My Aviators - My Journey as a Woman Pilot

Location: KDVN Local
Weather: KDVN 071452Z AUTO 36009KT 10SM CLR 16/10 A3026 RMK AO2 SLP248 T01610100 51010 PWINO $
Runway in Use: 03

Time got away from me this summer and I haven't been up flying in almost 6 weeks. I didn't really have time to go today either but the longer I wait the less safe I feel. I know that I am a good pilot and if I just settle down and fly the plane everything goes smoothly, but I also have a bad habit of over thinking things and being extremely self critical.

Anyway, today went great. I went in just wanted to get some time in and enjoy the beautiful day. I took off on runway 3 and headed to the north climbing to 2500 feet. I leveled off and enjoyed some scenery. Everything looked beautiful this morning. The fields are green, the light was great and I was once again reminded of how amazing it is to be a pilot. I try to hold on to that feeling because someday I am sure I will think of it as common place to be up in the air floating around and it certainly isn't commonplace. Knowing that just a little over a 100 years ago people didn't even think it was possible to fly reminds me of what a miracle it really is to be up there.

I did a few ground reference maneuvers and flew over the wapsi river for a while. I turned back to the south and headed back to the airport to get in a few times around the pattern. I was very disappointed in my approaches last time I was up. This time my first approach was a bit messy because I was very close on downwind to avoid a plane departing on the the cross runway (33). But I extended my downwind a bit and got her stabilized and made a very nice landing. The next three were just as good, I even got a "very smooth" from 874MA while he was waiting to depart during one of my landings :)

Cross winds have been a bit of a nemesis for me during my time as a pilot. Today there were a few times where the wind was probably a bit closer to 33 and it was about 10kts most of the time I was up. I concentrated on lining the plane up and less on where and how much wind there was, what I found was that if I stop thinking so damn much about the wind that it really isn't that hard to get the correct crab in for landing :) Note to self, stop thinking so damn much!!!

Today was good, can't wait to do it again! Also, there will be some exciting news on the blog next week, be sure to stop back and read it!

Duration of Flight:.8
Total Flight Hours:92.0