My Aviators - My Journey as a Woman Pilot

Location:DVN
Weather:Forgot to copy
Runway in Use:33

So it has been quite a while since I posted anything, mostly because I haven't done anything fun related to aviation. But then...in July my plane finally arrived at KDVN. This plane has a special little place in my heart. It is the first plane I ever took a ride in (I was 2 months old). It is the plane I associate with flying. Way back in 1970 by Grandpa bought this plane. It is a 1964 Maule M-4. My Grandpa flew it and 3 of his sons flew it over the years. For the past 20 years my Uncle has been in possession of it and when he learned that I was getting my pilot's license he called me up and said, it's tradition, you should learn to fly it. So here I am, learning to fly a taildragger. I have barely 100 hours under my belt, which in the grand scheme of things in aviation, is not much. All of that time is in a Cherokee or warrior. Which I now know spoiled me rotten with their timid demeanor. I considered myself a pretty decent pilot, and I try to keep my skills sharp. However, my first trip in the maule humbled me greatly. And during my 4th hour of training, I was beyond humbled as I was introduced to the grass between the runway and taxiway. I made the mistake of not getting my aileron into the wind on rollout and it picked up my wing and I didn't maintain rudder control as I was fixing that error and off we went. Right through the grass. Thankfully it was a well placed mistake because the only thing damaged was my pride. Next trip up, I plan to show that plane I mean business. I still have 6 hours of mandatory training before I can solo anyway, so why not make the best of it. Hopefully a few more hours and I will be decently proficient. Duration of Flight:1.0
Total Flight Hours:109.2

Location: DVN
Weather: Beautiful but forgot to get the METAR
Runway in Use: 15

Well the last few months of my life have been crazy. In fact I couldn't tell you a single thing that happened in my life in the past two months other than the birth of my amazing daughter, Amelia. Her entrance into my life has changed everything and it is definitely for the better.

Well last night my wonderful husband took Amelia and I got a few hours to do whatever I wanted. Of course I choose to go flying. With the exception of a currency flight with an instructor about a month ago, I haven't done any flying since December. My recent currency flight went much better than I expected. I figured I would be extremely rusty but turns out all the knowledge was still in my head, who knew. Anyway last night I was able to go up solo. It was a bit warm/hazy/bumpy but I really enjoyed myself. There was a decent amount of traffic around the airport. Due to the haze I had a bit of trouble finding 874MA so I kept my distance until I knew he was clear. After that I did a straight in approach to 15. I have not done much in the way of straight in approaches and I find that it helps me be a better pilot because it helps me judge set-up easier than doing the typical pattern which is kind of automatic. After that I did 3 touch and goes. None of them my finest performance but since I have a total of 7 landings in the last 5.5 months I feel they were pretty good.

My husband and I have recently discussed me getting my instrument/commercial license. It is something that I really want to do, but I feel like I am too old to change careers, especially to one that could end with one visit to the doctor. I think I will at least do some instrument training over the next year and hopefully if it is meant to be, it will work out.

I am looking forward to more flying this summer and hopefully getting back into the swing of things.

Duration of Flight: .7
Total Flight Hours: 95.1

So this post isn't exactly aviation related, but I am pretty excited about it so I feel like the announcement belongs here. My husband and I are expecting our first child around March 26th. :) So for now I guess I am a passenger carrying vessel for the next 6 months :)

Location: KDVN Local
Weather: KDVN 071452Z AUTO 36009KT 10SM CLR 16/10 A3026 RMK AO2 SLP248 T01610100 51010 PWINO $
Runway in Use: 03

Time got away from me this summer and I haven't been up flying in almost 6 weeks. I didn't really have time to go today either but the longer I wait the less safe I feel. I know that I am a good pilot and if I just settle down and fly the plane everything goes smoothly, but I also have a bad habit of over thinking things and being extremely self critical.

