When looking at your favorite sectional map, the most intimidating part seems to be the concentric blue lines of the Class Bravo airspace that surrounds 39 of the nations busiest airports. In Northern California, our Class Bravo airport surrounds San Francisco International (SFO), with nearly 400,000 operations in 2009. And a mere 10 nm north [...]

Day two was setting up to be a busy one. Our goal was to squeeze in two flights and get an intro to Spins and Aerobatics. With the same format as the previous day’s flight, we did a through briefing, hopped into the plane, Tim demonstrates a maneuver, Sagar demonstrates, repeat, head back to the [...]

You look outside and all you see is the ground flying past you; greens and browns all blurring into one shade. A second ago you were performing an immelman in your new Pitts Special S-2B, and now you and your plane are in a spin hurdling towards the ground. Your instincts kick in, you pull [...]

With my ticket in hand, I was ready to fly to the far reaches of the globe. Or at least as far as my Piper Cherokee could go before I had to land for fuel or return the airplane to the flying club. But before I flew away, I noticed that somewhere over the last [...]

After two weeks of trying, she reached over and offered me her congratulations on becoming the newest private pilot in the United States. But this story began years before this moment. At the young age of 10 months old, I took my first flight from India to Germany to the United States. And for as [...]

Flying to me is like being a kid and wanting to go out and play. At first you are allowed to open the door and stare outside, BUT you can’t actually go outside. This was the first few days of my training. I read the books, sat and starred at the airplane, but it was [...]

As the sun set, I did a final check of my supplies. Flight plan, sectional, watch, headlamp with a red bulb, bottle of water and a granola bar. And tonight I was going to have dinner at 3500 feet with the twinkling lights of California below me. FAR 61.109 requires private pilot applicants to have [...]

After 22 hours of flying around the skies of Palo Alto and it’s various neighboring airports, I was nearing the end of the first major phase of my flight training. Looming off in the distance was the oh so imposing “Solo” flight. Webster’s dictionary defines the noun Solo (So•lo) as “something undertaken or done alone.” [...]

Whoever said this stuff was easy obviously never spent hours at the local coffee shop reviewing hundreds of FAA test questions! Well, I am in the middle of my training and am having the time of my life. With just over 13 hours in my log book, it is safe to say that the honeymoon [...]

“Cherokee 47540, Palo Alto Tower. Cleared for take off.” And with that it was Lights-Camera-Action….Landing lights and Strobes on. Transponder to Alt. And mixture and throttle to full. Lights-Camera-Action. Roll down the runway, pull back on the yoke at 55 kts, a lil right rudder to compensate for the torque of the engine, and then [...]