Lessons 4, 5 and 6

It seems like I have done more than just 6 lessons overall.  I think that has a LOT to do with the amount of information being thrown at me. (And the amount of time I spend doing ground school and practicing things).  It is all so foreign and yet interesting...well, at least I find it interesting.

For instance...I'm learning the phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta...etc) which though I know it, recalling these items in an instant isn't second nature to me yet.  I'm learning how to contact, Clearance, Ground, Tower, Departure -- all different contacts that must be made (in an airport the size of Lincoln) before I can take off.  Again, these are just the contacts BEFORE I leave...not once in the air and then when I desire to come back.  It's like learning a whole new language but though I'm frustrated I'm not grasping it faster -- I love it.  It's so crazy because you have to get a TON of information to Clearance, Ground, Tower and Departure with the fewest amount of words...something that....if you know me at all is a difficult task!  Why use 5 words when you can use 100?

Yesterday's lesson focused on weather -- which was apropos since the wind kept us grounded.  We worked on a simulator as well.  I liked that because my instructor could "pause flight" and we could discuss what I was doing wrong and how to fix.  He also gave me some words of encouragement as I'm sure he could tell I was frustrated -- I want to learn and do it right and I'm impatient.  He told me, "Don't look at this as you have failed when you make a mistake -- you aren't failing you're learning."  Sweet words from a kid who is only 23 years old.  Oh yeah, did I mention that?  My instructor is 23 YEARS OLD!!!!!  He wasn't even born when I was taking my first lessons in high school!!

But I digress...

Something else besides learning new phrases to speak, abbreviations, and a new alphabet is directions on a compass.  You know when pilots or others say they have a 270 heading?  Do you know what that means?  Well, let me teach you!  Think of a compass (if you'll notice I kindly provided a picture of one above) As we all know, a compass is round like a circle.  How many degrees are in a circle? 360.  Therefore all the directions are broken down into numbers not just North, South, East and West.  North is 360, South is 180, East is 90 and West is 270.  All the other directions are just the numbers in between.  So if Tower tells me to maintain a 270 heading they want me to continue to fly west.  Maybe you're brilliant and already knew this information (it was news to me...) but did you also know that runways are named based off the direction they are pointing?  So, at the Lincoln Airport there is a runway named/labeled 35.  (Oh and here's another "fun" thing pilots and others in aviation do...they don't say full numbers when talking -- you just assume a LOT of the time you know what is being talked about so they drop the last zero off...fun little trick isn't it? Because why when you're talking about 350 wouldn't you just say 35?  It makes sense, right? Ugh...) Anyway the runway is pointed in a NW direction (350 degrees) so it is named 35.  And finally, if I haven't wowed you enough with my limited aviation knowledge here's some more.  Since all these directions are based off magnetic north and that changes just a titch about every 10 years -- sometimes these runways have to be renamed.  So 35 could become 34. Mind blown, right?

I will say I think I "might" have impressed my instructor with my limited weather knowledge yesterday.  Teaching 8th grade meteorology is finally paying off!  I knew what the fronts were (cold, warm, stationary) and why all weather moves east and what the Coriolis effect was.  Which got me thinking again (I had had this thought previously with other information taught...) if I had got my private pilots license BEFORE becoming a teacher I could have made so many of my science lessons SO MUCH COOLER!!! And I totally would have brought this into the classroom.  But then, had I got my private pilots license at 18 like I wanted, I likely would have gone on and become a pilot and never even taught in the classroom...because it's so freaking cool.

Until next flight!