- Fly over your house
- Take your parent(s) flying
- Fly out for the infamous '$100 hamburger'
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After receiving my license, I had a week of work and working out, went to all three days of Lollapalooza, and then spent a week in Southwest Michigan with my family to close out the summer. The goal for my first flight with my license was to take one of my parents up and do some circles around our house. Needless to say, there wasn't much time, if any, for accomplishing that in the couple weeks I just mentioned above.
Late in the week while in Michigan, the weather looked decent for the weekend back home where I'd be flying, so I decided to book a Sunday morning flight with the hope of taking my mom up for her first flight in a small plane. By the time Saturday rolled around, the weather for Sunday morning had a good chance of showers, and low ceilings were forecast as well.
Trying to make sure I was able to go up at least once or twice before I left, and knowing that the schedule for Sunday was booked solid the rest of the day, I decided to see if anything was available Saturday night. Lo and behold, I was able to secure a 6 PM flight and decided that I'd take my mom up with me, as my dad had flown in a few small planes before and she had never been in anything smaller than an ERJ.
Before leaving, I had to try and make accommodations and find my mom a headset, so that she wouldn't have to yell to me over the roar of the engine. We already had a pair of ear protectors around the house for shooting, and brought those along in case we weren't able to snag a spare aviation headset from the airport office. Thankfully, we were able to get the pair, affectionately named "Frankenstein" for all of the electrical and duct tape holding it together.
After completing the pre-flight checks and adding a quart of oil to the engine, we were off! Shortly after takeoff from Lewis Univ. (KLOT), we contacted Midway Tower and requested a transition through their Class C Airspace to the Chicago Lakefront for some sightseeing. Once at the lakefront, we were greeted by a few police and news helicopters over the city, but we were able to stay out of their way. Even though the day was a bit hazy, my mom had never seen the city like she had that day, and I made sure that she had a front row seat.
Despite the fact that we weren't able to go all the way up the lakefront due to the Cubs game, we still did a few awesome laps between the Museum of Science and Industry/Hyde Park/U Chicago and Navy Pier. The part of the lap at Navy Pier was arguably the most awe-inspiring part of the flight. I flew north along the shore, about a mile off, and when at Navy Pier, turned left back to the south. In the westbound part of the turn, the entire city filled the windshield - a pretty incredible sight.
INSERT PIC OF CITY FROM FLIGHT
INSERT PIC OF CITY FROM FLIGHT
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| Close up of Chicago Terminal Area Chart (TAC) with my route along the lakefront in light purple on the right |
On the way back, I wanted to circle over our house and cross it off my bucket list. Thankfully, Midway Tower gave us a great view on the way back. In order to get to our house, we would have to cut pretty close to the airport itself. As a result, we informed ATC where we would be circling and they cleared us to fly directly over the middle of the field and we did so at 700 ft above the ground - definitely very cool seeing the terminal and Southwest jets zipping by below us as we skimmed them.
Once past Midway, I had my mom shoot a text to my brother, who was at home at the time. He came outside and saw us flying circles around the house. I was pretty surprised at how big the circle was in order to keep a constant radius around our house - about a mile diameter.
After seeing our house and neighborhood, we flew back to the southwest for our final landing at Lewis. My mom was excited in the air just 5 minutes into the flight and especially when seeing the city, but what was awesome for me was her telling me the next morning how she still thought it was incredible. That's when I decided that I want any family or friend I take up for the first time to see the beauty of our planet from the air that we take for granted on the ground. Many of us have flown commercially and seen the world from 30,000+ feet, but you can't truly appreciate it unless you're flying slow and low.
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My next and final flight before leaving for school I unfortunately had to go solo. Despite my many numerous attempts to get some friends to come along and share in the joy, I was unable to convince their parents to let them tag along. While there was enthusiasm from my friends themselves, there was none on the parents' side of things. Yes, it is a bummer, but I know that as I gain more experience and we all get older, that will eventually change.
So, I figured that since I couldn't bring my friends flying, I'd bring the flying to them instead. First, I borrowed my friend Kevin's GoPro and mounted it in the cockpit with a good view of myself, as well as the instrument panel. I also had a mount for my iPhone, which I had used in the past, and I mounted it on the windshield for a view out the front of the plane.
Once past Midway, I had my mom shoot a text to my brother, who was at home at the time. He came outside and saw us flying circles around the house. I was pretty surprised at how big the circle was in order to keep a constant radius around our house - about a mile diameter.
After seeing our house and neighborhood, we flew back to the southwest for our final landing at Lewis. My mom was excited in the air just 5 minutes into the flight and especially when seeing the city, but what was awesome for me was her telling me the next morning how she still thought it was incredible. That's when I decided that I want any family or friend I take up for the first time to see the beauty of our planet from the air that we take for granted on the ground. Many of us have flown commercially and seen the world from 30,000+ feet, but you can't truly appreciate it unless you're flying slow and low.
My next and final flight before leaving for school I unfortunately had to go solo. Despite my many numerous attempts to get some friends to come along and share in the joy, I was unable to convince their parents to let them tag along. While there was enthusiasm from my friends themselves, there was none on the parents' side of things. Yes, it is a bummer, but I know that as I gain more experience and we all get older, that will eventually change.
So, I figured that since I couldn't bring my friends flying, I'd bring the flying to them instead. First, I borrowed my friend Kevin's GoPro and mounted it in the cockpit with a good view of myself, as well as the instrument panel. I also had a mount for my iPhone, which I had used in the past, and I mounted it on the windshield for a view out the front of the plane.
Now, I'm no filming expert, and my first attempt wasn't half bad in my opinion. I now know that in the future I need to 'mark' my clips so that I know where to align the footage each time, as that was my biggest struggle in editing.
Despite the fact that my video only shows one landing to a full stop and one touch-and-go, I actually had a landing to a full stop prior to my first one. I ended up editing out because I forgot to start the forward facing camera (rookie mistake). I also left out the last landing to a full stop because I ran into some uncorrectable errors in editing that bit of footage.
Nonetheless, I hope you all enjoy the video - just some takeoff and landing practice, as well as a touch-and-go at Midway Airport (MDW) with a phenomenal view of the city in the background.
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Last week, I 'checked out' in a Cessna 172N model out here at school in upstate NY. I'll update on that in my next post! Looking forward to sharing more of my aviation journey.
