TOO LONG!!!!

Sorry. Been busy. Bad excuse. I know.

Wednesday=not a ton. I'm really not remembering anything of great significance.

Thursday was pretty much the same.

Friday was different. I got a bunch of flying in this day. 3.1 hours, as a matter of fact. First, I headed off down to Dayton International Airport to take care of the three solo takeoffs and landings at a towered airport requirement for the private pilot's license requirement. I got back, and while I was planning out another flight, Mom and Dad got me a sub from Subway in Bellefontaine. After eating and finishing up the planning, it was off to Muncie, IN, which has another tower-controlled airport. A touch-and-go there, a touch-and-go at Bluffton, OH, and back home. I had a great time overall--no problems and fun flying. I learned a bunch, too.

One other really nice thing happened on Friday. Nathaniel was home! Only for about 45 minutes, but he was home. He, along with his roommate and a girl from Geneva, was going to Indiana for a week. He's been enjoying his time there so far, which is, of course, very good. :)

Saturday wasn't too active. Not a ton of stuff went on. We had a bunch of snow coming in, so I didn't fly in the morning like I was wanting to. I didn't fly at all, as a matter of fact.

Sabbath was a rather long day. We had the snow come in a lot and the winds were supposed to pick up a bunch, so we didn't have church at all. Somas from across the street came over in the evening, and we had a Psalm sing, and after supper, we all watched Chariots of Fire. As always, it was a very useful and enjoyable watch.

Monday wasn't a ton either. We headed into Bellefontaine for some stuff. School got done. That was about it.

I'm going to have to get to bed soon, so I'll finish this later. If anyone sees this before tomorrow morning, I'd appreciate prayer on something: I'm supposed to fly tomorrow, up to Defiance. Please pray that the weather would cooperate! It's looking iffy...

I'll finish the post soon.

I'm starting to slip...

I'll have to stop this trend. As you've probably noticed, the music has changed. It's now music, I guess, but not the best. This is actually a group of people trying to do it. Wow.

OK. Friday wasn't too much of anything. That's about it for then.

Saturday was busy. We had a hike with the troop around the north side of Kiser [sic] Lake, about 20 miles south of Belle Center. Melting conditions left the ground slippery, leading to several highly interesting points for me. My boots have been worn nearly smooth on the bottoms, so I can't grip the best. Slick snow/mud combining with a slope made it possible for me to ski at a few points, not all of them intended points. :P A few of us had pepperoni rolls baked in a folding oven over a propane stove. We had to eat them a bit under-cooked, since we were running out of time, but they were still great. :)

After the hike, I headed off to the airport. We got there, and I realized I didn't have the logbook, so we went home. I grabbed the logbook and we headed off to the airport again. I preflighted the airplane and headed out. About a minute after takeoff, things started getting interesting. I was about to do some maneuvering, so I checked out the engine instruments, and during my scan noticed something was wrong. I did a more thorough scan and figured out that the oil pressure was quite low--the low end of green. As I watched it for a little while, it decreased further, so I let the guy on the ground at the airport know about it and came back quickly. It turns out that occasionally some bit of crud of some sort or the other gets in and starts blocking the oil lines. I only got .2 hours in, but the airport manager didn't charge me a cent since the plane had mechanical problems. I never panicked and my heart rate really didn't rise any, but, judging from the way I felt afterwards, I'm thinking that I had a bunch of adrenaline pumping through.

Later that evening, Belle Center had the horse-drawn wagon rides to look at the lights around town. I ended up going with a couple families from church. Even though it was slightly drizzling, the whole thing was pretty fun. After getting home, I collapsed and went to sleep before much longer.

Worship on Sabbath was edifying, but sparsely attended. The two families that live a good distance away were unable to come due to weather. As well, we weren't in the building we're normally in, since that congregation needed their building all day long. Sermons were excellent, class was useful, and fellowship, although more limited than normal, was up to its usual high standard. :)

Yesterday I basically finished up ground school for flying. I have a DVD course that I'd never gotten around to completing, so I did that yesterday. I need to do a review with an instructor and do a little more work on a couple subject areas, but overall I'm ready for the written, or knowledge, test administered by the FAA. That should be interesting. :)

Today we got a bunch of schoolwork done, along with some other stuff that was necessary. Mom and I got my application to Geneva finished and sent in, so that was a plus. We had a (pretty much) good troop meeting tonight. I'm getting kind of tired now, so I'm probably forgetting something, but right now it's nothing important, so it doesn't really matter. :)

I'm guessing that's about it. I'm going to try to find a video...

Cheerleader and Band bloopers. As long as nobody gets hurt, always good for a laugh.

It's been 3 days, not 2!

I'm starting to slip... hope not! :)

Well, the past few days have been nice. I've been kept busy with school, but overall everything's gone well.

Tuesday I did have one bit of a problem. Around 1 in the afternoon, while doing some British literature, my neck gave out a resounding pop. After that until late that evening, my neck was hurting on and off a lot. For a while, I wasn't planning on going to the scout meeting that night, but a couple times of popping in an aspirin took care of the pain (mostly).

