After I did what I had to do, I made a right into the airport road. I have been seeing small single prop planes practicing over the house a lot. I know many of them are coming from IJD. So many of them are Cessnas, like the one I used to fly. Secretly, I have been getting the itch to get back up in the air lately. I am not going to tell that to anyone though.

Looking through fence at Windham Airport

Airplane taking off from Windham Airport

Looking through fence at Windham Airport

The driving area at this airport is quite small. I am used to all the roads going through Orange County Airport. Basically, I drive in, make a right and park. That’s it. I would like to find a spot to watch the planes taking off and landing…without a big fence in front of me.

So, I stopped in the parking lot and took a few pictures. There are two runways at this airport and they are pretty good size. I saw what I wanted to and then left.

On the way out, I read a sign that said something like, “Airport monitored by cameras at all times.” I thought, “Great, there I am taking random pictures of who knows what.” Maybe they got me on camera. I really don’t think I am the only one who would take pictures at an airport, right?

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I remember this event well. Hmmm…

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It was a great day. Unfortunately, I took these videos with my old camera. They are kind of pixelated and there is no sound. You get the idea.

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I wasn’t sure about the safety. I didn’t wear my watch because of this. Yeah, I didn’t wear my watch worth about $100, but I brought my laptop. Whatever. I thought we were going to land and kind of be on our own. I thought the trip to the resort was going to be through some back woods jungle with people trying to stop us to mug us. Some was true, some wasn’t.

After landing at Punta Cana Airport, we all hopped off the airplane. We were organized into a group and walked into the inside of the terminal. Getting off the plane wasn’t as big of a shock as if it would’ve been if it was February. The temperature was about 88 degrees, but very humid. It wan’t much different than up here, just a lot more humid. I mean huuuuuuuumid.

We walked into the terminal to be greeted by someone taking our picture. The first sale. Well, we didn’t buy it, but that gave us a hint of what we were in for. We went through that line and had to show our passports and purchase a tourist card for $10. We took a few more steps and showed our passport to someone else who took the tourist card from us. Well, there goes our first $10. A few of us were more than suspicious about where the heck our $10 just went. Whatever…moving on.

I have to say, the terminal was very cool. It was open and airy and the roof was made of palm. You could feel the wind flow right through the place. We went to claim our baggage. I found Laura’s but couldn’t find mine. I bit later on, Laura discovered that someone had kindly taken my suitcase off the conveyor belt and left it on the ground. Nice guy, I’m sure.

After getting our baggage, we were swarmed by a bunch of guys who wanted tips. They would grab your bags and walk them to another room. They wanted your money. I gave the first guy a few bucks, but handled my own bags after that. If I gave everyone money who wanted it, I would be broke. Everyone was very nice though. Not much danger, just a bunch of people who wanted tips. If you are into having things done for you, this is the place.

We found the bus that would bring us to Iberostar Bavaro in Punta Cana. Here is the actual resort page.

The bus we got onto was parked near what seemed to be a thousand other buses. We gave the driver our baggage and boarded the bus. There weren’t too many people on it. We were heading to the resort.

The bus was an old diesel with what seemed to be an interesting transmission. Some of the vehicles need a little maintenance. The resort was 22km away and the trip took about 40 minutes, I would guess. I didn’t have a watch on. We drove along the beginnings of a highway. I would see the big signs with pictures of what’s to come. Punta Cana is under construction. It was kind of neat bouncing around in the back of the bus heading to who knows what.

We passed a bunch of what many people would consider not so nice areas. Even right outside the resort, I said to Laura, “I am not too impressed.”

Next…the resort.

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I took so many photos during this trip that I decided I am going to break them up into a bunch of little posts. The reason for this is to give some information. Before we left for this trip, we had so many questions. Now, we have some answers. I just hope I can remember everything.

Anyway, the first part of the trip to Punta Cana was the airplane ride from Stewart International Airport (SWF) to Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). The second part of getting there was the airplane ride from Philadelphia to Punta Cana Airport (PUJ).

Now, I know there aren’t too many people out there who care about our airplane ride, but I did see some pretty neat things. Here are some photos and descriptions below…

This photo is of our takeoff from Stewart. We took off on runway 27 heading West. We took off in a Dash 8 Turboprop. The flight was pretty short getting to Philadelphia, but I had my camera ready in my hand. I was a bit leary of the turboprop, but I really liked it once we were on. Those props are pretty damn strong. The plane has nice pull for takeoff.

After we had some altitude, we passed over Walden, NY. I remember this town, because during one of my flights, I passed over and asked what that cute little town on the river was.

After passing over the Shawangunk Ridge, I spotted Joseph Y Resnick Airport in Ellenville, NY. I just thought that was a pretty cool photo.

Remember the trip Laura and I took almost to Frost Valley? Along the way on that trip, we saw the Rondout Reservoir. Here is a photo of it from the air.

We also saw the Neversink Reservoir from the air as well.

