Andy's Blog

When Allen, Glenn and I travel, we sometimes take Glenn's plane. What I enjoy about that is we always stop off at Waffle House before proceeding onto the airport. I love the contrast of sectors of life (for those who don't know, Waffle House is kind of "dumpy" - but awesome waffles). Well today topped that. Why? Because there aren't too many days you wake up in a Motel 6, only to board a private jet. And that isn't where the fun ended.

We all know I am an aviation nerd. So when Pete (CJ's boss) offered to send the private jet to pick up CJ and I in Charleston, I was ecstatic.

We show up at the airport with our jet and Andrea and Asher's jet sitting next to each other on the tarmac. I try and look smart by picking out which jet is which, but I end up just making myself look stupid by picking out the wrong one. Luckily for me, I covered well and said, "ohh I have just been following too many flights on FlightAware." This prompted the co-pilot (Wes) to say, "ohh, are you a pilot?" And I responded, "I am trying to be." He responded, "well then, we'll have you up to flight deck." I think, "Awesome."

Right as we are hopping onto the plane, Boeing's DreamLifter was taking off out of Charleston. 99.9% of you aren't going to know how cool that was, but for the aviation nerd, this was a very rare site. The plane is designed to transport large parts of the 787 from the factories around the world, to Boeing's factory in Seattle.

We take off and head directly to Fort Wayne. At about 12,000 feet (10 minutes into the flight), Wes comes back and asks if I would like to sit up front. I was thrilled. I sat down and for the next hour or so, sat at the controls. It was AWESOME!

Then the most amazing thing happened. The pilot (Steve) and I are listening to air traffic control (like we should be), and then all of the sudden we hear instructions to another plane reference Air Force One (President Bush's plane). Steve and I quickly look at each other with a "no-way" face. He said he has been flying for years and never been in the same airspace as Air Force One.

We landed directly into FWA around 12:05 - right behind Asher and Andrea's plane. Asher and Andrea hopped in the ambulance. Lisa was waiting to pick CJ and I up. Dropped off the luggage and then went to Lutheran Hospital.

All and all, quite an exciting morning. Maybe that is why I passed out for 3 hours this afternoon.

Well that's about it for now. I will update you on the three things I learned while in Charleston (preview: one of them is that married people suck at being wingmen). But for now, just thought I would update you on the awesome day I had.

Today was AWESOME!!! I can't state that any better. Today was probably one of the top 5 experiences I have had in my life. Why? Because I think I killed a bunch of Navy Sailors!

Allen and I left the office this morning at 7:30 am and headed to Dobbins Air Force Base in Marietta, GA. We met up with a friend of the show (callsign Toolrod), and he took us onto the base. It reminded me of driving around Kadena Air Force Base in Okinawa, Japan. But this had a twist Kadena did not have: today I was going to the Navy's F-18 flight simulator!

Most of you know my love of aviation. Some of you know that for a six month period of my life I aspired to be a professional pilot until (and I don't claim this very often) God spoke to me (not audibly) and told me that wasn't the plan He had for me. Very few of you know that during that six month time period I actually visited the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, CO as I was very seriously considering entering it, as I aspired to pilot the F-16.

I knew today was going to be amazing. I found the F-18 astonishingly easy to fly. It accelerated like a fighter jet should. Rolls and climbs were remarkably smooth and quick. At one point I was climbing at a rate of 24,000 feet/min (your average airline flight shouldn't usually exceed 3,000 feet/min). The only real problem I had for the day was I couldn't figure out how to trim the aircraft very well, which meant I had a hard time keeping the aircraft at a constant altitude with no change. This surprised me because when I flew a Cessna I remember being surprised how easy it was to control the trim.

I had two highlights of the day:

1.) I pulled a 4G Inside Loop that started at 5000 ft, climbed to (if I were to guess) 12,000 ft, and then (and I kid you not) returned to exactly 5000 ft. I can't explain the rush when doing that and then looking at the altimeter and see it read exactly where I started (all while flying 600-700 MPH).

2.) I almost landed on an aircraft carrier. I had a little bit of a hard time figuring out the Instrument Landing System (I am used to the way it looks on commercial aircraft), but I got lined up perfectly with the carrier on the first try. The only problem was, I was a little low and didn't realize it until too late and crashed right at the back of the carrier. I certainly would have killed myself and a whole bunch of Navy Soldiers on the boat. But I was freaking close I tell you!

Now if someone out there from Delta can get me a couple hours in the Boeing 777-200 simulator at Hartsfield, I think I could die a happy man.

But what is the point of all this? Well lets be honest, I mainly just wanted to report on the cool thing I got to do. But it also got me thinking about interests and hobbies in our lives. I can't explain why I like aviation the way I do. I spend way too many hours a airliners.net and flying my computer game simulator at home. But this I do know. When I was in high school, I used to question why I spent so much time dinking around on the computer and with technology. I had no idea how God was going to use that. God creates passions in our lives for a purpose. So with aviation, I have stopped questioning why I spend so much time learning about it, and I just hope and trust that I will get as much out of it as I have with technology.