The meeting went quite well. We had talks on preparing for the hike this weekend, but the only one that I was present for was a presentation on proper packing and "ingredients" of a first aid kit. During the rest, I was off talking with several adult leaders on various and sundry topics, ranging from Air Force usage of handheld radios to rats' presence in Bellefontaine. Afterwards, we went outside for a few (emphasis on few) minutes of tag, during which time I managed to get a toe stepped on, resulting in that toe starting to bleed. It turned out being rather uncomfortable. :)

Wednesday was quite interesting. We had about 4-5 inches of snow overnight, and the roadcrews seemingly weren't quite ready for all of it. Mom and I made it to bowling in Bellefontaine, but not by much. We followed a car going 15-30 MPH about all the way into town, where the driver, at one turn, accidentally locked the brakes and slid nicely into a large snowbank. It was kind of funny, assuming you weren't in the car! :)

We were one of only about 4-5 families at bowling that morning. I bowled four games, and did well on two of them! :P Oh well. It was fun, even though I didn't do the best job at a few spots. I just couldn't get the ball to go down the middle consistently--it always went left or right, but hardly ever right down the middle.

Snow shoveling was in order after we got back from town. There wasn't a ton to be doing, since there wasn't a ton of snow. We shoveled four front sidewalks, two back sidewalks, two front porches, one back porch, and a partridge in a pear tree. Skip that last one. Anyway, the shoveling was the first of the season. It was kind of fun. By the time we get to about the 50th time, it will probably have lost some of its appeal! :)

Yesterday evening we had prayer meeting. Attendance was pretty much the usual, and everything else was pretty much average. The short meditation we always have was very good, so that was encouraging. :)

Today was great. I did a bit of school, including a Government test that I did very well on. However, the school wasn't the fun part, although it wasn't bad. Tonight, I got 2.6 hours flying, over half of which I did solely by reference to instruments. I renewed my solo endorsement, meaning I'm now OK to fly by myself again. As well, I finally got to do some VOR (radio) navigation, something that somehow had been overlooked for a while. It was pretty easy, enough that my very first time I was able to do a basic VOR approach for the airport, meaning that I used it to be getting most of the way to the ground. After my first lesson, I had a quick break while I microwaved some pizza and drank Mountain Dew. Yum. :)

Afterwards, I headed out with another instructor. We left Bellefontaine and flew on down to Dayton International Airport, where I got my first taste of operating in busy controlled airspace (Class C if you're interested) and of shooting ILS approaches. Basically, the controlled airspace here is that I'm having to talk to controllers to get approval to do pretty much anything. As well, the ILS is a precision radio approach that will get me almost all the way to the ground even in bad weather. It's precise enough that the bars on the instrument that gives me the approach information will noticeably move for as little movement as seven feet off course! It made it rather challenging, especially since I was referencing only the instruments and couldn't use my eyesight. Oh, had I mentioned this is all at night? It was great!

I think that's it for right now. I had a blast. I'm going up again on Saturday (assuming weather cooperates) so I think I'll be able to get a lot of time this week! :)

Have a good evenin'.

Keeping up with posting finally!!! :)

Well, yesterday was interesting weather. The temperature was about 50º or higher most of the day. We had a few times of intense rain, one period strong enough that it almost looked like the storm at summer camp at one of the calmer parts! That's saying a lot. :)

One family wasn't able to make it yesterday, so that was a bummer. We had only one worship service as well as class, due to the Presbyterian church, whose building we use, needing it for longer than normal in the morning/afternoon and then a bunch in the evening. They had a children's Christmas pageant, and they needed to set up for it a lot. When we got there, the entire platform was covered with sheets and poofy cotton for snow. We grabbed a lectern from downstairs for Dad to use, and it seemed to work well. We also had communion yesterday, so we had to grab a table from another place to put the elements on. Overall, it was a blessed day.

Today's been fun. I did five school lessons, starting with an English review and then a test that I didn't do the best on, as I hadn't quite figured out when to use who and when to use whom. Don't bother commenting to tell me how. :) I also did some physics and math.

We went out on the town tonight, really living it up. After stopping at Rite-Aid quickly, we went to Kroger and Aldi. Then, we headed off to the gourmet Italian restaurant known as Fazoli's. Their pizza was especially scrumptious. Finally, for the highlight of the night, we visited the wonderful land of Walmart. I ended up getting a couple things for myself--a pair of 88% Merino Wool socks (very nice) and a new Hawaiian-style shirt, since mine is getting old. After this wild excitement, we came back home, where our across-the-driveway neighbor presented us with a plate of gingersnap cookies (of which I've already had six--they're wonderful.) While I'd been getting a lot of exercise walking around Walmart, I decided I needed more so I walked to the library, about 4 blocks away.

The walk was nice, even with the temperature being in the 20's. I got to the library and found a few good books and at least one not so good. I checked out a Clive Cussler book that's pretty new, and also got "Mere Christianity" by C. S. Lewis. As well, I got a DVD that I'm about to start in.

