?!?! dont you see this? look at this!!!! i think about you every second im awake, and plenty that im not!!!! please dont do me the disservice of brushing that off!!!!" maybe its the thought that you are alone in your torment. maybe its the idea that they are past it, and you arent. whatever it is, its salt in an open wound. fortunately, its easy to clean. and so, maybe, if they read this, theyll remember who i was, and what i said the last time we spoke, and maybe place some trust in the fact that someone loved them and that they are still everything that they were. and believe it.

when once you have tasted flight...

my progress in flying has been rapid to say the least. i basically went through the first 6 lessons in one hour. how? because i sort of know what i am doing, or at least what is going on and how an airplane works. this past weekend i logged another 5 hours flying time, which was awesome. was inverted for .2 seconds and weightless for about the same. after we tooled around for awhile i did about 20 or so touch and go's. for those of you not in the know, a touch and go is when you come in for a landing, but rather than stop and exit the runway, you power back up and take off again without ever stopping. its probably the most fun thing you can do in an airplane, i could do it all day.
so is all of it worth it? the money, the time, the energy, the distraction from other things. yes, yes, yes, and mostly. as i said before, if i could live at 3000ft i would. flying just has that certain something that just draws people in and it never really lets them go once it has them. its driven me to the point where words are useless to describe what its like, ill just have to take everyone up. and no, its not the same as flying in a 737, despite popular belief.
my sisters wedding is this weekend, wish me luck. yes, wish me luck, not her. if i screw anything up my sister will have me castrated with a spork.
i havent said anything about "she who must not be named" in a long time. its taking some of my cunning not to....wait...no....all of my cunning not to mention her. eventhough i just did. but that doesnt count!!!