Today was an exciting day. It was a day I have been waiting for at least the last five years. I took my first flight as a pilot. For those of you who think I am a nerd, you're right, but I am going to give you the details anyways.

I flew a Cessna Skyhawk 172S, with a Garmin 1000 Full Glass Cockpit. I spent three hours at the Cobb County Airport - McCollum Field (RYY). I am doing my flight instruction with Premier Flight School and it is located just outside of Kennesaw, GA.

I was amazed how much my flight instructor (Chris) let me do on the very first flight. I had a minor problem while taxing (which you do with your feet) keeping the plane on the center line. Then we were cleared for takoff, and he turned to me and said, "alright, line her up on the runway and apply full throttle." I never thought I would get to do that on the first flight. He told me Vr was 65 knots (speed you initially pull up) and V2 was 80 knots (speed you are cleared to leave the ground). I taxied onto the runway 9, applied full throttle and we were off.

I climbed to 3500 feet and then trimmed off and kept an approximate heading of 90°. We headed straight for my church: Mount Pisgah. Once leveled, speed topped off at 105 kts (which had a ground speed of 120 kts, which translated to MPH is about 130). Once to Mount Pisgah, I immediately banked to the right to a heading of about 210° to fly over my apartment. Once there, we maintained a gradual turn to Altoona Lake.

Once to Altoona Lake, it was time to prepare for landing. I headed for the airport at with a heading of 135°. Once within about 5 miles from the airport, I banked right to a heading of 180°. It was at this point that I figured he would take controls, but he didn't. As I approached the flight line of runway 9 at RYY, I banked to left for a heading of 90°, lined up with the runway, extended flaps first to 10° and then once below 85 kts extended them completely. I slowed to about 70 kts and began descent. He let me fly to about 300 feet above the ground (which is approximately 1 mile from touchdown and approximatively 1300' feet above sea level) and then he took controls. He landed the plane and I taxied back to the hanger.

Some of my initial thoughts. Taxing is harder then you would think, but I sort of expected that. Flying was easier than I thought. It felt so natural. My flight instructor said I did a great job maintaining altitude (which is usually a steep learning curve for most) and it was apparent I had a great start.

It was weird being "in control" for the first time on a flight. When I first flew on a private plane for work, I remember thinking how the "turbulence" felt different than on a big plane. The plane I flew today felt like the other private aircraft I flew in before, but being the pilot made it feel strikingly more in control.

Well I have written enough I guess. It was fun. I am excited. And I am hoping to have my license completed by August. So everybody look to the skies, it might be me ;-)

Today was a great day in aviation. You had the first A380 landing into ORD - a monumental day. Then...drum roll please...I scheduled my first intro flight!!! Now, I am not sure which is actually a bigger event.

For those of you who read my blog, you will say, "what the heck, I thought you started this back in September." I did. But then I freaked out because I thought I might take a job in San Diego, and decided not to pursue it and pay off my student loan instead. Well, at the end of March, I will officially have paid off my $11,000 student loan (which I'll blog about later when I actually officially pay it off). This frees up about $900 a month, so I decided now is the time to FINALLY do this. After four years of teaching myself everything I could about aviation, the time has finally come, and I am stoked.

Honestly, I would be doing this flight on April 1st if it weren't for my trip to Japan on April 3rd. I get back from Japan on April 14th and on April 18th, I am taking to the skies, my first logable hour in the cockpit. I am hoping I can pass my written and medical exams before my trip to Nepal on June 1st and my trip to LA on June 11th. So then from July to September I'll hit the sky and rack up my 40 hours required by the FAA by visiting friends and family at Hilton Head Island, SC (HXD), Montgomery, AL (1A9), and of course, Huntington, IN (HHG).

I don't really have a point to this blog, and this is a rare post that is really just about what is "happening" in my life. But if I were to make a point, I think it would be this. We all need passions in life or else I think we will drive ourselves nuts. Sure they don’t have to be as expensive as a pilots license, but we need something. For the past two years I have done relatively little besides working very hard. Even my old "interests" (i.e. web production, video production, Bible studies, etc...) have all become my "professional interests," and frankly, as cool as it is to enjoy what you do, I think if I were to reflect I would admit that it has been hard not to have "non-work" interests. Sure I have done a lot of traveling (which is my fav), but at most that takes like 7 weeks out of my year. Leaving 45 weeks to "just work." But that all changes on April 18th. And April 18th changed because of today: a great day in aviation.

P.S. The photo is of me flying over Mt. Everest (in Nepal!!) with my flight simulator. I know I am a nerd.