I think that's been about it. Just so you know, I was kinda exaggerating about it being a big night out on the town. It's not too big. It was kinda fun tho. :) Good night.

Unfortunately, no more flying...

As the title says. I got some groundschool done, but both of the Eclipse's (trainer aircraft) are down for maintenance. Oh well. The weather near the end of the time when I was doing the lesson fell apart incredibly. We had a sleet squall. Quite interesting for the plane that was about 2 miles out, on approach for the runway. They were a bit nervous for a little while. It turned out all right, though.

Our Scout troop marched in the Christmas parade today in the county seat, Bellefontaine. Bumpas and I got to be the main color guard for the Scout section of the parade, holding a large American flag. It got kinda cold since we had to have uniforms showing (no coats.) As well, I wasn't wearing gloves, since I wanted to be able to hold the flagpole very securely. Everything worked out nicely, as I warmed up afterwards with a nice cup of hot chocolate. :)

Schoolwork yesterday was interesting. I did well on a pre-calc test, completed some physics, and finished up with British literature. Literature isn't my favorite, but this was interesting, reading some of the works of Sir Thomas More and then William Tyndale. More could have been such an asset, if he would have seen the truth. As it is, he was a horrible detriment to the progress of God's Word. Thankfully, the Lord has said that His Word will endure forever, and Tyndale was a tool to help that. I hadn't remembered this, but about 90% of the KJV is Tyndale's translation. This man lived only until his early 40's until he was publicly strangled as a heretic, but his contributions continue today.

I'm thinking that's it for right now. I'll try to keep up posting regularly.

Flying, Mowing, and School

Well, that's what I've been up to. Tonight, for the first time in just shy of two weeks, I finally got to go up again. I finished up the night flying requirements for my license, and had a blast doing it at the same time. While en route from one airport to another, my instructor and I were heading with a nice strong wind, strong enough that the GPS said our groundspeed was 155 knots top speed. :D Fastest I've ever gone in an Eclipse. We did have a little trouble with one plane at another airport, since he hadn't announced his intentions over the radio, so we gave him a wide berth so we wouldn't have any risk of a "fender bender".

Flying at night again was fun. The weather was just about perfectly clear. We could see all over the place! It was pretty incredible, seeing the light displays some people put up. Wow. I think a few people spent a lot of money on lights. :D

School has been going well. We got a lot of work done yesterday and today, and we're starting to get caught up. Today was a math lesson, chapter review, and non-graded quizzes. Tomorrow's the chapter test. Great fun. Oh well. I also did English and physics a bit today. So far, the physics is ending up being quite fun (most of the time! :) Overall, it's been a good school year, except for the many interruptions for yardwork, flying, and a death in the family.

Yes, we mowed yesterday. No, we're not out of our minds. A yard had tons of leaves, and we didn't want to blow it all. Also, the grass was pretty tall and thick, so we just mowed it! It was kind of fun. We're thinking about mowing our yard here at home on Saturday, just to say we mowed grass in December! :D

Well, I think that's about it. I'm going to try to keep posting more often, so check back frequently. Good night.

Time for a new post

As the title says.

OK. Letsee. Flying? Some. Yardwork? Some. School? A bit. Scouts? Plenty. Blogging? Not till now!

Church has been pretty much the same. A family from about 40 miles to the west has been coming a bit, which is quite nice. :) The adult and high schoolers class has started on a new book. It's "20 Controversies that Almost Killed a Church" by Richard Ganz. So far, it appears to be quite useful and edifying, but I've only been there for one lesson. I trust it'll be the same for the rest of the book! :) Other than that, there's nothing else new or unusual going on.

Yardwork has been interesting. Mom and I aren't remembering the last time that we had to work this late. We actually mowed a yard three days before Thanksgiving! Weird. Thankfully, the grass is practically done, and the leaves have pretty much totally fallen. I think we're done until the snow falls enough that it needs to be shoveled.

Flying has been interesting. I haven't gone up for about two weeks, mostly due to weather and having been gone in Pennsylvania for six days for Thanksgiving. However, I did have a great time on Friday the 16th. I got to do a long (I mean long) trip. After leaving Bellefontaine, I headed off for Delaware (OH) Municipal Airport, a little under 35 miles to the east. I landed, taxiied back to the runway, and took off again for Wood County Airport (Bowling Green), just over 70 miles north. I hung around Wood Co. for quite a while, even walking nearly a mile round trip to get "lunch" at Arby's. Lunch ended up being a group of eight very tasty mozzarella sticks and a large cup of Pepsi. Yum. I'd already had some Dew earlier, in case you're wondering why I had Pepsi and not Dew. Anyway, I ate and drank, then headed back for Bellefontaine. The total trip ended up being about 166 nautical miles, or 191 statute miles. Long trip! It was lotsa fun.

