Flying near Rocky Mountains

I am flying again! It’s been more than a year I haven’t flown at all, and I missed it a lot. Finally I can spread my wings again!

Pilot must fly, it is the rule. Skills are deteriorating without practice. The process is slower for experienced pilots, but practice is still essential. And, of course, without flying you definitely don’t gain more flying experience.

FAA license does not expire, but, for example, Instrument Rating requires maintaining currency. For being current you need 6 approaches and some intercepting and holding during the last 6 months. If these requirements were not met, you still have 6 months to do it with a safety pilot. If these 6 months also passed, you need an IPC – Instrument Proficiency Check.

Since I haven’t flown for a long time, firstly we fly some hours with the instructor just to refresh my skills.

Folks, I am in the Rocky Mountains! It’s so cool! The school is located near Denver, Colorado, and has a really large and diverse fleet. I keep its page in my browser bookmarks since around 2018.

The weather were not perfect though. The lenticular clouds formed around the mountains indicating a big deal of turbulence and strong winds.

Lenticular clouds

By the weekend it improved, the wind became lighter, and finally I had a chance to fly. We picked Cessna 172R with a 180 hp engine (instead of usual 160 hp for 172N) and a Garmin 650.

Cessna 172R

It turned out that I fly better than I had thought. The landings are pretty good, the maneuvers are not bad, and even instrument approaches are tolerable. I was preparing myself to something worse after so long pause. It’s so cool to fly again!

The airplane is really nice, but I don’t like touch screen at all. It is not very handy, especially in bumpy weather. And I don’t think that the guy who created ILS/GPS switch via entering the menu has ever flown a real airplane. I didn’t think I would say that, but the Garmin 430 is pretty good!

But it does not really matter a lot. What is important that I can finally fly again, and the landscape around is better than I’ve ever seen. I love mountains and airplanes, and the place combines my two passions!


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Milestones

04/09/2017: My First Flight
04/25/2017: EASA PPL written exam (6 exams passed)
05/21/2017: Radio Operator Certificate (Europe VFR)
05/22/2017: EASA PPL written exam (all passed)
05/26/2017: The First Solo!
05/28/2017: Solo cross-country >270 km
05/31/2017: EASA PPL check-ride
07/22/2017: EASA IFR English
08/03/2017: 100 hours TT
12/04/2017: The first IFR flight
12/28/2017: FAA IR written
02/16/2018: FAA IR check-ride
05/28/2018: FAA Tailwheel endorsement
06/04/2018: FAA CPL long cross-country
06/07/2018: FAA CPL written
07/16/2018: FAA CPL check-ride
07/28/2018: FAA CPL ME rating
08/03/2018: FAA HP endorsement
06/03/2019: EASA ATPL theory (6/14)
07/03/2019: EASA ATPL theory (11/14)
07/15/2019: FAA IR IPC
07/18/2019: FAA CPL SES rating
08/07/2019: EASA ATPL theory (done)
10/10/2019: EASA NVFR
10/13/2019: EASA IR/PBN SE
11/19/2019: Solo XC > 540 km
12/06/2019: EASA CPL
12/10/2019: EASA AMEL
02/20/2020: Cessna 210 endorsement
08/30/2021: FAVT validation
05/27/2022: TCCA CPL/IR written
05/31/2022: Radio Operator Certificate Canada