Today’s flight was spectacular. The weather is amazing (wind was gusting up to 16 knots near Lunken, so it did get jerky during the pattern). There was a showcase of airplanes new and old out at Lunken today which drew a huge crowd. Although, it also brought a delay in my lesson departure.

I met today my new instructor, Brian, who is a very fine person. With Richard’s overly busy schedule, I was asked if I minded switching instructors since I’m still new, I’m flexible and obliged. We flew for 1.5 hours today, practicing S-Turns, Turns around a point, steep turns, Traffic Pattern (including takeoff and landing), and a few other items. One of note being emergency landing.

Brian brought the throttle back to idle while we were at 2,000 feet after a decent and we went over the details of finding a field to land in, which instruments to turn on/off, how to call the ATC folks, and such. We were about 500 feet AGL when he finally gave full throttle and brought us back to altitude. It was fun. He said we’d have fun later with other emergency procedures such as steering the airplane with the doors (in case of control loss) which should be fun and terrifying all at the same time.

I was very proud of myself for this flight. I maneuvered very well, bringing questions from the new instructor such as… you don’t happen to have a flight simulator at home that you’ve been practicing on… I sheepishly nodded :-) Or other comments about how well I was keeping altitude during steep turns, or also in the approach, finding the right altitude and keeping good heading. After our flight he was talking to Sharon, the lady who runs the ‘business’ side of Flamingo Air and he made the comment, “I can’t believe Jason’s only been up three times before this”. I was very happy with how things went. All the reading and review is helping out a lot, and I hope to be right on top of finishing lessons without too many extra hours of paying a flight instructor.

Also of note this weekend, well last night, the family and I went and saw Broadway’s Lion King downtown. The show was amazing, the costumes were brilliant, and the singing was spectacular. We were all astonished with how well the show was done. With risk of sounding cliche or well… stupid… it was really magical. When Mom and I went to New York City to visit colleges we saw Beauty and the Beast on Broadway there, and it too was amazing. We’ve also seen Music Man on Broadway, but I think the way the Disney productions are brought to life is just amazing. Highly recommended from here.

OK, this post is long enough. I’m very excited about this weekend, its been a lot of fun so far, and to top it off tonight we’re going bowling! My all time favorite sport.. hah, yeah, you heard me. My ball has been getting dusty since we haven’t been going every Tuesday night anymore. If you’re in Cincinnati, enjoy this beautiful weather, if you are elsewhere, hopefully it is as beautiful as Cincinnati.

Later!