So imagine my surprise when I check out the date for today's blog heading and I see June 27.  Hmm...how 'bout that!  June is almost over, and I didn't even know it.

So has been the basic gist of my life for the past month or so!  I obviously haven't posted any blog for over a month, and to my faithful readers (if you still find yourself checking here!), I apologize!  But for my friends, family, the strangers that stumble upon this, and you JC'ers, I wanted to give you a general idea of what has happened in terms of flight training...it's been a pretty intense ride as of late!

But the news has been great!!!  I most recently passed my Multi-Engine Commercial test!  woo hoo!  What does that mean?  Well, it means I AM NOW A COMMERCIAL PILOT!!!  This has been my dream ever since last October when I really took the time to think about life, and that day is finally here!   yeah!

(For you JC'ers, more on the test here in a sec...).

It's kind of funny to me, though.  Now that I am here with my Commercial License, I realize that I don't know much.  No, seriously!  I have been waiting for this day for some time now, and really, it IS a big deal.  I mean, I don't want to downplay it...I am now officially recognized by our government as being legally able to fly for hire!  That's exciting news!

But the past two weeks (the past week especially!), I have learned that there is SO much about flying that I just don't know.  Have I passed my checkrides?  Yup.  Am I legally able to fly a jet for American Airlines?  Yup.  Am I ready for it?  Welllll......

I thought I was!  And I may be able to make the transition, but as of late, I have really wanted to become a BETTER pilot and learn more before I make the big jump.  So right now, I am looking at flight instructing for awhile.  And each day I get more and more excited about doing just that!  I get to teach other people how to fly!  What greater job is there?!  A month ago I would've hated the idea.  But now, I'm lovin' it more and more!  (and, yes, I do realize it won't always be fun and exciting, but it's still pretty sweet to share my passion with others!).

So as of now, I am going to pass at flying for an airline.  Maybe soon.  But my goal right now is to land a job teaching...

Which brings me into the other part of my training...

I have spent six hours on the books today.  No lie.  And that's about the daily average that is needed for my future tests.  I have FIVE tests in less than one month!!!  One written, and four oral/practical tests with an FAA Examiner.  Yeah, um, needless to say, it's crunch-time!

And these tests aren't exactly easy, either.  Hence the studying!  I'm just trying to best prepare myself for what lies ahead, and I am becoming VERY familiar with my aircraft and with all of the regulations and fundamentals of flight.  VERY.

(To be honest, it's kinda fun!)

The more you know, the better you become, the more you learn, the more it all makes sense, the more you can teach, the better you can teach!  It's funny how it all works out that way.

But regardless, it is still work.  And I'm lookin' forward to the day when I will have all of these tests behind me!

Ok, for all of you non-pilots, the following may not be too exciting.  But for you pilots or JC'ers, you may appreciate what I went through on my most recent practical test for my Commercial license...so here goes!

June 22

I woke up at 6:45 A.M.  That's really got to change!  Stinkin' early morning tests are for the birds!  (And oddly enough, they already know how to fly...hmm...yeah, go ahead, think about that one, would ya?!).

Anyway!

So Van and I fly the Twin Comanche up to Topeka, Kansas.  Pretty short flight.  About 35 minutes.  I love the twin!  So fast!  We had rain and some thunderstorms early in the morning, but they had moved east, and the sky was looking clear.  The winds were even calm!

Perfect!  (That rarely happens in Kansas and hardly ever during the day!)  So that worked out rather nicely!

Well, I meet with the examiner, and we proceed to go through 2 1/2 hours of oral examination.  He asked me everything from...

-What will a Commercial License allow you to do?  Not do?

-What are the systems on your aircraft?  The engines?  The props?  The hydraulic systems? 

-What minimum equipment would you need to fly this Twin Comanche?  Could you fly it without "such and such" piece of equipment?

And then we spent a great deal of time on a flight I had planned over to West Plains, Missouri, which I had prepared the night before.  And guess what, this airport is conveniently located INSIDE a Military Operations Area!  Go figure!  More to know!

So we talked about whether I could fly through there, how long the runways were, how high I had to be above certain areas (wildlife refuge, for example) and why, what I needed to enter certain airspaces along my route, who I would contact along my route, if I could fly over the Class C airspace, how I was going to get there (visual, VOR's, etc.), and on and on.

In all seriousness, thist part of my Commercial test went straight back to the Private Pilot stuff all over again!  (So if you are a Private Pilot, take EVERYTHING seriously!  All of your flying goes right back to the basics...from lift and weight to airspaces and charts!  Seriously!).  Of course, there was quite a bit of additional material, too, but for the most part, it revolves around the certain basic elements.

He asked me about hypoxia, how to prevent it, about the inner ear and what to do if a passenger experienced pain, about motion sickness, about oxygen requirements.

And he hammered me on systems.  Everything from landing gear to brakes to engines to propellers.  It helped that I had just taken my Multi-Engine Instrument test just a month ago, as much of that was still in my memory.  But you HAVE to become intimate with your airplane, for sure.

And surprise, surprise, we talked about Vmc in DETAIL!!!  I had to explain Vmc in depth and explain what all affects Vmc (center of gravity, weight, density altitudes, etc.).  I had to talk about the adverse yaw from asymmetrical thrust and how altitude affects that.  I had to talk about the loss of directional control due to reduced airflow over the rudder.  All that fun stuff!  It's true...they really do ask you what you think you are going to have to know!

