Flying As A Private Pilot

Huntington Airport, 3 miles from Mom & Dad's, where I first flew with my cousin Peter.

On February 19, 2005, after about 35 years of putting it off, I began working on getting my private pilot's certificate. It took me 57.6 hours of flying over 98 days, plus something like 96 hours of study time to earn the certificate. The cost for plane and instructor rental, supplies and study materials, headsets and a handheld radio amounted to right around $11,000. Read about flight training here. After 80 total hours, with 25 passengers (September 7, 2005) , not counting the 9 flight instructors I have flown with, flying has become almost comfortable. All in all, there has been very little fear. Of course there have been a couple moments of anxiety in the process, but I'd have to say that the pressure of being examined surpasses the pressure of flying by about ten-fold.

Resources FAA Pilot's Page Sober up: The NTSB Home Page (Including Accident Reports) The FAA Accident/Incident Data System (AIDS) Weather My METAR-derived Graphs NOAA AviationWeather.Gov Current Tropical Cyclone Info Weather Channel Honolulu Weather NOAA NWS Honolulu NOAA NWS Honolulu Aviation Weather Products Steve's Makakilo Weather KBA99 NOAA Weather Radio via Wunderground, couresy Makakilo Steve Airport Directories AirNav.com Airport/Navaid Information. Instructional Brain Dump The Contents Of Gene Whitt's Head Hawaii FBO/Plane Rental/Flight Training Honolulu Anderson Aviation: Flight Training, Plane Rentals Big Kahuna Aviation: Flight Training, Plane Rentals   (defunct? 3/2/06) Eveland Aero: Flight Training, Plane Rentals (Web site not there, 3/5/06) Flight School Hawaii: Flight Training, Plane Rentals (closed, 2010) Pacific Air Academy George's Aviation: Flight Training, Plane Rentals, Charters Pacific Aviation Academy Moore Air: Flight Training, Plane Rentals Maui: Maui Aviators: Flight Training, Plane Rentals Big Island TropicBird Flight Service: Flight Training/Plane Rentals Hawaii Flight Academy Training/Plane Rentals Big Island, Oahu, Kauai: Mauna Loa Helicopters, Helicopter Training (The only Flight training on Kaua'i)

Video C150M Flight at Huntington, IN (HHG) A compilation of small videos taken from the cockpit by my brother-in-law with the movie feature of his digital "still" camera. (15 MB MPG) 2 minutes, 35 seconds Takeoffs and landings A compilation of takeoffs and landings at Huntington Airport from the airfield, taken with a video camera. (13.4 MB WMV) 5 minutes, 18 seconds UR My Copilot Four-Part Video on YouTube. Photos Jason Hill shows how to steer by moving the DG with his finger. Various Photos From My Flight Training Photos Of Airplanes First Licensed Flight With Miles as the First Passenger Cessna 150/Balloon Flying in Indiana Flight To Maui With Sue And Miles Ami and Claire Flight To Kauai Sue & Ed Swafford, Marja Leivo (Figure 8 Around Oahu) Kualoa Army Airfield (Closed around 1944) Solo October 2 East, North Oahu Aloha Stadium Solo October 9 (First C152 Flight) Bob at Upolu Honolulu -> Maui -> Upolu Point, Big Island -> Kahoolawe -> Honolulu With Bob JRF Terminal from the 4L upwind. Solo Practice And Around Ka'ena Pt. Oahu Pearl Harbor NS, Arizona Memorial, and USS Misouri, 3 days short of 64 Years after the attack. Solo Practice And Pix Of Steve LaPorte's First Solo Flying In Indiana, 12/21/05 (18 degrees F) Flying In Indiana, 12/27/05 With Guy (Wagner) and his girlfriend Jolien January 2, 2006 Setting Foot On Moloka'i January 15, 2006 Flying A Diamond DA40 At KAEG February 04, 2006 West Mesa Aviation, Double Eagle II Airport, Albuquerque, NM Glider Instruction At Moriarty, NM (0E0) February 09, 2006 Sundance Aviation, Moriarty, NM Flying with Boris February 19, 2006 (One year to the day after my original demo flight) Tour With Ron And Sandy Jarvis March 1, 2006 Short Flight with Gert and Joe March 18, 2006 Practice With Bob April 2, 2006 Circum-Lanai May 27, 2006 April 2, 2006 General Aviation Council Hawaii Quasi-Annual Pancake Breakfast February 20, 2010 Flying and etc at KCEU with Dan Schmiedt January 29/30, 2011