Now, I'm unfortunately having my solo endorsement running out on Friday, so after Thursday I can't fly by myself anymore until I go up with an instructor again. However, that won't be much of a problem, since I was needing to go up with an instructor soon again anyway. Hopefully, I'll be able to get back into the swing of things soon and get up in the air more regularly again, soon to be getting ready for the Private Pilot checkride. I'm also working on a home study DVD course to get ready for the written test, so I'm keeping busy.

Schoolwork is going well. Nothing new here.

Scouts--we've had a bunch of younger guys interested in our troop. There's a chance that we could have up to 9 (I think) 11-year-olds joining our troop at the same time. Wow. That just about made my heart skip when I said that. Heh. It would be a very interesting experience to get that many new boys at once. Oh well. We're in a Christmas parade this Saturday, then next weekend we're on a hike, most likely at Kiser [sic] Lake south of here a little ways.

Thanksgiving was very nice. We all got to spend four whole days and parts of two other days in PA. My grandpa, who'd broken a hip, is doing quite well, considering the circumstances. We got to see a bunch of family, eat plenty of simply delicious food, and participate in several crazy games of Taboo. Thanksgiving is great for the food, family, and fun, but it's best for showing us what God has blessed us with.

I think that's it for right now. I'll hopefully post more regularly, but I also realize how frightening it is that I say that almost every post. I'll close with a video. It shows the REAL way to enjoy classical music. Good night all!

It's been a while

I never seem to remember to do this and have the drive to do it, unless I don't have access to the computer. Sigh.

Well, for starters, my grandma went to be with the Lord the day after the last post. She was indeed placing her trust in Christ, so she had every hope of deliverance, and we're confidant that now her suffering is over. As several friends of mine who've recently lost grandparents struggling with life can understand, it's very hard, but it's bittersweet. You hate to see them go, but, if they're in Christ, it's a great blessing to them to depart their life of sin, and be with their Lord, and be free of imperfection.

On happier thoughts, I surpassed my goal with popcorn sales for Scouts by nearly 200 dollars! :) As well, yardwork for the year is nearly over, so I have more time now to dedicate to school, flying, and other activities.

School: Everything's going very well. The Math and Physics are fun (for the most part), English and British Literature aren't too bad, and Government is actually quite easy. So far, I'm enjoying my senior year. Grades are good, and we're behind some, but, since we were out in Pennsylvania for a week when we weren't planning to be, that's kind of understandable.

Flying's been going great as well. I'm up to 20.7 hours, out of the 40 required. Tomorrow, God willing, I'm flying a pretty long distance: around 166 nautical miles. As long as the weather's good, I'll be flying this four-stop course as a requirement for my license. Boy, I'm looking forward to it. I sure hope God blesses me with clouds high enough and winds low enough! :) I think I'm still on track to be getting my license on my birthday, January 7. Yet again, weather seems to be the key factor. We'll see how it works out.

Church has been pretty much the same since the last post. The only major thing that's happened is that we've bought a TV/DVD player combo for use in the Adult Sabbath School class. Please keep praying for clear guidance for the Belle Center RP Church!

I'm going to sign off now. Hopefully I'll get back into posting more often. Before I go, I have one more thing, though. Any of you heard of Paul Potts? Well, watch this video, even if you have. He was a cell phone salesman who auditioned for Britain's Got Talent. Here is the video from that night.

Unexpected

We're leaving shortly for Pennsylvania. My grandma's dying. Please be praying for my grandpa especially, as this is understandably very difficult for him. I'll update more when I know more.

ALMOST A MONTH!!

GASP! I really need to do this more often. Sorry everyone.

Well. Letsee. What have I been doing lately? School for starters. That's been going well, although we're slightly behind. Other than that... aviation stuff, scout stuff (including, now, popcorn sales), and mowing. I'll add more to that list soon. However, for the time being, I'll have a section on each of these things.

First off, church. It wasn't on that list, but oh well. We've been doing well. Just in this last week, we received a large gift of money, and just today six people have passed examination for church membership. The LORD is blessing our congregation! Please, everyone that reads this, be praying that He will bless us more! Our town (of around 900 people) is largely composed of people that either never go to church, or are the seeds in the thorns. Belle Center RPCNA has been put in Belle Center for a reason, and that reason is assuredly known by God. Please pray that He would make it clear to us, and what His will for us in this area is.

OK. On to schoolwork. I'm doing a bunch of stuff. Main subjects are British Literature, Pre-Calculus, US Government, Physics, and English. As well, I'm doing advanced vocabulary, applied math (like currently, mathematics of insurance and accounting), and other things that I'm currently at 10:11 PM not remembering. I'm doing pretty well with it. The pre-calc is challenging--it's introducing plenty of new things that I take a little longer to wrap my brain around. However, everything's mostly been easy to understand (after reading it carefully two or three times :) Oh yeah, Mom's counting Aviation Sciences, which leads me nicely to the next topic.

Well. I've been having fun with flying. A lot of fun. I'm more and more convinced that God is wanting me to make a career of it.