Anyway, today went great. I went in just wanted to get some time in and enjoy the beautiful day. I took off on runway 3 and headed to the north climbing to 2500 feet. I leveled off and enjoyed some scenery. Everything looked beautiful this morning. The fields are green, the light was great and I was once again reminded of how amazing it is to be a pilot. I try to hold on to that feeling because someday I am sure I will think of it as common place to be up in the air floating around and it certainly isn't commonplace. Knowing that just a little over a 100 years ago people didn't even think it was possible to fly reminds me of what a miracle it really is to be up there.

I did a few ground reference maneuvers and flew over the wapsi river for a while. I turned back to the south and headed back to the airport to get in a few times around the pattern. I was very disappointed in my approaches last time I was up. This time my first approach was a bit messy because I was very close on downwind to avoid a plane departing on the the cross runway (33). But I extended my downwind a bit and got her stabilized and made a very nice landing. The next three were just as good, I even got a "very smooth" from 874MA while he was waiting to depart during one of my landings :)

Cross winds have been a bit of a nemesis for me during my time as a pilot. Today there were a few times where the wind was probably a bit closer to 33 and it was about 10kts most of the time I was up. I concentrated on lining the plane up and less on where and how much wind there was, what I found was that if I stop thinking so damn much about the wind that it really isn't that hard to get the correct crab in for landing :) Note to self, stop thinking so damn much!!!

Today was good, can't wait to do it again! Also, there will be some exciting news on the blog next week, be sure to stop back and read it!

Duration of Flight:.8
Total Flight Hours:92.0

Location: KDVN Pattern
Weather: Winds Variable @ 5-7 kts
Runway in Use: 03

I have been trying to fit in a quick flight to practice some pattern work and go arounds lately and I finally got a chance on Friday. I had recently read an article about how more deaths and injuries occur during go arounds than during any other phase of flight. The theory the article went from was that people don't really practice go arounds and when one is needed they may make a crucial mistake that costs them their life. I talked to a few people at the airport about it and they agreed vehemently that go arounds are extremely dangerous when not performed correctly. One instructor stated that recently a student removed all his flaps at once when he applied full power for the go around. Given that removing those flaps also suddenly removes lift the instructor rightfully feared for his life. So after reading the article and hearing the story I have go arounds on my list of things to practice occasionally to make sure I am proficient in the instance that I need to use one.

My go arounds went well during practice. Full power, back pressure, climb, clean-up (slowly), do it again. No problem. The thing that didn't go well were my landings. I just couldn't get comfortable with my approach on Friday (guess it was a good thing I was practicing go arounds). All my approaches and landings were safe but not the pretty little chirps that I strive for. I have been over and over my practice session in my head and I think I can pinpoint it to my trim work. I wasn't getting it trimmed well so I was fighting the plane the whole way up and the whole way down. Which meant I was extremely unstable on approach which always leads to bad landings. Since this was a short practice session I might try to get up on a day in the next week or so and see if I can get a couple of good landings in.


Duration of Flight: .5hrs
Total Flight Hours:91.2 hrs

One year ago I sat in the pilot seat of an airplane for the first time! By the time I landed I was addicted! 6 months later I had a license and now 1 year later aviation is a huge part of my life. I wouldn't trade a single second of the time I have spent learning about airplanes and flying in them and I wouldn't take a single dollar back that I have spent.

For those of you keeping track of my summer goals you will remember that one of my goals was to fly on my anniversary. Well it didn't happen. For one, there is a major heat wave happening right now. The temp was 102 today and the heat index was 115+. I was still planning on flying until both 545ca and 547ca went to the shop one for its 100 hr and one to get the engine rebuilt. I guess that settled it, I would have to wait until next week to get my flight in.

Location:KDVN
Weather: VRB05 Sky CLR
Runway in Use: 03 and 15

For the past few months I have been trying to get my brother to go with me on a flight, but our schedules never quite worked out. Although last Friday rolled around and it was supposed to be pretty nice. I booked a plane for 12-2pm and let my brother know I would be flying if he was going to be free he could join me. Turns out he could go but not until 1pm. That made our flight a bit short but we got it done!