This is really cool. I have been waiting to post this photo the whole trip. It is the first time I ever saw live wind turbines (from the air and from the ground). Towards the right, there was a whole row of them, but the second photo didn’t come out that great. I think this was in Pennsylvania somewhere.

This photo was taken during our approach to Philadelphia Airport. I am not sure of the runway, but the final approach went over the river.

We took off from Philadelphia on an Airbus 320a. This was a pretty good plane. It is smaller than some other jetliners but flew very well. After leaving Philadelphia, almost the whole flight was over the Atlantic Ocean, so there wan’t much point of taking photos of nothing. We had to re-route three times due to the weather. We didn’t hit much turbulence. The photo above is one over Punta Cana (inland a bit). I kept seeing these sticks coming out of the ground and later realized they were palm trees. Also, I saw a bunch of white animals that I learned were goats. Punta Cana is a different place.

I brought my laptop on this trip and hoped to use it. The first time I had a little time to take it out and turn it on was while waiting for our flight out of Stewart. I thought I connected to the internet, but was brought to a page asking for about $7 to use their internet access. I turned the computer off a little agitated. I thought airports had good internet, not something I was going to have to pay almost $7 to use for about ten minutes. Oh well.

We landed without incident in Punta Cana to only be welcomed by a blast of hot air…

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The conditions were confirmed for me at the end of the lesson when Yigal told me to tie down the airplane with all three ropes. Breezy? Maybe.

This lesson was scheduled for 3 hours. I was supposed to go up for a cross country with Yigal for two hours and then practice solo for the last one. Well, let’s just say that plan didn’t work out.

I called the “Oh so accurate” weather briefers. Ummm, 8 knots of wind at 3,000ft. Good! Great day for a cross country to East Stroudsburg, PA. It was only 49.4 nautical miles away, but we would fly more than 50.

On the way to the runway, while taxiing, we waved to another guy and took a picture of his plane.

We started talking on the radio and agreed to fly in formation with him after takeoff for a few good shots. Most were blurry, but one came out good.

It was good to get some nice shots. It was important for me to get some pictures during this lesson because I have virtually no photo archive of anything that I am doing.

I had everything set up fine…the VOR, the frequencies…everything except the GPS. I wanted to fly by only VOR this time, just for practice. The GPS is very helpful, but there may be too much of a reliance on it. Well, I made it to the VOR station and changed course, just like I was supposed to.

I continue on past Port Jervis and kept with the Delaware River and passed by some beautiful land. I never knew it was this nice in Pennsylvania. I always just dismissed the state. I have no idea why.

Anyway, Yigal started asking me when I would know when I was at the airport. I told him I was aware of where I was because of the river features. There was a zig zag in the river and I was looking at it on the map as well as out the window. Also, I would see the airport. A lot of them are visible from 20 miles away. Well, as it turns out, the river feature I was looking at turned out to be the wrong one. Also, the airport was like someone’s driveway, surrounded by houses. I had no idea that it was that small. I flew right over it. Yigal kept trying to give me hints, like, “Oh, look at that big break in the mountian where the river runs through it” and “Check out that bridge.” I kept wondering what the heck he was talking about because the airport was nowhere in sight.

I was lost.

There were a few options. I could use ATC for radar vectoring, which is embarassing, especially when you are flying right over the airport or you could use your navigation equipment. I decided to use the two VOR instruments to locate where I was. I did find an airport and thought it was the one, but it had big “X’s” on the runway. Also, the runway direction was off. Finally, I found the little, tiny runway, hidden down in the woods. I could almost see Stewart from where I was, 50 miles away, but couldn’t see the airport I was right on top of. I decided to descend for a landing on the 30ft wide runway.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, the weather briefing was wrong. The wind and turbulence up there were horrible. A few times, I thought the plane was going to go vertical. My altitude was going from 4,500 to 4,900 to 3,900 in a matter of minutes. It was crazy. The turbulence over the airport was bad too.

We flew the pattern to come in for a landing. I was on final approach and doing ok. The trees were right under me, but that wasn’t a big concern. I came in for my landing and the wind took me all over the place. Yigal had to take over and land. That pretty much sucked. He wanted me to land at this airport, so I took off again for another one. This time, there was just no way…we were running out of runway. We made a go-around for another try. Success…I finally did it. If I was alone, I would’ve just flown back to Orange County without landing.

With that done, We took off to head back home. I did my stuff after a little tif with the Allentown ATC guy. I asked him to repeat something and he told me to listen up next time. If I ever meet him in person, I would like to have a short chat. From about 20 miles away, I saw MGJ and flew toward it, getting bounced around the whole time.

I came in for an easy landing on runway 3 at Orange County. Oh so smooth, until at the last second an unexpected gust took me to the right. Yigal landed the plane. I taxied back and felt like crap.

I have to say that I am getting very tired. I mean literally. I think the pollen in the air is making me sleepy. I need a few weeks off just to get motivated again.