I just got a new headset. I took this picture with my webcam about 2 minutes ago. Anyway, the headset's really nice. I've used it only once though. :( Brand new, it would be over three hundred, and I got it off of Ebay for around 240. :)

Since the last post, which was the solo video, I've soloed a couple more times. I've flown to Bowling Green, north of here about 67 nautical miles, twice. Once was with the instructor, and we didn't do much but land, taxi back to the start of the runway, and take off again and head for home. The second time, I went solo, and stayed at the airport for about 15 minutes, getting a couple small bags of Doritos and drinking a 20 oz. bottle of the Nectar of Life (it's not really that; just a fun title) Mountain Dew. I also later that day flew over a friend's house and, since I'd called his family before, they were out waving at me. I could see them, and waggled the wings a little bit at them before heading back to the airport. Anyway. Yesterday I flew out to Muncie, IN, with an instructor. A couple weeks ago, I went to Mansfield, OH, at night, with an instructor. Boy, it's been great.

Also, we went to a big airshow at Rickenbacker Airport in Columbus, OH. There were over 100 P-51's there. I've got a few pictures that I'll put up.

A skydiver opening with a huge American flag. Biplanes circled him, as you can see.

Big Beautiful Doll. A very famous P-51.

Hilarious sign. :)

Main upper armament on a WWII bomber (Avro Lancaster.) Twin .50's. Hehe.

Dad standing next to a P-38, another WWII fighter, and one of his favorites.

P-40.

F-22. This thing was amazing. I'm gonna try to find a video of it to put on this post.

US Army Special Forces exhibit included a bit of interesting weaponry, all of which I got to handle. :)

Memphis Belle, the most famous B-17 ever. Not the original. :(

A C-5 Galaxy. Absolutely humongous plane. Wow.

P-51 next to the Lancaster, right before both went up. A little Air Force vehicle designed to look like the F-22. Cute little thing. :)
A very famous P-51, and this is the original. Unfortunately, I didn't get to meet the original pilot, Chuck Yeager.
A racing P-51.

Lt. Col. Meyer seemed to have been busy.

Yet another famous P-51.

And, although not from the airshow, a funny self-portrait of me from a couple nights ago, using flash in a very dark room. No red-eye remover was used, as you can probably tell. :)

Scouts hasn't been too much lately. After leaving the airshow, we went straight to a Camporee, which is a campout for troops from 3 different counties, and we have competitions, etc. Well, our patrol placed 1st out of 13. As well, I was the main bugler, which was fun, and I ran the campfire program, which was really fun! :) I also got a Bronze Palm recently, which is a further award past Eagle, basically given for continued leadership and more merit badges. I'm also selling popcorn. If you're interested, gimme an email or phone call. I can probably sell you some. :)

Mowing is the same as usual.

I think I'm done. Here's a video of the F-22 demonstration. Good night!

F-22. Wow. Speaking as an aviator, although not a very experienced one, this plane just shouldn't be able to do some of these things. Period. Wow. No wonder this thing is so capable. Watch it.

Video

Well, today I got the videos and pictures from the solo flight last week. I decided to try Windows Movie Maker to put everything together, and it came out really nicely! So nicely, I put it on YouTube, and now it's here for you to enjoy (hopefully! :) Here it is.

My last week

This last week was one of the busier weeks of the summer. We had a good, although a bit busy, troop meeting on Tuesday, and a very productive popcorn sale on Saturday morning. I also ushered at a wedding on Friday evening, along with being at the rehearsal on Thursday. As well, I got in for a couple flight lessons, got my medical, and got to solo! :)

I know this ain't a very big post, but that's about all that I feel like doing right now. I might well do more later, but that'll remain to be seen. The other thing I'm changing is the music. I'm going to be linking to JFK Airport (New York City) Tower's streaming audio. So, if you're curious, that's what it is. Due to the formatting, I had to relocate it to the bottom of the page. Seeya later!

Only one life, 'twill soon be past; only what's done for Christ will last.

This is one of main focuses of a book that I've been reading lately. The book is "don't waste your life" by john piper [sic]. I'm finding it very useful as it shows how to be focusing much more on Christ in everyday life. Also, it's strongly emphasizing the importance of making sure that the two main purposes of man (glorifying God and enjoying Him forever) are not as two purposes, but one united purpose with two facets. This book has really been a blessing in my life so far, and I'm only up to the third chapter! :P

OK. Other than that, what have I been doing lately? Well, I've been keeping quite busy. Let's see. I'll start out with my Eagle Scout Court of Honor.


The COH went quite well. I had an aunt and uncle come out from Pennsylvania for it, Grandmother came up from Cincinnati with another uncle of mine, and Colin McClintock from Elkhart RP came with his dad and younger brother. Since I don't get to see any of these people very often, it was really enjoyable! :) The ceremony went quite well, and the cake was delicious. I have some pictures, so let's go into those.

Mr. Stoner, who was our first scoutmaster. He was the ceremony's MC.

Dad presenting me with a US Flag flown over the US Capitol Building on the day that I made Eagle.

Dad talking and me grinning about something or the other. :)

Mom pinning the Eagle Medal on me. For those of you wonder, yes, she did use the backings on the pins! :)

Me putting the Mentor's Pin on Grandmother. I would have liked to have given it to Grumps (diagram that), but, since he passed away last December, Grandmother filled in.