I arrived at the airport a bit early so I could have the preflight done and we could head out as soon as he got there. The preflight looked good, albeit very hot! I went back into the airport and chatted with the airport folk until Ryan arrived. In the meantime I watched the b-17 that was on display take-off, not a bad looking airplane. I was tempted to go get a ride, but for $400 I think I will save my money for PIC time.



Ryan arrived. We hopped in. I gave him my usual speech about staying out of the way of controls, if he sees traffic/birds/obstacles in our flight path to go ahead and point them out, I may or may not see them and two sets of eyes are better than one. The winds were 070@05 so I taxied to 03 did a quick run up and then lined up to take off. The door was a bit of a problem, the top latch didn't want to lock, but we got it taken care of and then we were off. It was a pretty smooth lift-off if I may say so myself. We were headed to the north east but I went a bit north first to avoid the Met Life blimp that had just lifted off and to avoid QC airspace.

The rest of the time we just cruised around at about 2500ft doing some sight seeing. We went out by the Mississippi, up around the Clinton area, circled and headed back. We did a quick touch and go on 15 with a very pretty chirp then went around for a full stop which was a bit harder but still nothing to be ashamed of.



All and all it was a good day of flying. I enjoyed sharing it with my Brother and can't wait to do it again.




Duration of Flight: .08
Total Flight Hours: 90.7

Photo Credit and Copyright: Ryan Lenger

Just a quick little post to say that I am now a proud employee of Carver Aero! I am only working the front desk but it is still a job around aviation and I can't wait! I should have a lot more posts about interesting planes that come into Davenport.

Also, while I was at KDVN today the met life blimp was tied down at the ramp. I wish I had had time to go see it up close but it was still pretty impressive from the hanger.

Yesterday the President was in town to give a speech. I watched the speech and I have to say it wasn't really about anything. I thought he might have something pertinent to say but really it seems he just came to the Quad Cities to start his campaigning for 2012.

Anyway, I don't live very far from Quad City International which is where he landed. So I thought after his speech I would head out there and see if I could get close enough to watch Air Force One take-off. Well at first glance this looked impossible. They had choppers in the air and police cars all around the perimeter fence of the airport. I thought there was no way that I would be able to stop and watch him take off. Well I drove around to the FBO entrance and there were no cop cars stopping me from entering. I drove in and parked in a gravel pit area that many people stop at to watch planes arrive. I parked and got out just as the president was taxing. They pulled up and stopped with a building between us and the plane (very tactical or extremely coincidental, I am going with tactical) and then I heard the engines roar and Air Force One was rolling. He lifted off and made a left climbing turn and was out of sight quite quickly.

It was impressive to see. And I am glad I went even though everyone told me I wouldn't be able to get close. As an aviation nerd I found the whole thing quite exciting even if it only lasted about 60 seconds :)

Location: KDVN - KOQW - KDVN
Weather: KDVN 241852Z AUTO 33005KT 10SM OVC037 20/12 A2986 RMK AO2 SLP110 T02000117
Runway in Use: 33

I really wanted to get in the air today. The weather was supposed to be beautiful, but it wasn't. I postponed this morning because the clouds were at about 3500 MSL and I wanted them to be a bit higher. Well 1pm rolled around and I had a plane scheduled and wouldn't you know it, the clouds were lower. I stood on my deck and looked around a bit and decided that they weren't going anywhere and they were high enough for me to putz around like I wanted so I decided to go. I had wanted a nicer day, but you can't always get what you want!

I preflighted. I started her up. I listened for weather and then I went to radio in my taxi intentions and the radio wasn't working. I flipped all the switches off and back on and I still wasn't getting anything on my headset. I pulled out the input jacks and put them back in and still nothing. I messed with the jack input for the in-plane speaker and still nothing. So I picked up the hand mic and radioed my intentions. I headed out figuring I could trouble shoot the headset on the way.

I took off, and it was beautiful. She practically leaped from the runway today since it was pretty cool out. I grabbed 75kts on the climb and turned to my heading. Maquoketa airport is only about 25nm to the north north west so it was a short hop. I had the field in sight and went to radio my landing intentions and the hand mic didn't work. So I pressed the button for the headset and it worked. Hooray! So I set up to land and did a poor job of it. I was high coming in and I was fast and I wasn't lined up well. Instead of pushing it to get everything in order to get her on the ground I did a go around. Came back and made a very pretty full-stall landing. I was a bit fast so I had a bit of float but it was still a really nice landing.

