Jack Wright blog

Today I flew from Laconia and did a local solo flight around the area. I climbed out to 3000 feet then did lower on and off stalls. Then I went over the lake and flew around for a while before returning to Laconia. I did five takeoffs and landings. Some of them were short field and soft field takeoffs. The landings went well and there was a decent crosswind. 

This week was primarily focusing on studying for the private pilot knowledge test which I am planning on taking in the next month. While I am also approaching 30 hours of flight time. The minimum amount is 40 hours however most people complete the certificate in 50-70 hours. I have been studying each day for the private pilot knowledge test for one hour to two hours a day. This week I also had the opportunity to fly to Las Vegas and back. This was a good preview of what could potentially be my career in the future. It’s always good to see airline operations. Before each flight I was able to visit the cockpit and talk with the pilots about their careers. Even though my parents are both captains at United it is always good to talk and network with other pilots. This is incredibly important because it is always a good idea to now as many pilots as possible. I talked with the Delta pilot and told them i'm planning on going to Auburn University which has a Delta airlines flight program.

Today I flew as a passenger from Boston Logan International over to McCarran airport in Las Vegas. I flew onboard a Delta Airlines Boeing 737-800. It’s always good to watch the procedures and ways airlines operate. The registration for this aircraft was N3755D. There was slight delay due to a disabled aircraft on the runway that required a tug. We couldn’t use any other runways because we were slightly heavy so the engines shut down and we waited for 4R. After no time we were en route to Vegas. Always good to watch the airline side of aviation. I returned on JetBlue onboard an airbus A321. 

I flew from Laconia to Concord. The winds were light and i I was able to head over to concord to gain some experience. I dialed in the concord vor and used that as a my nav source even though it was not needed for the short flight over to concord. The weather was nice and I did a straight out departure off of runway 26 then turned to the south east. I flew to concord then did a few landings before returning to Laconia. I did two more landings at Laconia before heading back to the barn. I did the securing checklist and called it a day.  

Today I flew from Laconia over to Concord. This flight was intended to just gain some experience on flying into different airports. I used the concord vor as my nav source even though it wasn’t necessary for getting to concord. I departed off runway 26 and departed straight out to the southwest. I went into concord did a few landings and then returned to Laconia and did a few landings. I then completed my post flight checklist and returned home.

Today I flew solo in the pattern. I was supposed to do a local solo but was unable due to the ceiling never raising above 2500 ft. Instead I did 7 landings on 26. These were very productive and required me to focus more because the PAPI lights were not working. All large airports and most small airports have PAPI lights. These lights assure pilots that’s they are on glide slope. 2 white and 2 reds means the aircraft is on glide slope. 4 white means way too high and 4 red means way to low. 3 white 1 red means a little high and 3 red and 1 white mean slightly low.