Here was the scrumptious cake.

A picture of my project a few days before the ceremony.

Me with Mr. Morton, a man from church.

Several of Milkdud's family, who helped out a good bit with the ceremony. Thank you! :)

Me outside having fun waiting for people to come out so I can startle them.

OK. Well, that's if for the ceremony. By the way, the last three pictures were from the Mortons, while the others were all from Nathaniel, who, by the way, we took out to Geneva last weekend. As with the past two summers, it was really nice having him here, and I'm going to miss him a good bit. While out in Pennsylvania, we got to visit with my grandpa a bunch, and a little bit with my grandma, who isn't doing the best. Also, I'll bring this up now, since it's a good transition to my next topic. We had to go to Geneva, obviously, so we also went out to the Community College of Geneva College (CCBC), which is where I'll be doing my flight training in college. I found out that, if I come in with my Private Pilot's License, I'll automatically have 7 credits, and if I pass a $75 test, there's another 3 in. In addition, if I get my Instrument Rating, I have another 6, and 3 more possible with another $75 test. I could end up getting 19 credits with $150. :) However, that wouldn't count the money I'd already have spent here at home. :P

Another thing with this is that my parents are urging me to take a year off between high school graduation and going to college. I'm much more seriously considering this, especially since they've been more and more thinking it's a good idea. If I would end up taking a year off, it wouldn't be for just lazing around. God willing, I would be getting a job (hopefully at the airport), getting my instrument rating (assuming funding is possible), starting to drive (which actually is probably going to be more like this next spring/summer), and possibly getting a car.

Well, as you've probably gathered, I've been flying a bunch. As of today's lesson, I'm up to 7.4 hours and 37 landings. I'm going tomorrow to the Delaware County Airport to get my FAA Medical, and hopefully I'll be soloing this week--going up by myself, with no instructor on board.

Also, last weekend, we had an airshow at the local airport, where I'm learning. Boy, was it fun. I got to go up 3 times, but only once did I actually get to fly. That once made up for all the others. I got to fly what's called an SNJ, a WWII Navy advanced trainer. Other than the takeoff and landing, I got to fly most everything. It was amazing how easy to fly it was--almost easier than the plane I'm learning in! We got to do a bunch of stuff ranging from the normal items in the lessons to a couple basic aerobatic maneuvers. It was a blast!

I have a few pictures that I'm going to put up from the airshow, so here ya go.

Bellefontaine, the county seat.

A few houses out in the country. We tried to figure out where this is, but haven't succeeded yet.

Looking out into the countryside.

Me in the SNJ

Taxiing out to the runway.

After we got back and taxiing in. After looking at my expression, I think I had a good time! :D

Me afterwards with the pilot, who's certified as a flight instructor, so I got it in the logbook! :)

Lewistown, a local village.

The SNJ on the ground.

Later that evening with my across-the-street-neighbor, who I took up (not me flying) for his first flight.

Cockpit of a Cessna 172. These pictures (at least the previous one and on down to the last one) are from a borrowed camera, which was really a great camera!

SNJ in flight with a Cessna 172 in the background.

Grand Lake St. Mary's--about 35 miles from where the picture was taken.

Columbus skyscrapers--50 miles from the camera.

A picture of a local Honda plant, this particular one in charge of transmissions.

Indian Lake school complex.

Cool patterns in the fields.

Out into the countryside.

A video of the landing.

OK. Well, that's it for now. I'm gonna be getting to bed soon. Good night!

New record...

for the longest time without posting. Sorry everybody. I keep forgetting to do anything with the blog. I'll give you the rundown for the last, ummm, three weeks.

Alrighty. We went to summer camp at Camp Birch, about an hour and a quarter south of Belle Center. Another troop from here in the county stayed in the same campsite with us, and for most of the time we functioned as one troop. A couple guys from our troop and about all of the other troop got down to Birch on the Lord's Day, July 15, while Dad, Nathaniel, Sean, Matt, and I all got there Monday. Boy, was it a blast. We had a great time. Except for a few minor things, our two troops got along really well. I completed only two merit badges, Archery and Weather, but I also completed COPE, the teambuilding thing that also has the high ropes course.

One highlight or downlight of the week, depending on your perspective (highlight sorta for me), was early Thursday morning. We had a doozy of a storm roll in. The lighting was more there than not, almost constant at times. In around 45 minutes of rain, we had just under two inches, which was annoying, because I ended up being out in the storm for much of it. Gore-Tex works almost all the time, but not totally in that amount of rain. Bumpas and I shared a tent, and I accidentally managed to get it pretty wet, so we spent about 0300-0700 in a couple other guys' tent. We stuffed four people in a two-person tent, but these aren't dome tents. They're what are called wall tents, nice big ones that can fit four guys. Also, there are cots, so there's space under them on the ground (no floor) for your gear. Anyway, the wind was the big thing with this storm. There were several gusts that really were strong, all of them being past 60 MPH. The last one was the only time I was really scared. It blew like I've never seen before. Dad and I agreed that it was easily 75 or more, and we've gotten National Weather Service training, so we sorta know how to judge the wind speed! :) I ended up leaning about 20º into it and almost walking forward to keep in the same spot. However, the worst part was that a few trees were rotating for a few seconds. That had me scared. Since I was the main junior leader, I was about to start yelling for evacuation, but the gust died down and the trees stopped swirling. Soon after that, the whole thing quieted down, and Bumpas and I finally got to bed. Phew.

