Day 71 - The Midnight Rider

Me flying an approach

-“Tuscaloosa Traffic, Astra One Uniform Alpha’s crossing midfield to enter the left downwind for two-two behind the Seminole.” The pilot’s words reverberated in my headset, setting off tiny excitement sensors in my brain. My hearing the callsign “One Uniform Alpha” was like a kid on Christmas morning hearing that Santa Claus had come.
-“We’ll keep it tight for ya,” I said. I grinned like an idiot as I transmitted the message to the jet’s pilot. I looked to my left and could see his lights to the side, and slightly behind us.
-“Hey, ‘ppreciate that, One Uniform Alpha.”
I giggled audibly after I spoke into the radio, watching the aircraft close distance to enter the pattern behind us.
“What’s so special about One Uniform Alpha?” Danny asked. “Who is that?”
I turned the yoke to the left and dropped the landing gear, all in one fluid motion. “That’s the coach,” I said, as I completed the rapid turn toward the runway, executing a patented Walker County no-base turn to final. A few seconds and a 180 degree turn later, the aircraft had dropped its landing gear and flaps, and rolled out on to a perfect short final approach.
“The coach?” he asked.
“Yeah. Coach Saban. One Uniform Alpha is the callsign for the University of Alabama’s Astra jet.” The main gear barked and the wheels touched down on the runway, followed by the nose gear. I pulled the flaps up, and pushed the throttle levers forward to the stop. In the darkness, the colored runway lights passed by us with ever increasing speed, and I heard the Astra’s pilot announce his turn to final behind us.

-“Tuscaloosa traffic, two-four-five’s on the upwind for two-two,” I announced into the radio, simultaneously raising the landing. “Rolllllllll Tide…”
Later tonight, while watching the news report on Coach Saban’s trip, I announced to Ryan that I was present for the his return to Tuscaloosa. Ryan, who is also a die-hard Bama fan himself, was very jealous that I got to fly the pattern with One Uniform Alpha. I was personally just happy to cap off a second day of good flying. I’ve had an awesome two days; things are really improving with Danny here. I’ve had the best two days of flying (at least as far as the program is concerned) since I’ve been here, and am feeling a lot better as opposed to last week. It’s starting to be fun again, and that makes all the difference in the world.
We flew last night and tonight; last night being the longer of the two trips. It really reminded me why I love to fly. We flew for six solid hours, from here to Augusta, Georgia, and back, shooting various practice approaches along the way. I’m pretty sure that it’s the longest time I’ve spent in a cockpit to date, and I loved every second. We didn’t get back until nearly two o’clock this morning, but I didn’t care. Night time is probably my favorite time to fly, if I had to pick a time. Seeing the lights of Atlanta at night was truly amazing, and we were able to fly right over downtown. It’s truly an awesome sight. Plus, flying conditions are, generally, much smoother at night. I literally flew all the way across the state of Georgia with my arms crossed; I controlled the aircraft with nothing but the rudder pedals and the elevator trim.

Overall summary: Good. Vast improvements have been made. I had a great weekend, and am having a wonderful week so far. I continue to have high hopes for the future, until such time as somebody decides that I don’t need to be optimistic for a little while. It is my hope that such interventions will occur with decreasing frequency as I enter what is, hopefully, the final stretch of the program.
I’m also growing steadily more excited about prospects of the future. Certain financial fears have been somewhat eased, and my educational plan of action is garnering increasing support from the masses. One supporting phone call in particular is to largely to thank for my improved morale, having also occurred within the last few days. It has given me new hopes and goals, particularly a potential opportunity to actually get to fly my beloved Jetstream in the future. I’m not exactly holding my breath for it, but it’s really giving me something to strive for; an attainable objective (theoretically). It’s much easier to press on when you have a tangible goal at the end. Something within reach. So it seems that, with each passing day, I’m beginning to find more and more reasons to believe.

So that’s all that’s new in my world for the last few days. This is a fairly short post by comparison to some of my previous posts, and for that apologize, but it is time for me to hit the sack early. I have an early flight with Ed tomorrow, and I cannot wait! The only crappy thing is that 6:30 is going to come veeerrryyy early.


Until next time...

Joey

Author's note: Special thanks to Danny for playing photographer on last night's flight. Pictures above.