In the beginning...

Figured today would be as good as day as any to start a blog about my flight training and how it's going.
Let me give a little backstory before I get into all the really juicy details.

I've always been fascinated with aviation, airplanes and the like ever since I was a little girl. Those who catch the aviation bug as early as I did will always find themselves looking skyward whenever they hear the buzz of an airplane nearby. We'll stop in our tracks simply to watch an airplane pass over, most of the time stopping what we're doing, whether it be just walking, talking to a friend, or anything else that seems less important than just watching that airplane go by.
My father would always take me to the local airshows, NAS Jax (our local NAVY base) and I was just drawn in by the freedom of flying, the availability of it and just.. wow. There's not much else I can say, it's very overwhelming. But it never really occured to me that flying was something I could do, that it was within my reach. I'd read things and heard of others getting their certificates and owning their own airplanes and such, but the thought never popped in my head, "This is something that I can do."
So I grew up with the aviation bug biting me in the ass, but the welt didn't grow and begin itching until April of last year (2008) when my family took a "vacation" to Lakeland, Florida for the annual Sun n' Fun Fly-in, Sun n' Fun for short. Sun n' Fun is any aviation enthusiansts dream, one short of Oshkosh's EAA Airventure which, for now, is too far out of reach. Airplanes as far as the eye can see, always coming in for landings and doing takeoffs at almost every moment (it calms down at night), seminars, etc etc. It's just wonderful, everything one could ever dream of and more. It was after this trip to Sun n' Fun that I took my very first flight ever, in a Cessna 172 at St. Augustine Airport in St. Augustine, Florida. This flight was my discovery flight and it opened my eyes to the world of aviation. Suddenly, everything seemed so possible, within my reach, and my thinking turned from "Never for me." to "I can really do this."
We took another trip to Sun n' Fun this year and by this time I was dying for some altitude. Shortly after, I began my flight training lessons with Sterling Flight at Craig Airport in Jax, FL, where I'm currently training. Today was maybe about my 6th or 7th lesson, but I can still remember back to the first time I flew out of KCRG.

Today's lesson was nothing short of fun.
I began my training in a piper Warrior II because the Zenith CH200 that I normally fly is down for its 100-hour, although I don't think I will be going back to that plane anytime soon. The Warrior is bigger, a four-seater, and more stable than the Zenith, which is a tiny bird. I had my hesitations the first few lessons with the Zenith because it bounces around a lot, and this made me uncomfortable (something that after those first few lessons, I kept telling myself I would just have to deal with; turbulence is apart of any pilot's life, no matter what kind of plane you fly, it just happens to be worse in a tiny plane). This was not the first time I flew in the Warrior, however, but the first time I did fly in it, I got a little sick and we only stayed in the air for less than 5 minutes. Anyway...
So we did our usual thing, going down the checklist and checking everything, doing this and that, the run-up, the take-off.. which, by the way, is so much easier in this airplane. We putt-putted around for a little bit, doing a few turns, before heading off towards Cecil (KVQQ) to do some touch and goes. For those who don't know, Cecil used to be a military airport, but has since been decommissioned and is now a civilian airport. The runway there (27L) is a little more than 3 miles long. I believe it was made to be used as an alternate landing spot for the shuttle. So, needless to say, this runway is huge. Humongous. Gargantuan. It's just big. On our way there, we flew through NAS's airspace, which meant we had to call them up and tell them that we were flying through it. I actually got to see where I live from the air, even though we didn't fly directly over it (we weren't allowed to deviate from our course once we called up NAS tower). Coming in to land at Cecil was a bit daunting because of all the trees right at the beginning of the runway, but because it's so big, it doesn't really matter where you set down on the runway, there is more than enough room. I let my instructor, Sean (who, by the way, is AWESOME), land the first time and then the second and third time, I did it practically by myself. I took off by myself those two times as well and then we headed back to Craig for one touch and go and then a full-stop.

Ehh, I can't think of anything else, that's really it. Until next time!


Edit: I neglected to mention something else. As we were doing our runup, I mentioned some videos I had seen where they do short take-offs and landings, and without my even suggesting it, Sean asked if I wanted to try one. So we did! I'm not sure how short of a take-off it was (I might ask when I go in on Tuesday), but I know it took us a fraction of the time to get into the air as it normally does. It was pretty neat.