A back taxi was required since I landed super long. On the way back down the runway there was a deer standing on the side of the runway. I halted and played chicken with him to see if I could get him to get off the runway. Eventually he left and I turned around and took off again. It was a quick flight back to davenport where I made a terrible landing. It was much more of a thump than a chirp.

I learned a few more things today. I need to get in the air a bit more frequently because my skills are getting a bit rusty. When the A/FD says wildlife on and in vicinity of the airport they actually mean it. And lastly I still really love to fly!

Duration of Flight:.9
Total Flight Hours:89.9

Now I know this will never happen. Even Airbus knows this will never happen. But it doesn't stop any of us from dreaming! If they made a glass topped plane I would have my ticket booked in a heart beat for a sunset flight. I may only be able to afford to do it once, but you can bet your life I would be make it happen. For now I will just dream of watching the sun set from FL350 and being so close you feel like you can touch the stars outside the glass canopy.

Yesterday I took my Dad and brother, Ryan, to the Quad City Airshow for Father's Day. It was a really good time. I haven't spent a whole lot of time with either my Dad or my Brother in the past few years and I really enjoyed spending a day with them doing something we all enjoy quite a bit.

I was pretty disappointed in the static displays. There wasn't a whole lot to look at or tour, but we still managed to see a few nice planes and enjoy that part of the day.

The airshow was pretty decent. The beginning aerobatics acts were good and the F-15 demo was really nice. In fact I enjoyed almost all the acts except for otto the helicopter. Most of the time you couldn't hear the announcer and without the "voice of otto" it was just a helicopter flying back and forth. Now I will be the first to admit that my attention span is kinds of small and if you don't grab it quick then my mind tends to wander, so I spent most of the time Otto was in the air watching people instead.

The Blue Angels were the closing act and they did a great job. As always their performance was spot on and a great demonstration of what it means to be a precision pilot. Their airspace was probably no bigger than 10 miles by 10 miles (probably less) and they were always aware of their position, everyone else's position and where they needed to be for the next maneuver. There were only a few times in which I lost them in the sky and I am pretty sure it was intentional on their part because the surprise flyover is a pretty cool move :)

The folks from Quad City Airshow did a great job. It was my first time at this airshow which was celebrating their 25th year, I hope they do it again.

On a quick closing note, I was appalled while leaving and I looked around to see all the garbage people left on the field. I was appalled not only because this is my home airport and I don't want to see it dirty and marred but because also because as humans we are pigs, why do we expect someone else to clean up after us. Next time you are at an event pick up after yourselves!!

Location: KDVN - 8C4 - KDVN
Weather: KDVN 012252Z AUTO 24006KT 10SM CLR 27/08 A3017 RMK AO2 SLP212 T02720083
Runway in Use: 21

Today was beautiful and it has been forever since I got to fly (ok only 26 days, but again, who is counting), so I headed to the airport. When I arrived my plane reservation was no where to be found. Luckily 547CA was on its way back so I waited for it to come back and I was on my way.

The AWOS was reading 230@09 when I was ready to taxi. Someone was coming in on 33 for a full stop so I decided to head out to 21 since the winds favored that a bit more. Once he was cleared of 33 I departed on 21, turned out to the north and was on my way. I decided to just take a leisurely flight up to Tipton (about 27 miles Northwest). Since I didn't really have an agenda and had plenty of time to spare to I spent some time playing around. I climbed a bit, descended, did some s-turns and just took in the sights and generally enjoyed myself. When I had Tipton in sight I decided I would land. I could have done a straight in, and I wish I would have, but headed off to the south and entered on a 45 to the left downwind. As I was turning base someone on the ground asked if I was a full stop or a touch and go. I said touch in go. Well it ended up that it was a full stop. I landed a bit long and chose to back taxi instead of trying to get it off the ground in too short of a space. I apologized to the waiting plane and they were very understanding. We had a quick conversation about the weather and they seemed very nice. I love meeting really nice people when I am out flying. In fact I love the flying community!!