And to Ken's credit, he helped me out in my explanation for my next oral exam (the Multi-Engine Instructor!).  He is a very nice guy, and he wants me to succeed, so he listened as I taught it...but then gave me pointers on how to teach it better.  Sweet!  I'll take that!

Overall, the oral was fairly straightforward.  He had a list that he went through, and we just knocked out the questions left and right!  It was pretty laid back, and we even digressed a couple of times to talk about various subjects, but I actually appreciated that!  It makes for a more-relaxed atmosphere!

Well, after about 2 1/2 hours, it was finally time to fly!  ha!  Yeah, we're only halfway done!  We went out, I preflighted the plane with him watching, and then we hopped in.  Before even starting the engines, he had me make up an actual flight plan with times and distances for a VFR flight to West Plains, Missouri.  So right there in the plane, I had to pull out my VFR chart, my plotter, and my E6-B, and figure out how long it would take us to get to a certain lake, then to Lawrence, etc.!  yikes!

We contacted tower, then headed out for departure.  Engines full throttle!

And wouldn't ya know it, he failed an engine on me.  So I immediately pulled the throttles back, went on the brakes, and came to a stop.  Very good.

"So that's how you're goin' to be, huh, Ken?!  Bring it!"  (haha...ok, so I didn't really say that, but it's the attitude you have to have on a check-ride!)

We took off, and I had to intercept my VOR radial that I had chosen on my flight plan to West Plains.  And I had to fly with my eyes outside the aircraft just like a normal VFR flight.  I had to explain where I was and how I knew where I was.  I had to check my times that I had figured out on the ground with the actual times.  Was I over the city in 12 minutes?  Was there a lake to the left of me in 7 minutes?  Stuff like that.

After that, we headed out east, and he asked me to do slow flight.  So I went through that process.  No problem.  Then I think I did turns after that (maybe steep turns???  But I don't remember!).  From there, though, we were crusing again, and he pulled my engine!  grr!

And for the next 10-15 minutes, I had to explain and go through the Vmc demonstration.  I did it a couple of times, but he wanted me to be perfect.  I was doing OK on the maneuver, but he wanted me to be tighter.  When the airplane starting buffeting, I would immediately reduce the throttle, lower the nose, and then push the throttle back in.  All too fast, I guess!

He wanted me to slow down the pushing of the throttle back in.  So we went through that procedure at least a dozen times!  But slowly.  He had me go into the Vmc demo, then reduce throttle, then fly a bit with that throttle, then gradually but consistently push in the throttle.  And, of course, this entire time I have to be on that rudder almost fully with full power, then not so full with less power!  So I am going back and forth, back and forth, on that rudder!  Over and over!  He just wanted me to keep my heading and adjust the rudder in order to do that.

But I did learn an interesting tidbit about my flying.  When I have full deflection of rudder, I nonchalantly take my opposing foot off of the other rudder.  Somewhere along the lines, I developed this bad habit, but he noticed!  (I mean, I didn't need that rudder, right, so why have my foot there?!  NO GOOD!  ha!).  He made sure that I kept it up there, and I even made the mistake of removing it TWICE!  yikes!

After that, we flew in for a landing.  Short-field.  I met the requirements for the test, but I kind of had a harder landing.  Not terrible.  But not great, either.  I bounced that nose-wheel!  grr.

We taxied back, then took off.  Short-field take-off.

And guess what!  My engine fails again somewhere out there.  So I have to fly single-engine again for awhile.  But this time I'm under the hood.  I can't see outside.  So I shoot the ILS 13 Approach down to minimums (kind of rough!), and then he tells me I'm visual.  But he tells me there is a woman walking her dog on the runway!  Stinkin' women and their dogs!

So I immediately do an aborted landing!  Single-engine!  Oh, and all the while, I have to keep contacting tower.  There is other traffic in the area, and they had to deviate our course a couple of times.  So this time, we have to go for right-traffic on the aborted take-off.  With an extended base.  So I do that.  I come back to land single-engine, and I nail that one pretty well.

And he said that was it!  Go ahead and taxi to the ramp!  (actually, I think we had another landing in there somewhere, but it tends to all run together after awhile!).

PHEW!!!  I think it was 1.3 hours total, and in all honesty, I was NOT nailing my flying that day.  I was loose on my ILS approach, I was loose on other maneuvers, and it was by far the worst check-ride I've taken in terms of my performance.  It's not that I completely messed up the maneuvers or flying, but I just knew that I was better than that.

But he said that I met the requirements, and I was now a commercial pilot!

SWEET ACTION!!!

I'm tellin' ya, it's a pretty sweet feeling.  Again, it's hard to celebrate when I know that some even tougher tests are ahead of me, but it's another step in the process.  And it's pretty exciting!

So as it stands now, I am a Commercial Pilot!  But I have quite a bit more to go!  I have my Commercial Single-Engine, my Multi-Engine Instructor, my Certified Flight Instructor, and my Certified Flight Instructor Instrument left to go!

It should be a CRAZY few weeks!

But I'm more than ready for it!  (well, for them to be over anyway!  I wouldn't say I'm ready for 'em right now!)  I'm just ready to start being paid on my flights rather than paying for my flights...yuck!  It has sure added up!

(Oh, and that picture up there was from a little flight I took out to the Grand Canyon!  So it hasn't been ALL bad!  haha.  Yeah, it's pretty sweet to be flying over a mountain pass and look out your window and see a peak higher than your wing!  Seriously!  A great trip, though.  BEAUTIFUL country out there!)

And that is what flyin' is all about!  Havin' fun!