This post archives the early years of my flying. It started in 2018 during an internship at AMD Research in Austin, Texas, where I was working on supercomputers. I met a senior engineer there who had built his own RV-9. That conversation was the beginning of everything. From that point I was captivated by the idea of building a plane at home. To actually start building and understand the lexicon of plans and flight, I needed at least a PPL. What follows is a record of getting there, and more.
Bloomington, Indiana. 2020.
It was the beginning of the pandemic. I was in Bloomington, Indiana, working toward my PhD. Remote work and a couple of remote internships at AMD and Intel gave me time, mobility, and money to pursue a PPL. There was a Cessna 150 at BMG Aviation and I signed up.
The airplane was N66591. Red and white, high-wing, two seats, all steam gauges. I spent months in that cockpit. Talking to controllers was intimidating and bizarre at first. Finding runways from far out was the second hardest thing. Along with all of that I had to actually fly the airplane and learn to read the weather.
Preflight on N66591. The ritual before every flight.
The flight deck of N66591. Checklist in hand.
On the 9th of November 2020, I flew solo for the first time. The instructor stepped out and told me the plane was mine now, and that it would feel lighter without his weight. I tell myself that is why the first of the two landings was bouncy.
November 9, 2020. First solo. N66591 and a clear Indiana sky.
Solo cross-country as a student pilot. KBMG to KLWV (Lawrenceville, IL). Part of the PPL training requirements.
The Seasons from Above
Indiana from the air is a quilt. Section lines run perfectly north-south and east-west, the legacy of the Land Ordinance of 1785, and from two thousand feet you can see the geometry of the whole country laid out below you. In autumn the fields go amber and rust. In winter they go white and the towns glow orange at sunset.
Early October 2021. Looking for fall colors over Bloomington. Not quite yet.
Autumn over Indiana. The sun going down through the strut.
Winter. Snow on the ground, the sun a red disc at the horizon.
Cross-country over the Indiana grid. The wheel without pants in the frame, the fields below.
October 23, 2021. Flying over Bloomington to see the fall colors. Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
November 6, 2021. Fall colors over Bloomington, Indiana. Sanu Ik Pal Chain Na Ave by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
The Checkride. September 25, 2021.
Passed my checkride on the beloved N66591 at BMG Aviation, Bloomington, IN. Dave Ellis helped me push towards it, very encouraging and helpful. Jim Jacobi was my examiner, very nice and cool as I answered almost all questions in the oral without looking anything up.
September 25, 2021. Jim Jacobi (left) and the temporary certificate. Dave Ellis had pushed me toward this for months.
Old Airplanes
Part of learning to fly is learning what came before. The EAA chapter in Bloomington had members who flew and maintained aircraft from another era. A yellow Piper J-3 Cub at Kokomo, fabric-covered, tail-dragger, the kind of airplane that taught a generation of pilots during the war. A Taylorcraft on the ramp, cream and red, wood propeller, the sun straight overhead. These were not museum pieces. They flew.
A Piper J-3 Cub at Kokomo, Indiana. Fabric, tube, and a Continental engine.
A Taylorcraft. The kind of airplane that makes you understand why people build them.
The Cross-Country. Bloomington to Houston.
This was before I had my PPL. My friend Siddique had moved to Houston and needed to ferry his Cessna 150 from Bloomington down to Texas. He flew it and I came along as a second set of eyes and hands. The itinerary was:
- KBMG — Monroe County, Bloomington, IN
- KOWB — Owensboro/Daviess County Regional, Owensboro, KY
- KDYR — Dyersburg Regional, Dyersburg, TN
- KCDH — Harrell Field, Camden, AR
- KMNE — Minden-Webster Airport, Minden, LA
- KASL — Harrison County Airport, Marshall, TX
- KUTS — Huntsville Municipal Airport, Huntsville, TX
- KDWH — David Wayne Hooks Memorial, Houston, TX
The route: Bloomington, IN to Houston, TX. Eight stops across five states.
The full ferry flight, KBMG to KDWH. Siddique at the controls.
Sunset over Owensboro, Kentucky. First leg south.
Somewhere over Arkansas. A field burning, smoke drifting across the section lines.
Arkansas or Louisiana. The land flattening out toward the Gulf.
Sunset on the way to Houston. The sun reflected in the wing.
With Siddique in his C150 at KDWH.
Portland, Oregon.
In August 2024 I moved to Portland to start a job at Intel, before defending my PhD in September 2024. Intel has a large presence in Hillsboro, Oregon, just west of the city. I joined EAA Chapter 105, where Richard VanGrunsven regularly attends meetings and was once its president.
I had not flown in three years and needed a biennial flight review. I was very rusty. The weather and terrain were also completely different from anything I had trained in. Indiana is flat and forgiving. Oregon is mountains, low ceilings, and rain. Pilots there train in the rain. In most places you cancel on a rainy day. In Oregon you go fly. Oregon pilots are made differently. If you ever get the chance, come out and fly with a competent instructor there.
I flew a Cessna 172 out of the Portland area. Twin Oaks Airpark, 7S3, a grass strip in the hills west of Portland, was my base for these flights. On one flight I went near Mount Hood. It was the first time I had flown near a mountain. Intimidating and beautiful at the same time. Mountain flying is very different from flatland flying and genuinely dangerous if not done with proper training and weather awareness.
At the controls. Mount Hood in the windscreen. Oregon.
Twin Oaks Airpark, 7S3. A grass strip in the Oregon hills.
Fueling the C172.
The flight deck of a Van's RV-12. The first time I sat in an RV cockpit.
Portland from the air.