I headed back to davenport. I just followed the road that goes from Tipton straight back to davenport. As I was flying it I realized I have never flown into Davenport from the west before. I had flown out to Cedar Rapids plenty of times on cross countries during training but I always went somewhere else and came back to Davenport from either the North or South. Anyway everything looked a bit different coming in from a new direction but nothing to worry about, just something I noted. There was a Baron Beechcraft landing and he was much faster than me so I took my time going to the south a bit so i could cross midfield for left downwind on 21. Another plane took off as I was on downwind then I was all alone in the pattern. My landing was a bit flat, but I was still proud of it. I taxied in and shutdown. Even my parking job, which is often my weakest point, was awesome. All in all, my day was awesome.

There were tons of pilots in the air today. It kept me on my toes but I loved it. Hearing all the radio chatter makes me remember how much I love to fly. In fact everything about today made me remember how much I love to fly. Chatting with the folks at the airport. Soaring in the smooth air. Chirping the tires on the landing. All awesome, now I am just counting the minutes until I can do it again.

Duration of Flight: 0.9 hrs
Total Flight Hours: 89 hrs

I have been making a mental list of flight goals I want to accomplish this summer (June-August 2011) and I thought it was time to write them down.

Of course all of this depends on having some money so I guess I better get some work done :)

So after a weekend of hoping (aka: praying and begging) for good weather so I could take my brother up for a ride, Monday comes along and rubs its lovely weather in my face. Saturday was rainy with ceilings never getting much higher than 1200ft. Sunday cleared up nicely at the end of the day but my Brother was only available in the morning so we didn't get to go. Then Monday comes along and we all go back to work and stare out the window at CAVU skies and winds straight down the runway 030 at 12kts. Ugh, life is cruel! There are little yellow sunshine shapes (I think that is what those are, I haven't seen sunshine forever) on everyday of the forecast this week, and although my Brother is out of town, I may have to hit up the airport if I manage to get my work done :)

Location: KDVN - KPVB - KDVN
Weather: KDVN 061452Z AUTO 29012KT 10SM CLR 17/04 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP130 T01720039 58004
Runway in Use: 33



It had been a while since I had gotten to fly (24 days to be exact but who's counting) so I had been watching the weather all week and today looked like a beautiful day to go. I had originally planned to meet my aunt for lunch up in Platteville, but I got buried in work and decided I should be responsible and get my butt back here and make some money so it was just a quick flight there and back.

I had my wheels up at davenport about 10:30 this morning. The AWOS was reporting 280@12G19 on take-off. That had me a bit concerned because although I could handle that no problem on take-off it was pushing my comfort zone for landing. I evaluated the situation and decided I could handle the landing if the winds were still at that level when I returned.

The flight up to Platteville (KPVB) was uneventful. It was pretty bumpy, visually evident by the clouds that were quickly forming. I had some traffic to contend with around Dubuque (KDBQ) which had me wishing that I had called for flight following, but I didn't feel that I was in the air long enough to make it worth the effort. The AWOS was NOTAM'ed out of service for KPVB but I was hoping it was back up, it wasn't so I overflew the field at 3500 to check out the windsock. It was straight out and probably about 280-290 (looked it up when I got home and it said 280@12G20). I descended and called for left downwind entry for 25. The set-up was good and the bumps held up long enough for me to make a decent stabilized approach. I had a very good landing that I was proud of. Then as I am back taxing someone calls asks me for a 5 count in platteville. I waited to see if maybe they were talking to unicom because I didn't know what that meant. Then when no one answered I asked him to clarify and he said 1.2.3.4.5. how do you read. I said loud and clear, felt like kind of an idiot but whatever. I guess I can put that one in my book for next time.

Take-off was smooth and I made a left turnout to head south. Climbed to 4500 feet, leaned and trimmed, I skirted DBQ airspace and then headed for home. I spent the next 40 minutes bouncing around but of course I loved every second of it.