We pulled out Saturday morning, even though a bunch of guys left Friday evening. Overall, the week was great. It was encouraging to meet a bunch of new friends, several of which are solid Christians. Also, Bumpas and I spent a couple hours witnessing to a guy from another troop--please be praying that he would come to see that what Christ says is true and that he must submit to the King.

OK. That's it for summer camp. We got back, and I collapsed. Almost literally. Sleep deprivation. It was fun. Really.

The week after wasn't much. No more flying lessons, just mowing and working on my Eagle Court of Honor, which is Saturday the 11th. Not much more.

Oh yeah. There was one little thing. I got to go to the Dayton Airshow with Dad and a bunch of guys from church. It was great. We got to see some really incredible performances, get in a bunch of nice aircraft, both planes and helos, and also several of us older guys got to get in the Virtual Army Experience, a shooter activity where we're in life-size Humvee models. Basically, each guy gets on a light machine gun position on the Humvee, and we use the LMG to take out (using lasers) enemies on the screen in front of the Humvee. The really cool thing was the model was able to move a bit, and had a great sound system, so we could tell when a close shot went by, and we really knew when an IED blew close to us because the whole thing would shake. Anyway, I came home with a neat mahogany Blackhawk model. This thing is pretty big--about 20" long.

The big highlight of the show was to be the USAF Thunderbirds. Unfortunately, we didn't get to watch them perform. The pilot right before them was in a maneuver that he didn't pull out of in time. He died within a few seconds of hitting the ground. Please also be in prayer for his wife, and also his 4-year-old son.

Lord's Day was edifying and enjoyable. We had about average attendance at church. The sermons were quite good. As well, we had dinner after the two services, and plenty of time to socialize, which is always nice. :)

After dinner, Mom and Dad left on a vacation! They're going with my Uncle Charlie and Aunt Debbie, who're having their 25 anniversary in a few weeks here, so since Mom and Dad had theirs a few weeks ago, they're having a mutual 25th vacation in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Nathaniel and I have been "baching/batching" it together. We've done well, keeping the house mostly clean, remembering to get the mail, washing the dishes, getting the yards mown, etc. Mom and Dad are supposed to get home tomorrow, and it'll be great to see them. It's nice (in a way) having them away, mostly because of staying up a little bit later, and partly because we proved we can get along without having them here. However, it's nicer having them back here. I've missed both of them this week, but at least I know they're coming back soon. Wonder how I'll do with leaving for college? :)

Alrighty. Tonight was special. I had a lesson for the first time in about three weeks, and it was a blast. I got in a total of seven landings, most of them touch-and-go, one at Urbana Airport, the next county south. Visibility wasn't the best, but it was still beautiful up there. Also, I handled almost all of the radio communications, which is a first. I only slightly goofed once with the radio, but it wasn't any big deal. Oh well. It was wonderful. My instructor, who by the way is new for me, since my old one's gone into Air National Guard OCS, was surprised that I don't quite have 5 hours yet--he said I handled the plane like I have 30-40 hours! That was nice to hear. It was great. Did I say that before? :)

Well, that's that. Hopefully it won't be so long next time. I've gotta go do the dishes now. Seeya later!

Covfamikoi

"I've been challenged to be mentioning God more in my everyday life, like in casual conversation."

"I've been feeling as if God's been leading me to spend more time with Him in His Word and in prayer every day."

"I've been convicted that I need to be working more for Christ's Kingdom in my community by witnessing more."

These are a few things said by the high school kids at the campfire on the last evening of the conference. We had an edifying time of talking with the group of what God had shown us and used from the week to be applying to our lives. Almost everything of what people said applied to almost everyone there.

Covfamikoi (COVenanters Florida Alabama Michigan Indiana* Kentucky Ohio Illinois*) was a great success. *I'm not sure which is first or second of Indiana and Illinois. The speaker, Dr. Ken Smith, was very useful. His main topic was on "Culture: Keeping your Balance." He spoke throughout the week on what we should be doing to become World Christians. By this he meant that we should be in the world, but not of the world.

As well, we high schoolers had a discussion time that was very useful. James Faris, the pastor of our Southfield, Michigan church led a discussion time. Often, the time was split in about half. One half-hour or so would be discussion, and the other would be something else. For example, we had the speaker's son, also Ken Smith, talk about the importance of a Christian higher education, specifically Geneva College, the school where he's President at. :)

Covfamikoi wasn't just speakers and discussion, though. The high schoolers had several great games. One night, we played Capture the Flag (My team beat the other team, by the way :) and another night we had an activity with water balloon launchers. I'll explain that one more in-depth later. As well, we had great fellowship over meals, talking during free time, and talking late at night with old and new friends. I got to meet a lot of new people and also to strengthen a lot of old friendships.

