AviationNewbie

So . . . tomorrow I take to the air again, but I arranged for Paragon to offer her a single flying lesson! We'll be buzzing Pine Island at about 500 feet, and probably higher as she'll get to practice banking and turning, and changes of altitude. Meanwhile, here are some pics I though would be fun to put up. The first picture is of the headset I use when I go flying. If you are unfamiliar with flying in general, everyone in a Cessna 172s needs to have headphones and a microphone (together called a "headset") to be able to talk to air traffic control and ground control on the radio, as well as to talk to each other via the intercom. I have a unique item used for this purpose - a relic from a naval aviator buddy who sent me a "Top Gun" style flying helmet! I had it retrofitted for civilian communications, and now I can plug it in and talk to everyone! Another interesting artifact is a helmet bag I procured from another naval aviator. This man flew t...

When you go flying from Page field, the scenery is unbeatable. I went up yesterday, but wasn't prepared for the wind gusts (up to 19 knots). On the agenda was multiple touch-and-go landing/takeoff maneuvers, which I did at Punta Gorda. The wind played hell with me, and as I took off for the practice session, I could just about feel the cold hand of death as a wind gust just about blew the aircraft sideways on the takeoff roll. Boy am I ever glad Harry (instructor) is one cool customer. At Punta Gorda, I did touch-and go maneuvers on runway 33, which was mostly uneventful, except on one pass, I over-flared the aircraft and hit the runway a little hard. Here's a video of a Paragon flight (not mine) scoping out the scenery in our practice area.

So . . . I decided to re-evaluate my choice of flying schools, and here's what I found. There are several flying schools in the area, but for now, I'll just mention two schools that operate out of Page Field in Fort Myers, FL. The two schools are Paragon Flight School and Beaver Aviation. Paragon Flight School has impressive facilities, an up-to date livery of mainly Cessna 172s (glass cockpit), young but experienced flight instructors, and its own maintenance hangar. The facilities are clean, modern, and instill a sense of confidence. Beaver Aviation is quite a bit different. It is a small operation with only a couple of aircraft in its livery, but features different types of planes. In addition to single engine high-wing configuration (the Cessna 172), but also low-wing (Piper), and aerobatic rated aircraft. There are no glass cockpit equipped planes, just traditional flight instruments. The flight instructors are very seasoned, and the owner has a huge bank of knowledge ...

Hello all: I'm relatively new to aviation (not really, but I've been working on my PPL forEVER and a day. Now I'm back at it! The back story is that I had gotten prepared for a solo flight, but at the time, I was unable to get an FAA health certificate. Those health concerns basically ended my quest for a Private Pilot's License. Some time elapsed, and the health concerns melted away, along with a significant amount of poundage on my body frame, so . . . I'm back in the cockpit!!!!!! I live in the Fort Myers, FL area, and that's a plus because we generally don't have weather problems, and we don't have screwy elevations to worry about. Here, we can simply report to our flying school and focus on learning how to fly the airplane without running into a mountain or having to de-ice the aircraft. So far, I have about 20 hours (when counting the hops I've made without any real instruction, but just to go up for the hell of it). Living in Fort My...