Columbia 400 Deposit

Put down deposit and ordered the Columbia 400. Expect delivery sometime in May. That'll give me plenty of time to get comfortable with the 172 and my PPL.

Tres my company pilot & I will be going up to Bend Or to do our flight training. Gonna plan a great cross country trip!

Flight #4 Night Landing!

Weather had solid ceiling at around 4000'

Left CRP around 4:30 and headed over the Mustang Beach airstrip to do T&G's ... steady Xwind out of the south.

Despite having studied the standard pattern I had a very hard time squaring it up ... and setting up a good approach. Also had a hard time seeing and keeping track of the strip. Probably would have done better if I'd picked out some landmarks to target on each leg. We did about 4 T&G's .. all poor.

Got dark so we headed back to CRP .. beautiful at night ... followed a Navy Trainer in for straight in final with slight cross .. landed it myself .. not bad for my first night landing .. the runway lights were pretty cool.

Controller got on our case three times about doing post landing cklist on the taxiway .... Tim got pissed and raced the plane back to the FBO ... I thought it was kind of funny.

Columbia 400 demo on Thurs when I'll pick colors and put down a $15k deposit and reserve a slot for sometime next Spring. Tres and I plan to fly up to Michigan assembly plan .. get the flight instruction together .. then fly it back .. Man that is exciting.

Flight physical is Thurs AM .. keeping fingers crossed ..

Flight #3 Fouled Plugs!

I showed up early ( 4:15 PM ) and did the pre-flight myself. Tim arrived and we taxied out. Much better job taxing .. think I'm finally getting a feel for it.

On power up ( Mag test ) engines were running rough .. we tried to burn it off my leaning out the engine .. but didn't work .. so had to taxi back to FBO.

No fun at all ..

Flight #2 - Touch and Go ..

Went out early Sunday .. spent 2 hours flying .. !

Began with some shallow turns .. no prob.

Moved on to some ground pattern work .. squares .. and sine waves across roads .. ok ..

Then moved on to 45 degree banks .. had a real problem hold altitude .. but got better.

Finished by doing to touch and go's .. that was tough .. had a very hard time keeping track of RPM settings, flap settings, pre-landing cklist and altitude turn points .. we didn't do a pre-flight on any of this .. did about 4 T&G's and I finally said uncle .. I need a break ...

After we landed I couldn't even taxi! ..

Flight #1 Popped My Aviation Cherry!

Tim, my instuctor showed up.

Spent about an hour doing some ground school stuff and then headed out to the plane. Did preflight ... and then headed out .. First time in my plane .. pretty cool ..

Headed out over RockPort and Portland, .. then turned South along the beach .. over the Packery .. and along the Luguna Madre .. then back up SPID to the airport .. I was flying the whole time ..

Interesting this was my first time flying .. first time in my new plane ..

I'd say things were progressing quite nicely!

Cessna 172 sp arrives / First Time Into The Air?

My 3 year old Cessna arrived this week. Checked out ok and closed the deal .. I got a plane (but no PPL ... yet).

Will be meeting Tim, my instuctor today for ground school and hopefully our first flight .. haven't been up in my plane yet either.

However its nasty looking outside .. and cold.