I really cannot explain what happened that I was silent for such along while. I was flying, I am flying, I will never stop. I just sometimes, stop writing.
So after that September flying so many classes still happened. Well, actually, not that many as my dear instructor has been extremely busy in the last months and it's hard to get a lesson. But when I get a lesson... when I get a lesson! The only words that come to my mind how to compare what I'm feeling are.... "it's like I'm flying!" And isn't it ironies. After all, I am exactly doing that.
And here, I recall my very first time on a plane. Was it an embraer? I think so. I think it was my first flight form Katowitz to Frankfurt. My first trip overseas from Europe. A trip that brought me here and where I stayed. I remember when we took off, I felt it. When I saw the clouds and felt like I want to go out and walk on them! And then I thought: now, I understand why people use these words associated with sky and flying as an indication of something absolutely fantastic. IT IS absolutely fantastic.
But back to the facts, learned things, and so on.
So I am just about to have my first solo. Learning how to land perfectly didn't tire me at all. I still don't understand how can you get tired of anything done in the plane. Seriously. But my landings weren't anywhere near perfect for a long time. I wasn't tired of it, I was just concerned what a moron I must be that it takes me so long. And then, my genius instructor (yes, I completely adore him) decided to do an interesting trick with me: "come as close to the runway as possible, but try not to land as long as possible". The effect? A very nice flare and touch down. I finally started doing it someway close to right!
After perfectioning my "not landing", we started to land. Not bad. Better and better. Until this one absolutely perfect, amazing landing that I had in my very last class: it happened out of nowhere. I was just flying the pattern, in Grandma, the old plane from Guntley, but we practiced it over Burlington. We chatted with my instructor about parties and what not, when I did a very nice, as he said, pattern and came down to sit that old baby down. When I landed, we were both shocked. It was absolutely PERFECT. My instructor started to clap his hands and asked me: "Did you see how perfect it was??" I asked him three more times if he really didn't help me a bit. He swears he didn't.
In the last several classes, we are also practicing steep turns. I feel so much more comfortable after these, but the real deal breaker were "crazy eights", a great invention of my instructor, of course. As you have never heard about crazy 8s, let me explain. As much as I can remember, as it was about three months ago. So you go very steep up and then make a 60 degree turn, until you reach one quarter of the full around turn, even out, turn again, even out, turn again and so on. Awesome!! A little aerobatics in Cessna, always fun! In the first moment I got a little scared, it was quite violent as for that poor Grandma. But in the next few seconds I remembered my aerobatic flying and started laughing at myself inside. After all the loops, 7 Gs, rolls and snap rolls am I really seriously afraid of some bigger turn? - I asked myself. That's how I started doing it and it wasn't that bad. After a few turns, I started to really like it!
Stalls still seemed a little difficult for me. Not really scary, no. More, I couldn't really understand what is exactly happening to the plane during stall. I got down all the theory but I just didn't see it. Coming out of a stall wasn't clear either. I do everything what my instructor says, I understand what to do. But I.. don't really "see" what I'm doing. Maybe it's normal. Maybe it's my girly "blindness" for these sorts of things, maybe I just need more time... It's a little better now, but I definitely must practice stalls more.
The best is still... spinning. Yes, I know, I am sick. There is something wrong with me. But I truly, seriously LOVE spins. It just feels so awesomely awesome. It probably took its beginning in my eternal love for carousels...
I surely have to practice coming out of a spin many many times. I also have to understand (I still cannot) that it is an extremely dangerous thing and not to play with. That part will be probably the hardest as I truly find it as one of the most fun things in flying.
When I got the maneuver right, when I got it pretty much down, I asked my instructor if this is really all what it's to it. He confirmed and I'm still shocked that something so easy is creating such an amazing fear among student pilots and even pilots. Maybe it's my recklessness and my lack of the feeling how dangerous is actually a spin. But I just can't understand why FAA stopped requiring it and why it's seen the way it's seen. Such an easy and simple maneuver. Seriously.
And that's about it what happened in those months. I haven't flown in two months and my heart is split in half. I fly in my mind all the time, I did get some weird looks while flying to Europe and back and admiring the plane - well, let's just say in a slightly different way than people usually do. I read a lot on a plane, I watched Sporty's lessons. I got overwhelmed with the weather and I go crazy with counting the weight vs. moment. I also practice for the theoretical exam, this way, I've noticed, I learn a lot. But I miss Machado and will be getting back to his colorful book very soon.
I still wonder about theory vs. practice and the order of those. I am absolutely under the influence and control of my instructor and well, I trust him my life. So I will repeat it over and over, even if I have to fight with different opinions from every possible corner: there is a method in my instructor's craziness. Maybe I'm just an inductive learner, but I've read Machado before and didn't really understand much. When I learned all the basics through flying, through practice, it is so much easier for me to understand the theory behind it. Now, whatever I read, I start really getting it. It makes sense, but only because I already "feel" it. I know how it feels to get the baby up and how it behaves when I go too steep. I know how it feels climb the right way. I feel it. And when I read about why it feels this or this way - it makes a good sense. But I could I bring the plane to the right climb only by the theory? Because I knew this and that? I don't think so. Maybe it's me, maybe I'm a "feeler". But it works for me. And I like it. Learning by doing, as my instructor says over and over again.
So when is my next flight? Hard to say. My instructor is in jet lag now... and the weather isn't very flyable in Illinois and Wisconsin. But it cannot be much longer anymore, I know it.
After all, it will be my first
solo.
