Baby Steps

So...I hit a bit of a slump this weekend. It was a little difficult to see the big picture and I slacked off on my weekend work outs.

However, on Thursday when I do my shoulder and back work out, one of my items is to do pull ups until I can't anymore. When I first started this, I couldn't do any. On Thursday, I did two. The second one had a bit of swing in it for help, so maybe I'd call that a "half" pull up. Either way, it's silly, but it made me super happy. I like seeing results, and this was an incredibly clear indication of a RESULT. I've been a little...decadent in my diet (good cheese, nice wine...) so I don't think I LOOK better than before, but I am definitely stronger than before.
In the Air Force, there are fitness tests where the highest score is 100. To pass, I need to get at least a 75. The requirements for 75 are 16.22 minutes for running a mile and half, 35.5 inches waist circumference, 18 pushups in a minute, and 38 situps in a minute. To get 100, it's 10:23 or less for a mile and half, less than 30 inches waist circumference, more than 46 pushups a minute, and more than 53 situps a minute. I will continue working pullups, but I'm going to try to factor in the situps and pushups too. It'd be nice to get 100 on everything. And before you ask, these ARE specifications for females under the age of 30. There are different specs for guys and different specs for different ages too.

Speaking of more results, when I went flying on Friday, Mike said "I'm so impressed at how well you're keeping altitude and straight and level flight!" We actually worked on more controlled stalls. It's so creepy because when you stall in a plane, it shakes, kind of like a car does when it's about to stall. Then the nose drops, and if you have the flaps in, you lose so much lift and have so much drag that the nose REALLY drops. It's like a roller coaster. That YOU'RE in charge of. It's scary, but I f'ing love it. Both Mike and Pete are starting to see why I want to do this and why piloting might be really good for me...One of the things that I need to work on in stalls is keeping the nose level. On some of the stalls I did, the nose started going to the side, which will make the plane spin. I think at one point I will purposely put my plane in a spin and learn how to get out of it. I can only imagine how crazy that is going to be....Today, I didn't even go fly because the clouds were too low...Instead, I learned all about how to read weather reports. They look something like this:

KACK 252253Z 03011KT 2SM BR OVC004 07/07 A2970 RMK AO2 RAE32 SLP058 P0000 T00720067

KACK 252120Z 2521/2618 02012KT 3SM BR OVC006
FM260400 02008KT 2SM BR OVC007
FM260500 01009KT 1SM BR OVC005
FM260900 35009KT 4SM BR BKN015
FM261400 34016G25KT P6SM SCT025
FM261700 35021G31KT P6SM FEW050

Whaaaaa? 
I know, it's crazy! But, like all new languages, it takes time and practice to get it right. And I can already tell you pretty much everything that this is saying.
First of all, "KACK" is the airport (Nantucket). Then, "25" is the day of the month. Everyone knows it's March 2012, so that is omitted from the weather
report. Which, by the way, is called the METAR (Meteorological  Actual Reports)
After that is the time that this report was made (2120Z) "Z" (Zulu) means Greenwich Mean Time, so since it's Daylight Savings now, we subtract 4.
That means that this report was published at 17:20 (5:20pm). After that, it says the wind is coming from "03" at "011" knots.
Directions are given in coordinates where 0 corresponds with North, 180 corresponds with South, 90 corresponds with East, and 270 corresponds with
West. However, the zero is dropped, so "03" is really "30". That means that the wind is coming from a north easterly direction. After that, "2SM" means
visibility in front of you is 2 statute miles (as opposed to Nautical miles). "BR" means mist (Mike told me to think of it as "Baby Rain"
and "OVC006" means "overcast" with a cloud ceiling of 600 feet. I haven't learned all the acronyms yet, but "FG" is fog, "RA" is rain, "SCT" is scattered
showers, etc.
The bit below tells you what the weather forecast is. The first part, "KACK" is again the airport. 252120Z is the date and time it was posted, and 2521/2618
tells you when this forecast is valid from (March 25, 21h to March 26, 18h) however, remember that it's in Greenwich mean time, so it's really 17h to
March 26 14h. Then, all the "FM"s are details for that time segment. "FM260400" means "From March 26 at 4h" "02008KT" is again the wind: coming from
20 degrees (North eastish) at 8 knots.
After that, visibility at 2 statute miles, with mist and a cloud ceiling at 700 feet. The ceiling is important for me, because I can't fly above the ceiling. I fly "VFR"
 which is "Visual Flight Reference" meaning that I have to use the ground as reference when I fly. If I'm above the cloud ceiling, I have no clue where the F I'm
going. So I have to stay below it. If I fly "IFR" which is "Instrument Flight Reference" I fly using instruments, and I can pretty much fly whenever. However,
I need to get an additional certification for that. Which I will not do on my own. The Air Force will teach me that. So you might be able to see that the wind
changes from North East, to North, which paints the picture of a low front moving north. Oh by the way, when you have a "G" in the
forecast, that stands for "Gusts".

I was also incredibly touched at one point today. Mike and I were at the pilot lounge computers at Hanscom discussing the weather reports. He was teaching me,
 I was reading back to him and answering his questions.
There was a woman in the lounge, and when she got up to go, she came over to me and said "good luck!". It was clear to Mike (and me) that she was wishing me
luck on getting my pilot license and continuing on my path.
I feel like I've harped on it a lot, but I am so appreciative and grateful of the support I've gotten from (mostly) men and women who are helping me along this path
 and ESPECIALLY encouraging and pushing me to chase
the dream as a female.

Another "homework" that I need to do is listen to tower chatter so that I get used to the lingo and understanding what is going on. Currently I'm listening to the
 tower chatter at Boston Logan Airport. The site is here, and I'm listening to "KBOS Twr East/West". It's funny, because all this aviation info is out there on the
internet and it's public domain, but I bet
no one would ever think to
randomly listen to it :) 


For a fun conclusion....! All of the Boston Sports teams fly out of Hanscom (Bruins, Patriots, Celtics....) And when they do, they leave their cars in the parking lot at Hanscom.
So every time I park and walk to the terminal where my lessons are, I see all these GORGEOUS cars in the lot. Mike was telling me today how he parked next to Seguins Maserati today.
My favorite car I've seen is the one I've posted underneath....it's called a Fisker Karma, and it's a plug in hybrid luxury sports sedan! The top model retails at $116,000.

Enjoy