Monthly Archives: April 2013

Sun ‘n a whole lotta Fun.

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P-51D Mustang “Crazy Horse”

POSITION: KLAL (Lakeland Regional Airport, FL)

This past week I went to Sun ‘n Fun, the second largest airshow in the nation! It was a ton of fun and I definitely went back to my dorm with a not-so-fun sunburn. I met a ton of interesting pilots, saw unique aircraft I have never seen before and I was exposed to so many different sides of aviation all at once. THIS was aviator heaven- and a definite perk of going to school on the East Coast. Enjoy the photos!

P-51 Mustang

AOPA Tent

Cessna Booth

Cessna Caravan cockpit

Titan T-51 (3/4 scale P-51)

As you can see, I definitely enjoyed the airshow. This week is my last week of the semester here at Embry-Riddle. I have two papers due and six tests on the clock. Not to mention, packing up my stuff and shipping some back to California! I’ve got a fun summer planned ahead- full of aerobatic flying, working with my sponsor Scheyden Precision Eyewear, and a possible internship opportunity back home in San Diego! I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

More on the horizon!
Blue Skies ✈

Hunks o’ Horsepower.

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(KEVB) @ New Smyrna Balloon and Sky Festival

UPDATE: This past week has been chock-full of homework, Greek Week extravaganzas for ΣΣΣ , studying for the Commercial Pilot written and oh yeah, vintage aircraft! After quite a few chilly weeks here (yes, it gets cold in Florida), it’s finally starting to warm up and some nice CAVU weather is on the way! This week is also Sun ‘n Fun and I am so excited to attend! It is the 2nd largest airshow in the nation aside from Oshkosh and I am finally on the east coast to see it. Expect loads and loads of photos and me talking (and writing) my head off about it. So, if you see me around school this week, stay away! 😛
 

DC-7

The most beautiful airplane ever made.                P-51 Mustang

T-6 Texan; this airplane will forever hold a place in my heart

Patty Wagstaff

Aerial torpedoes in the belly of a B-25

Checking out those airplane guts

Ever Forward ΣΣΣ

We had our new member initiation today! We gained four new beautiful Sigma sisters 🙂

Something I realized after reflecting back on this past busy week: We all have these alarm clocks that we tend to worry about as we go throughout our days. Getting this done, having to do that, wanting to do this, hoping to do that. Living life like a checklist. Working hard so we can get to our play faster. Normally, when we hear an alarm go off, it brings negative reminders of things we have to get done that day. But what if for once, you lived in the now and saw each alarm as another chance to be the best version of yourself? If you allow yourself to see every day as a new chance, a new horizon, your alarm clock is no longer a dreaded sound- but rather a beckoning call to be the most alive, passionate, extraordinary you. You’re either in full HP or you’re not. After all, who wants to go through life with a coughing, dull engine? Get up tomorrow, today, or whenever you read this and take it as an opportunity to be alive.The start is now.

See you at Sun ‘n Fun

✈

Spring Break has come and gone. Now for the home stretch!

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Spring Break is now over, and we are down to the last month of school before finals and summer break.  I can’t believe just how quickly time has flown over this past year and I am weeks away from completing my freshman year of college.  If I went to another school, I don’t think I would have learned as much about flying airplanes, meeting airshow performers, or sharing the passion of flight with all my friends.

During spring break, I went home and enjoyed a week of home cooking and relaxation.  I spent most of the week in the workshop getting my new Control-line contest plane polished and ready to fly.  The weather was too cold to run the engine, but I’ll be able to do that in a couple of weeks when summer break comes around.

Since spring break has ended, I have been out flying my CarbonZ Yak54 with the RC club on campus a couple times a week.  Now that it doesn’t get dark until 8pm, I’m able to get a few flights out of it before the darkness of nighttime sets in.  I have now learned how to fly rolling circles and rolling loops with it.

On the full size flight training side, I needed a couple refresher flights to shake the rust off from spring break, and now am hoping to get signed off for my check-ride by next weekend.  I grounded myself because I’m currently battling a cold.  I learned my lesson the hard way of why not to fly when you have any sort of congestion.  On my solo cross country to Melbourne, I had a very mild cold, and even then, I felt like my head was going to explode when I was on descent.

The next two weekends I am planning on traveling to West Palm Beach for the Barrett-Jackson collector car auction, New Smyrna Balloon and skyfest, and Sun ‘N Fun. I am looking forward to attending these events and will hit on the highlights for the next entry.

‘Till next time, fair skies and light winds.

Becoming an Eagle

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“When it rains, most birds head for shelter; the Eagle is the only bird that, in order to avoid the rain, starts flying above the cloud…”  Author Unknown

There may be a point in time while in school that everything will seem difficult with no end in sight. Life is going to find a way to test you. At times, you may feel that this is unfair. The urge to quit during these times are the highest but don’t give in. At this point you have to tell yourself: it’s not about how good you are, but how bad you want it. Whatever your dream is, if it’s important to you, then fight for it. Just remember that there is more than one way to achieve your dreams. If one way doesn’t work, just change your strategy.

Follow your heart

Never giving up doesn’t mean you keep doing the wrong things over and over, it means to be smart and figure out the correct actions to take and then taking them until you achieve your dreams.

This semester has proven to be challenging to me, but the challenge is well worth it. In choosing to become an Eagle, I have taken the oath, the chance, the challenge to soar above the limits of normality. Each student here has their own their own desires out of life. Me? I choose the forecast my future for clear skies, and engineer my flight to the stars and beyond.

As Lanston Hughes once said, “Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”

 

The Road Less Traveled

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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the path less traveled by… that has made all the difference.”      -Robert Frost

If you get a chance? take it. If it changes your life? let it. Live the life you want to live. Be the person you’ll be proud of being. Make decisions. Make mistakes.

I have always been one to push forward in life, never looking back with a second glance. Everything I have done from the time I could talk — read — write, was for my future. I have dared to be different, chosen to believe that everything happens for a reason and stepped away from the “crowd.”

Prior to having dreams which put me behind the engineering of a shuttle, I had the dream to predict the future and forecast. From the time I woke up to the time I would fall asleep as a child, the weather forecast would remain on my TV screen. Even in college I do not regret to confess the majority of the applications on my iPhone are regarding weather forecasts — models — severe weather outlook, and others.

Hurricane Ivan

With this background information, you can only began to understand my underlying excitement with the following news: This past week I am very proud to say I was offered the opportunity to job shadow the meteorologist team of the WRAL channel five news cast in Raleigh, North Carolina! Having an applied meteorology minor and a “slight” weather obsession, (aside from coming to Embry-Riddle) made this easily one of the greatest opportunities I have yet to receive.