As with any aviation journey, the first stepping stone was a 'discovery flight' at a local flight school - in my case on 7th December 2020, just about a year ago. It took some time before the first official Class could take place and since then, it took me a year to wrap up all the milestones and required flying to 'complete' the PPL requirements. 3rd December 2021 to be exact. This video is the culmination of all that flying.
My longest flight solo was flying from Wilmington DE, to Atlantic City, NJ and to Georgetown DE and then back to Wilmington DE. Not the usual straight-line flights, but one to avoid Class Bravo and navigate using VORs.. including some exciting time over the Delaware Bay (and imaginary sharks.. wait .... dolphins)
Learned mundane stuff about weather, navigation, radio communications in addition to flying, and more importantly do everything at the same time!
I made it a point to video record my classes along with the radio traffic where possible, and almost every class (But three or four) were captured on video. I have accumulated nearly a TB of digital footage. The video below is a compilation of various excerpts lasting four minutes or so.
A big shout out to my instructors Tom Tolento (Who got me to solo!), Wes Harrington (Who bore with my bone-crunching landings in the pattern), and Harry Shissler (Who is dragging me across the finish line!). Thanks also due to FlyGateway and CheckRidePrep.com
The Check Ride is still pending, and at this point may take a month or two to get one scheduled and complete!
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