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This was another good lesson, although unexpected. I was scheduled to practice solo at the airport on Sunday, but Donna called with an opening with Dan for Saturday afternoon. Apparently, all his morning lessons cancelled.

I took advantage of the situation for a nice cross country up to Great Barrington (GBR). Everything was pretty straightforward. I did just fine on all my radio communications (now that I have some tips) as well as the VOR navigation. It was a good time. We flew right over the Berkshires and past Catamount ski area to land at the airport for a very short touch and go…the runway is only 2,500ft long. Also, there was some turbulence while going over the mountains.

On the way back, I flew at 6,500ft, my highest so far. The mountains were pretty high, so I wanted to be sure I was high enough. We made it back to Orange County without anything unexpected, besides of course Dan pulling the throttle on me for an emergency landing. That went smoothly for my third cross country!

I think I will fly to Stewart by myself soon and then start my solo cross countries.

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You may have noticed that I took out the “Lesson Number” in the title of this post. I mean really, who cares what number lesson it is anyway? Also, it was making the title too long.

I had a “practice” scheduled for 4:30 today, but the weather was marginal, so I took a long lunch to get some time in. It turned out well, so this may become a habit.

This was the first time I drove over, did my pre-flight, taxied and took off with no help from anyone. I liked it. My previous solos were always warmed up for with an instructor. Not for any particular reason, that’s just the way it happened. I feel like a have a bit more freedom now. I’m not sure if Montgomery, NY is comfortable with me flying over them all by myself.

I made a total of five takeoffs and landings today. The air was like flying on butter. Smooooth. All good takeoffs and all good landings…besides that little bounce, but if no one else saw the bounce, did it really happen? I don’t think so.

On a side note…I feel myself losing motivation. It may be the cloudy winter blues. I notice that right after I fly, I am really pumped up, but if there is a few days in between, I fizzle. I think perhaps the warm spring sunshine will get me back into shape. I know I want to do this, I just need to make some friends with other students and to start flying around with people. I am thinking of making some website schedule or something like that. Actually, I am going to push Donna to do this.

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This was a great lesson. I wanted to get in there to ease my concerns about a few things. Remember what happened during my last lesson? Well, this time I wanted to get in some landings, go-arounds and some no flap landings.

Yigal was already booked up, so I went up for an hour with Dan. He is good at chilling out and letting me do my thing. He probably thinks I am crazy because he really doesn’t need to correct anything during the whole lesson.

I made my first landing and he looked at me. He said, “So, what’s the problem?” I told him that I was probably going to be fine since I have been thinking about my problems for about a week. He understood. I did a few landings and then, during one, he told me to go around. I was happy to and it was pretty simple. Also, he pulled the throttle for an emergency engine-out landing. I did that one fine so he made me go around before touching down.

Dan then asked if I have ever done a no flap landing. I told hime that I hadn’t, so we did one. It is generally the same as a regular landing, but you have to come in slightly faster and lower. That was pretty cool coming in that fast.

Well, I have to say that it was a great lesson. No screw ups…awesome weather and no wind. What more can you ask for?

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Remember way back, when you were going to elementary school, your teacher would use examples to help you remember things? Here is a good one to remember the planet names:

My: Mercury
Very: Venus
Educated: Earth
Mother: Mars
Just: Jupiter
Served: Saturn
Us: Uranus
Nine: Neptune
Pizza pies: Pluto

Well, I think there needs to be a few for Private Pilots when flying. After bumbling through radio communications for a while, I started to make up tricks to help me remember what needs to be done with flying in general. Below is a list…I am going to add more as I think of them…and please feel free to add your own.

- Airports on aeronautical charts – blue for towered and magenta for non-towered – just think of a guy in a blue uniform sitting in the tower.

- Magnetic deviation on a compass – on a northerly heading, making a turn will make the compass lag. Just think of north as your kids…always lagging behind.

- Radio communications – this is a big one – just remember when initiating a radio call, you need to say four things…distance, altitude, where you are going and what you want. From, height, where and what.

After initiating contact in class D airspace, you would say, “I am 2 miles north of the field, 2,500 feet, heading in for a landing with information sierra.”

Another example would be for entering class E airspace. “I am 5 miles west of Stewart, 4,500 feet, heading towards Columbia County via the Kingston VOR and am requesting flight following.”

When entering class G airspace to land at a non-towered airport, you say, “I am 5 miles east of the field, 3,500 feet, will be entering the pattern on a 45 for a landing on runway 21.”

Sometimes your communication doesn’t fall exactly in the proper order, but just remember that you need to say four things.

When repeating information back to ATC, just remember the facts. They will tell you what seems like 20 things. Just repeat back what matters. Say, “Four Delta Sierra, right hand pattern, runway 29 with the option.” You don’t need to put this statement into a wonderfully written sentance.

- Taxiing – When taxiing, drive like you are in England…the other side of the road.

Please feel free to add to this list as a comment. I will place your tip in the post.

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