Overall, this conference was one that God used to be strengthening my life. I've had problems before keeping regular on my Bible reading and personal prayer, and this conference has shown me more how I should be doing these things. Please pray for the conference attendees, that the things that God has shown them would be used to be furthering their walk with the Lord, and furthering His Kingdom.

Sorry about the formatting. Blogger's not cooperating and I don't feel like wrestling with it. By the way, the music is a bad recording of the conference psalm being sung by almost all the attendees, in case you're curious. Now, I'll not be posting for another week, since I'm going to summer camp in the morning. However, I'll hopefully have pictures of that. Eventually, I think I'll have pictures of Covfamikoi too. Good night!

Quick Post

I've noticed I forgot to put up a post. Hopefully, I'll do that later today. Also, the format and everything was getting old, so I changed the template. :( Anyway, time to go get breakfast and get ready for groundschool.

Back. Will put up more later.

Getting going

Well, this will be a quick post. I need to go pack for a couple days in Pennsylvania, where we're attending a cousin's wedding. I won't be on IM or the blog until Saturday.

Also, I decided to change the music, since it's only one week until the Fourth of July! :) I always liked fireworks, but this doesn't have too many. It's long but it's good.

Good night.

Flying Lessons!

Well, as you probably saw on the last post, I finally "took the plunge", even though it wasn't a plunge. :) Also, one quick thing--I have a link now to the airport's managing company website on the links area. Check it out if you want!

The lesson was supposed to start at around 1000. We didn't actually get going on it until 1010, when Dustin (my instructor) and I talked for a little while and got to know each other. After that, we went out to the aircraft and did an in-depth preflight. We started out in the cockpit, where he showed me the basic controls and instruments. After that, we did a preflight in the cockpit, and then outside the airplane.

We finished the preflight, got the keys and a couple other things, then got in the plane. We did the startup, checked out a few things, then Dustin said he'd taxi (steer on the ground) the plane for the first little bit, then let me take over. By the way, this is a two-seater plane. I was in the left seat--the pilot's seat! :)

Well, we got out to the runway and held short while we did what's called the run-up, which is just basically revving the engine for about 15 seconds to make sure everything's working. Then, Dustin said, "Now, Isaac, you're going to say over the radio, 'Bellefo-'". At this point I interrupted with, "I do it?!" and he said yes indeed. He coached me on what to say, I said it a couple times, and then, after saying it and forgetting to hit the button to actually send over the radio (!), I really said over the radio, "Bellefontaine Regional Airport, Diamond Eclipse two zero three delta charlie taking off runway two-five, Bellefontaine." Boy, it was great! I taxiied onto the runway, he gave me a quick briefing on what to do, and said, "Your go, whenever you're ready." I quickly prayed and then moved the throttle forward. Boy, it sure accelerated! We got down the runway quickly, and as the airspeed indicator moved past 55 knots, I pulled back on the stick. Suddenly, the low wheel rumble was no more, and I was flying. WOW! I've never felt like that before. It was great.

We established a good climb and used the GPS to head towards Belle Center. When we got there, Dustin took control and circled a couple times so I could get some pictures. After I was done snapping photos, I took control back and we flew over to Indian Lake, then back to the airport. I flew into what's called the traffic pattern, with Dustin handling the radio by now, and headed towards the runway. I controlled the plane, but Dustin controlled the throttle, which is like the gas pedal.

We landed and taxiied back. After a short debrief, I went out to take some pictures, then Mom picked me up. I'll show the pictures now.

Belle Center from the air. The red arrow shows my house.

More of Belle Center. This red arrow shows our current meeting place for church.

My house area. Yet again, red arrow.

Me in the plane. This was the only picture I didn't take.

This is the left side of the instrument panel. The gauge with the brown and blue, the artificial horizon, is that way because the engine's not running. Don't worry-the plane isn't flying like that! :)

Right side of the panel.

Rudder pedal area.

Cargo area behind the seats.

This is the entire seating area. Small, isn't it? :)

The plane.

View from the starboard (right) wing.

Tail assembly.

Looking from the tail. I thought the lighting was kinda cool, but you might not. :P

Here's the entire plane.

Well, that's that for the flight. Today, I picked up a training packet, with a lot of books and study guides. I also got registered for the airport's website, so I can see the airport schedule and put in for a lesson online from my computer. Really nice! :) My next lesson is supposed to be next Monday at 1300.

We mowed a bit and I read and watched a movie. That was pretty much, other than the flying, Monday and Tuesday for me. Also, we had the troop meeting tonight. We had another troop meet with us, since they're going to summer camp with us. Other than a couple routine problems, the meeting was nicely uneventful.

Well, I need to get to bed. Hopefully everyone enjoyed the pictures. I can't wait to get up again. Good night!