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May 26, 2006

Last Takeoff from SQL

In 1 week, I am moving back to Europe, after 2.5 extraordinary years in the San Francisco area.

I was planning to pass my commercial rating before leaving. However, I have decided to cancel my checkride that was scheduled for next Monday. I am not ready yet to take the flight test, as I still need to practice some maneuvers that are slightly out of the required tolerances.

I could probably have been ready if I took another 4-5 lessons before the checkride. However, I have so many things on my mind and so much to do before moving to Europe, that I didn't feel like it. And also, I did not want to risk failing a checkride after those amazing 2.5 years of flying.

In these 2.5 years:

- I owned a plane, and even made a profit with it!
- I got my instrument rating
- I got my night endorsement
- I got my complex/retractable endorsement
- I flew aerobatics
- I did spins
- I did hundreds of stall in all possible airplane configurations (also trim stalls)
- I finally did my first solo stall after more than 170 flight hours (I was afraid). I am not afraid anymore, and I did plenty more since!
- I did a landing error recovery training, where I zigzagged 20 times at 3ft above the runway while playing with rudders and power
- I learned maneuvers with really cool names: Chandelles, Lazy Eights, Eights on Pylons, Slips, Bounces
- I flew Cessnas, Pipers, Decathlons, Citabrias
- I flew a Mooney
- I flew a G1000 Cessna 172SP
- I flew in amazing experimental aircrafts that fly at 200kts: Van's RV-7, Lancair Legacy
- I went to Sun N'Fun in Florida, to meet with other aviation nerds, ahem, enthusiasts
- I took a 2 day workshop to learn to build aluminum aircrafts
- I flew over the most beautiful bay in the world, over the Golden Gate Bridge and over San Francisco
- I flew over Mauii
- I flew to Napa Valley to visit wineries (but drank only water)
- I flew solo at 10,000 ft. I needed 5 minutes to climb the he last 1000ft
- I played with an Elite Sim, (it is just like Microsoft Flight Simulator, but uglier and FAA approved)
- I flew solo to Los Angeles where the visibility is 4 miles in haze when the weather is at its best
- I flew to Santa Barbara, Mojave Spaceport, San Diego, Santa Monica and many other exciting places
- I saw the sunset over the ocean from my plane
- I heard a real mayday call on the radio. The guy had lost his engine, but made it safely into a field
- I had an alternator failure in the retractable aircraft (but plenty of battery, so it was a non event).
- I did night touch and go at San Jose International Airport while 2 Boeings per minute were landing on the parallel runway
- I read more than 50 lb of aviation text books and watched too many aviation DVDs
- I subscribed to the Outdoor channel, so I can record Wings to Adventure on my DVR
- I spent dozens of hours with John and Matha King in their interactive Instrument course and their Commercial course
- I answered 926 Instrument questions and 620 commercial questions in the Gleim Test Prep software
- ... and a lot more.

Thanks to all of you who played a part in these adventures! I will miss you, but I will be back! Stay in touch.

Posted by Elie at May 26, 2006 04:26 PM