Oh my... well first off, happy holidays to everyone! Break is almost over, I have one more week until I fly back to San Antonio... I have mixed feelings about going back: I want to get the semester started, and I want to enjoy spending time with my friends, but by the same token, Arizona is amazing and I want to continue to be with my family. Nevertheless, Sunday is fast approaching!

Now, what have I been up to over the break? Well, I have been studying. Studying, and more studying. Oh yea, and waking up really early (like before sunrise... while I'm on break. Yea, weird, I know). But for whattt...!??! Ha.. for my private pilot's license of course! My dad is a pilot and he and my flight instructor (a family friend of ours) own a plane. So I train on that, and have been since I was probably 10 years old. But I finally decided that I would spend the break to finally obtain my license. The first thing I had to accomplish was to complete ground school (all knowledge pertaining to flight, navigation, flying, airplanes, ratings, regulations, maps, etc, etc...) So that took me about two weeks, I read a few study guides (like those AP Barron's books, but for the PPL test) and I also watched a DVD ground school course. Finally, it was time to take the test. On the 2nd of January, at 7:00AM at Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix, I took the Knowledge/Written test for the Private Pilot's License. So the next step was to continue my training and solo. On the 5th of January, I soloed the aircraft and I made three nice soft landings. For most student pilots, their aircraft is considered standard, the one I train in, a R182, is classified as High Performance (over 200 HP) and Complex (retractable landing gear). So when I was calling the Ground Controller for clearance, the controller somewhat sarcastically told me 'good luck'... but I showed them.. hehe

In any event, I flew today, did 18 landings, and if weather permits, I will fly again tomorrow. Strange, Arizona usually warrants 330 days of good flying weather a year, and when it counts the most, it rains.... =( Oh well. Hopefully, later this week, I will go on my checkride with an FAA Examiner and pass the Practical and Oral tests (the checkride).

Here's a picture from the cockpit in-flight enjoy! (Click on it to make it larger, come on, you know you want to!!!)

I'll post back soon!!!

PS. I passed the written test, in case you were wondering. :D