On Veteran's Day, Friday, our museum hosted a Ceremony to honor a handful of local Tuskegee Airmen, from WWII. The Tuskegee were the 1st African-American pilots to fly in the US Air Corps, breaking barriers of race and discrimination along the way. They succeeded! In 2007, The Tuskegee Airmen were collectively awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their service, by President Bush. Though they were awarded, many Airmen have yet to receive their medals in-person. Many simply didn't know how (or that they even had one coming to them!) Our museum took the initiative, and located all the local Tuskegee that we could find. This included the family of F/O Leland H. Pennington, the focus of my "Lucy Gal" project (more info, here...http://www.sjfc.edu/academics/business/departments/marketing/news-detail.dot?id=3f00fa53-2ef6-44cd-aa7f-b68a8822becd, and here...https://www.facebook.com/Tuskegee-P-51-Lucy-Gal-Project-Geneseo-NY-164292383635429/)
F/O Leland "Sticks" Pennington
My job, for the event, was to be the chauffer for Mr. Herbert Thorpe, and his daughter. Mr. Thorpe flew as a member of the Tuskegee Airmen, during WWII, and piloted the B-25 "Mitchell." He entered service just as the war was ending, so he did not see combat. Instead, he stayed state-side and trained other pilots. Herbert currently lives in Rome, NY, and I had initially planned to fly out there to pick his party up. I thought that it would have been rather cool to have flown with a Tuskegee Airman! Sadly, the weather did not agree, so I drove. Luckily, I had my co-pilot Charlie H. with me, as he wanted to meet Mr. Thorpe and attend the ceremony as well. The trip was a blast!
The event itself was very well attended, and we were all very surprised and happy with the turnout. (See, here: http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/tuskegee-airmen-receive-congressional-gold-medal-43458989) For me, it was a true honor to be able to be a small part of the whole thing. The best part? Herbert wants me to come back to Rome soon, and take him flying! I think I can manage that. ;-)
On Saturday, the weather vastly improved, and I took advantage of it by flying the PA28-200R Arrow. I flew solo, and did a few Commercial Maneuvers for good measure. I did a few Chandelle's, a Lazy-8, and then a Steep-Spiral. All the maneuvers went pretty well, for someone who is in my shoes while training (waiting on CFI availability.) I looked at the flight as a "rough-draft" of CPL maneuvers, just to get the "feel" for them. I feel like I accomplished this.
CPL Training Flight Summary: 11/12/16
Goin' solo...
Cruisin' along in the Arrow, out to the practice-area...
CPL Training Flight Summary: 11/12/16
1.) Chandelle's
2.) Lazy-8s
3.) Steep-Spiral
GoPro shot of my Chandelle's! :-)
This AM, I did roughly the same thing as Saturday, a "dry-run" of the Commercial Maneuvers. This time, however, I flew with Charlie for some perspective/insight. As I mentioned in the last post, Charlie is a very competent Arrow flier, and also will be a CFI soon. He is in a great position to mentor me as I prep for my Commercial ticket. Today, we focused on doing the following...
- Soft-Field Takeoff @ KROC
- Soft-Field Landing @ 7G0 (Brockport)
- Short-Field Takeoff @ 7G0 (Brockport)
- Chandelle's
- Lazy-8s
- Steep-Spiral
- Short-Field Landing @ KROC
CPL Training Flight Summary: 11/13/16
The winds were very stiff, today, with gusts nearing 30 KTS. This made the maneuvers quite tricky, particularly the Lazy-8s. However, practicing these things in adverse conditions makes me all that much better at them when the weather is "normal," (or, as normal as WNY WX gets!) Overall, I flew pretty good. Charlie seemed content with my work, and told me that the maneuvers will be second nature to me shortly, the way I'm progressing. I am very thankful for his help!
Until next time, "Keep 'Em Flying," and "Never, Never, Never Give Up."
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