Back in October, I wrote about my latest training endeavor, my plan to obtain a LTA-Balloon rating. While this winter has been warm in Ohio, winds, daylight, and schedules have been a hindrance to making much progress.

VFR, Daylight, and Light Winds

Training in a balloon can only be completed under visual conditions. While the balloon would know which way is up even if it were in a cloud, you can't legally fly the balloon in instrument meteorological conditions.

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A few weeks ago I got a panicked call from a friend of mine who is a corporate pilot for a local company. He was worried about a possible airspace penetration violation that had happened to him that day. He and the other pilot were approaching their destination airport, Manassas VA (KHEF) from the west, when they were asked by the tower to make a 6 mile left base for 34R.

They needed him to make space for two departures out and an inbound all ahead of him. However, this clearance would put them in a restricted area south of KHEF.

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May 23, 2004. "N44647, Miami Center, radar contact turn left heading 090 vectors to Freeport climb and maintain niner thousand."

That was the clearance for a couple of firsts for me.  My first flight over any water wider than Cave Run Lake near Morehead, KY and my first international flight.  It is 29 degrees as I am writing this and there is a light dusting of snow on the ground.  I guess that is why my thoughts take me back to that warm vacation 8 years ago.  If you need to take a trip to the islands let me tell you a few lessons I learned from mine.

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I was recently reminded of what it's like to be a student again last week after attending the first of a series of guitar lessons. Everything about it was foreign to me, from feeling like an outsider at the music shop to opening a book of sheet music that looked like it was written in Greek. Each lesson is only 30 minutes, and takes place one on one with the music instructor in a very small room. The first lesson was over before I knew it, and on the drive home it got me thinking of how similar this was to when I took my first flight lesson 12 years ago. I considered myself a good student...

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It's a new year, which means it's time to make an optimistic list of resolutions that you'll probably end up ignoring. But while promising to exercise more or eat better may be a lost cause, it's worth considering what your aviation resolutions might be for the year ahead. Becoming a better pilot--whether you have 5 or 5,000 hours in the logbook--is all about setting goals and working towards them. In this sense, the new year is a great time to take stock of where you are as a pilot and where you want to go.

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