Looking To The Sky

Update: IFR Ground, Airplane Buying, Flying

It’s been a while since I last posted and I wanted to give an update to some things that I’ve been working in related to being a pilot.

IFR Ground

It’s been two months since I started ground training for my IFR license.  I’ll admit, it’s been going slowly.  Mainly that’s because of my schedule with work and life.  I told myself I would make going for my IFR license my main priority, but I haven’t.  I work full-time, and that requires the majority of my attention and at times, requires me to go out of town.  On top of work, I also have a large set of friends I care a lot about and make time to see.  Sometimes a bit too much.  Lastly, I play sports like kick ball and bowling.  Though not huge time takers, they do take precious hours I could be using for studying.

Because of all these things I keep doing, I only have a little time here and there to spend studying.  That, going forward, isn’t going to be enough to finish my ground training and start flying again.

Here’s to making a big mental shift and actually making studying and training a major priority.

Airplane Buying

Along with going for my IFR license, I’m in the works, as mentioned in other posts, to buy an airplane.  Now that I’ve been able to get financing secured, we need to find a plane.  At the beginning, we had a made-up budget and idea of what plane we wanted to get, and as the time has gone on, we’ve been able to really narrow down what the plane will cost us, and what we’re wanting in a plane.

Budget: <$60,000

Wants:

• Cessna 177B or 172/180 conversion
• SMOH <1000 hours
• Year 1970 or later
• Lycoming O-360 (180hp)
• Had an annual in the last 6 months
• Is flown regularly (not inactive for years)
• Located in the US
• Good/Excellent Interior
• Garmin GPS console
• IFR certified
• Constant speed prop
• Useful Load of at least 898lbs

I’m hopeful that we can find something that matches the above in our budget.  If you know of anything, let me know!

Flying

It had been since the end of October since I last went flying.  On Monday (3/28), I went out to Gorge Winds and took N5201H around the pattern to get some take-offs and landings.  The weather started pretty cloudy with ceilings of 3,000 feet, but after my flight the sun really started to poke through the clouds and it turned out to be a pretty nice day.

I’m so excited to start flying again – perhaps you’ll join me!

Categories: Buying An Airplane, Flights, Instrument Rating Completion

Tags: Cessna 172, flying, IFR, KTTD, N5201H, Solo, VFR

Why Buy An Airplane? Mt. St. Helens with Melissa, Tomas, and Kristen