Personal Flying Milestones

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• December 11, 2001: first lesson
• December 23, 2001: first unassisted landing (5th lesson; 7.5 hours, no crosswind)
• December 31, 2001: spectacularly bad touch-and-gos in gusty crosswinds with instructor rescue on every try; very discouraging
• January 4, 2002: consistent under-control low flights over the runway and landings (17 hours)
• January 22, 2002: first solo at Nashua, NH (34 hours)
• January 25, 2002: first dual cross-country from Bedford to Martha's Vineyard and back
• January 26, 2002: second dual cross-country; from Bedford to Portland Maine (Class C airspace)
• February 4, 2002: third solo at Nashua, NH (50 hours); signed off to fly solo from Bedford to Nashua and back
• February 13, 2002: approx. 60 hours: signed off for solo cross-country; passed knowledge test (missed 2/60; score 97)
• February 19, 2002: first cross-country solo, from Bedford to Keene, NH and back, 51 n.m. each way (68 hours)
• March 4, 2002: first aerobatics lesson (Decathlon, aileron rolls)
• March 8, 2002: obtained Private certificate during the checkride from hell (1500' ceiling; 87 hours)
• March 9, 2002: first passenger victim, Bedford to Martha's Vineyard and back
• March 27, 2002: began studies for IFR knowledge test
• April 10, 2002: took IFR knowledge test, scoring 98 thanks to the King DVD course
• April 24, 2002: flew brand-new Diamond DA40 from factory in London, Ontario back to Bedford, Massachusetts
• May 13, 2002: first actual instrument conditions flight: 1.7 hours from KLWM, in clouds from 800' AGL right up to 5000' MSL; came back with an ILS 5 approach to LWM.
• June 2, 2002: departed Boston for a five-month trip to Alaska and back in the DA40
• July 25, 2002: obtained Instrument rating in Anchorage, Alaska (245 hours)
• October 3, 2002: arrived Mexico (San Felipe, Baja California), see the flying Baja article for tips
• October 14, 2002: spin training in a glider at Sky Sailing (Warner Springs, California)
• November 3, 2002: arrived runway 04L at Logan Airport, Boston, 300 Hobbs hours accumulated on the DA40 since purchase; see the flying Alaska article and the trip report to friends for info about the overall trip.
• December 2002-January 2003: flew Boston-Florida-Bahamas-Turks/Caicos-Dominican-Republic-Puerto Rico-Anguilla and back (see the Caribbean flying article for details)
• June 9, 2003: first helicopter lesson (ground only due to poor weather) with Joris Naiman at East Coast Aero Club in Bedford, MA
• July 17, 2003: took Commercial Airplane knowledge test; scored 100 due to having studied from King Schools videos
• July 20, 2003: fourth helicopter lesson, managed to hold a hover for 3 minutes (the key turned out to be making minor corrections then returning the cyclic to neutral after a split-second rather than holding the corrective pressure)
• July 28, 2003: first visit to Oshkosh during EAA Airventure (the big one); flew DA40 out from Boston and continued on to San Francisco
• August 25, 2003: made it back to Massachusetts from cross-country trip
• September 3, 2003: seventh helicopter lesson, first autorotation, instructor notes remarkably little deterioration in skills despite having taken more than one month off
• October 26, 2003: restarted helicopter lessons with a different machine, the previous R22 having suffered a dynamic rollover in September (with someone else at the controls!)
• December 2003: signed off for Commercial airplane checkride but it was cancelled twice due to (a) wind, and (b) wind + 3' of snow
• February 4, 2004: first autorotation in which I was not woefully behind the helicopter
• February 5, 2004: completed 20 hours of helicopter lessons at www.helipan.com in Panama, 30 hours total rotary wing time. Flew up Rio Chagres at 10' AGL and landed at an Embera Indian village.
• February 24, 2004: obtained Commercial certificate airplane single-engine land, checkride out of Bedford with Marc Nathanson in DA40 and PA28R (704 hours)
• March 26-April 10, 2004: flew Boston-DC-Oklahoma City-Albuquerque-Sedona, AZ-Burbank-Catalina Island-San Diego-Marfa, Texas-Huntsville, TX-DC-Boston in a Piper Seminole PA44 (learning multi)
• April 16, 2004: passed Commercial Multi Instrument checkride out of Bedford with Dick Moore in the PA44
• June 17, 2004: completed Single-engine Seaplane rating with Stefen Lind and Mary Build in Naples, Maine (www.naplesseaplane.com).
• June 28, 2004: first solo fight in helicopter, an R22, out of CR Helicopters in Nashua, NH (at 38 hours rotary wing time)
• July 2004: Boston-Upstate NY-Quebec City-St. Lawrence River-Labrador-Newfoundland-PEI-Martha's Vineyard-Boston in DA40
• November 19, 2004: passed Helicopter Private checkride with Joe Brigham (at 69 hours rotary wing time)
• January 21, 2005: sold Diamond Star DA40
• January 30, 2005: flew a Jetprop (turbine conversion of a Piper Malibu) from Vero Beach, FL to Ocean Reef (07FA); high-altitude endorsement from Ron Cox
• February 2, 2005: completed Piper Malibu Mirage training from Ron Cox in Vero Beach, FL; high performance endorsement
• February 4, 2005: took Fundamentals of Instruction knowledge test; scored 98/100.