I came back into davenport and crossed mid field for left downwind on 21. The AWOS was reading 260@12G20. I wanted a bit of extra speed for the gusts but I came in a bit too high so my landing was a bit long and not my best but it was decent none the less.

I exited on Bravo and Mike was outside to park me (another first) and I managed to do alright.

Although today was not my favorite flight, the bumpiness kind of takes a bit away from the magic, I did enjoy it a lot. I got back in the air. I got to see a bit of different Terrain, I landed at a new airport in a new state. Overall a very good time.

Duration of Flight: 1.6
Total Flight Hours: 88.1
Log book entry

Wednesday rolled around this week and it marked the end of my two week hiatus from flying. All my tests check out so my medical is officially valid again! So I called up my instructor and scheduled my 60 day currency check (that I was informed I needed to do last time I rented the plane) for this morning. When I talked to him, he didn't think I needed to do a 60 day check as long as I had flown in the past 60 days, which I have. But we scheduled it anyway. Then last night he called and said that he looked up the policies and I did not need to fly. Yay, that is awesome, although I was looking forward to flying with Tim again I didn't want to pay him :)

So long story short, no currency check, valid medical and sad Beth because the weather is beautiful (KDVN 291452Z AUTO 17007KT 10SM CLR 10/02 A3004 RMK AO2 SLP174) and I chose to be responsible and work today instead of flying just because I can.

This is the best example of somebody trying to promote general aviation that I have seen in a while. I wish more companies would do things like this. All you have to do is submit a photo that displays your passion for aviation and you could win a sponsorship to earn your pilots license. I saw a few great photos so far but I feel like there could be some better ones. Sign up at the link below and be sure to give props to Breitling for trying to help out the general aviation world.

http://www.facebook.com/Breitling?sk=app_156973697695045

Still grounded for medicine changes. But as it turns out I wouldn't want to be up the past couple of days anyway.

KDVN 151552Z AUTO 08029G36KT 10SM FEW080 09/00 A2967 RMK AO2 PK WND 08040/1541 PRESFR SLP048 T00890000

That translates to winds from 080 degrees at 29kts gusting to 36kts with peak winds at 080 at 40kts.

Not something I want to go flying in with a little piper cherokee. It might not be so bad if the wind were blowing down the runway but it is not. Closest alignment is 03 giving a 50 degree crosswind component = 25kts. The forcast has it being windy for the next few days, which I am fine with, get it out of your system while I can't go flying :)

Location: KDVN Local
Weather: KDVN 121352Z AUTO 10007KT 10SM CLR 09/03 A3012 RMK AO2 SLP201 T00890033
Runway in Use: 03

Today was an excellent day. I really wanted to practice some touch and goes since I haven't been feeling very good about my landings lately. The wind was pretty calm and continued to get more calm throughout my half hour in the air. When I took off the awos had 080@08 so I choose to take runway 03. My first circut was kind of blah and not very rectangular, but it was a good landing and I settled in for an awesome second landing, followed by about 4 more that I am decently proud of. One of them was a bit flat, but all of them were good.

I am pleased with my landings and my crosswind correction now. I realized sometime over the last week what was wrong with my landings last time I was up, I wasn't looking down the runway, I was looking closer in. Which is a habit I had in the beginning of my flight training. Today I made sure I was conscious of where I was looking on final and it helped a lot. Next time up I want to work on holding my airspeeds on approach, I was kind of all over the place between 85kts and 70kts and I want to be more consistent at holding those.

When I paid today they informed me that I needed to do a 60 day check with an instructor, which sucks, because I didn't know I had to do one every 60 days. Oh well. It will just be another chance to learn some things from someone who has a lot more experience than I do.

On a not so awesome note, I am grounded for 2 weeks. I need to change up some of my meds and one of the conditions of my 3rd class medical is that I stay on the ground until my tests show that I am stable and don't have any side effects from them. So I guess that means I will be day dreaming about flying for the next 2 weeks.

Duration of Flight: 0.6
Total Flight Hours: 86.5