• March 15, 2005: took Flight Instructor-Airplane knowledge test; scored 97/100
• March 29, 2005: flew a Bell Jet Ranger with Alisa Howell filming traffic from HeloAir in Richmond, Virginia
• April 6, 2005: took Flight Instructor Instrument Airplane knowledge test; scored 96/100
• April 11, 2005: began CFI training with Jim Henry in Piper Arrow
• May 17, 2005: picked up Cirrus SR20, N707WT, in Duluth, MN, did factory training with Adam J. McCracken of UND, and flew the plane back to Boston on May 21/22.
• June 2, 2005, about 1050 hours: passed CFI checkride in Piper Arrow with Al Huey, retired Boston FSDO employee
• June 15-July 23, 2005: flew Cirrus N707WT on the following route: Boston, Edmonton, Yellowknife, Kugluktuk (Nunavut!), Norman Wells, Dawson City, Eagle (AK), Anchorage, McCarthy, Cordova, Homer, Anchorage, Whitehorse, Calgary, Jackson (WY), St. Paul, Boston. Alex rode in the back seat.
• September 21, 2005, about 1200 hours: passed CFII checkride in Cirrus SR20 with Al Huey (hot with winds gusting up to 24 knots), training was by Brad Pretzer
• November 14-17, 2005: took Robinson Factory Safety Course in Torrance, California
• December 1, 2005: passed Commercial helicopter checkride out of ASH with Joe Brigham
• December 7-14, 2005: flew newly purchased Robinson R22 helicopter, N211SH, from Long Beach, California to Bedford, Massachusetts (43 hours total) with Anthony Mannino, a CFI with Silver State Helicopters (the dealer who sold me the R22)
• January 25, 2006: passed Flight Instructor-Helicopter checkride out of KOA with Ben Fouts
• January 27, 2006: completed five hours of R44 dual with Jeroen Alberts and received an R44 PIC endorsement under SFAR 73
• March 2006: helped Dr. Doug Groshong ferry a factory-new Diamond Eclipse two-seater from the factory in London, Ontario to Hayward, California where it was containered and sent to Hawaii
• June 2006: picked up factory-new Robinson R44 Raven I and did some photography up and down the coast of California, then, with Paul Cantrell, flew it back to Boston across I-80 and I-90 (Reno, Salt Lake City, Wyoming, Nebraska, Chicago, Erie, Buffalo, Albany)
• July 26, 2006: soloed first student, Dale Z., in the R22 (500+ helicopter hours now)
• October 5, 2006: soloed first airplane student, Isaac Dekine, in the mighty DV20 Katana
• October 19, 2006: Dale Z. and Brad Pretzer pass Private checkrides with Don Cody in the R22, our first graduates
• November 27, 2006: passed ATP ASEL checkride with Marc Nathanson in the Cirrus SR20
• January 22, 2007: passed multi-engine instructor (MEI) checkride with Marc Nathanson in the PA44-180 Seminole
• February 15, 2007: awarded the 2006 Media Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
• February 19, 2007: added multi-engine rating to ATP, checkride with Marc Nathanson in the PA44-180 Seminole. Waited until the temperature warmed up to 10 degrees F, then went out to fly in winds gusting to 32 knots, 30 degrees offset from the runway, with wind shear reports from the bizjets landing BED.
• April 2007: first flights in South Africa and Namibia (Cessna 210 with Mark Semonian)
• September 2007: delivered R44 IFR trainer from factory in Los Angeles to customer in Palm Beach, Florida
• October 21, 2007: flew 1000th helicopter hour
• December 9, 2007: first turbojet time; flew CJ3 from BED to ICT (Wichita, Kansas) and then flew 1.5 in a Cessna Mustang; after I disengaged the autopilot prior to flying the ILS 01R, captain Tony Merck said "You're hand-flying now, do you want to declare an emergency?"
• January 4, 2007: flew C510 (Mustang) from BED to ICT with Jeff Higgins; first night landing in a turbojet
• April 12, 2008: first partial-panel IFR work in a helicopter (N202WT, freshly delivered from the Robinson factory with a broken attitude indicator)
• June 6, 2008: added CL-65 SIC type rating to pilot certificate
• April 10, 2009: added ATP-Helicopter and CFII-Helicopter ratings to type certificate; winds gusting 26 knots; examiner: Joe Brigham
• December 18, 2009: completed Cessna Mustang, CE-510S single-pilot type rating at FlightSafety in Orlando; examiner: Don Laughlin.
• May 3, 2014: completed Pilatus PC-12 training at SIMCOM; instructor: Robert Brooks.