Yikes! I'm 18 minutes short!

The best laid plans, right?

I'm one week from a check-ride. My logbook is filled in nicely and each requirement entry is tagged to make it easier for the examiner to find quickly.

I ran through the list of requirements (FAR 61.109) and checked each one off as completed a month ago. All was looking good. I booked the check-ride and began the application process at iacra.faa.gov

Uh-oh.. Disaster! I discovered to my horror last night, that I am 0.3 hours short of the cross country requirement. When I had read my log book the first time, I had mistakenly seen 5 take-offs and 5 landings, and thought I read 5.5 hours.

Like there isn't enough to think about this week, I'm now planning a cross country and crossing my fingers that all this gorgeous weather we have been having, will hold out another week. Delaying my checkride is not ideal for me, since I procrastinated a couple of months before booking it to start with. And then there's the "other" cost. The one that affects my bank account. Let's see....

Minimum flight is 50 miles each way, but of course there is no airport at the 50 mile marker. I'm probably looking at 120 miles, round trip. Contrary to the POH, which tells me C65440 will cruise at 106, experience tells me I should expect to cruise at about 95.

Total time will be around 1.7 hours by the time I taxi, run-up, take off, climb, fly land and repeat.

1.7 hours x $80/hour aircraft rental = $136

18 mins required, $136 spent.

That's $7.50/min.

Photo courtesy of Steven Depolo

Lesson from the trenches for all you student pilots out there:

Yes, there is a lot of planning involved in a cross country. You have a head full of figures, charts, notes. You are using all those little computers, calculators and rulers that have weighed your flight bag down for months now. It's a lot, I get it... trust me!

But consider this... You could find yourself just short of time like me - because I doubt I'm the first. Imagine just 10 mins or 5 mins short!

You are doing the math and checking the weather, but take it a step further. If your calculations tell you that the flight will be 2 hours and you know you need 2 hours or more to fulfill requirements ... Recalculate! Go further, fly slower, fly a less than direct route or prepare to do another cross country later!

This advice is worth $7.50/min and you are getting it for free! Just sayin'.

From the beginning...

Who is Dallice?

In short, a Realtor in the Boulder area and a flight student out of Vance Brand Airport, Longmont.

Of course there is more to me... I'm a person, with all the diverse interests, issues and complications that any decent human being has acquired by the time they get to my age.

I invite you to peel back the onion... get to know me through my posts. Give me advice, make comments and share your stories too.

I began flight lessons in August, 2010. Everyone has a bucket list. Mine's not that long, since I'm a "why wait?" type of girl. However, learning to fly had been on my list for a good 15 years... which I realize does call into question whether I am truly a "why wait?" girl after all!

This is "my" airplane. A Cessna 152. Tail number 65440.

We have become friends, have lots of memories together, and have a good deal of trust between us.

And my flight instructor, Mark. Same deal.

Around the same time I began flying, I undertook a kitchen remodel. My own house... so I was driven by passion and a vision for my home's improvement.

Sounds simple enough, right? Ummm... Not really!

There is a lot of work that goes into making a 1955 (original - Yikes!) kitchen, complete with washing machine, no dishwasher, poor lightening and poor storage, into a functional kitchen to be enjoyed and proud of.

There was dirt, noise and a generally high level of chaos which I thrived in for the first 3-4 weeks... then a slow decent into "make it stop" land. The kitchen (and all the other bits that need doing just then too) took 7 weeks... but what a transformation.

Long story short, the chaos of construction was offset by the freedom of flying. The anxiety that came with learning to recover a stall and from trying to learn landings was quickly pushed aside by each physically and emotionally demanding day of kitchen remodeling.

I am now a year into my training. The anxiety of new maneuvers has given way to test anxiety as I get closer to my check-ride.

Like many of you, I turned to the internet for advice, information and general reassurance about this upcoming exam. I found little. Perhaps because I wasn't looking in the right place... or perhaps because few of us log the process, emotion and planning that is upon us when preparing for such events.

Hence this blog... A place to record my journey, both the ups and downs.

Back to the Dunes

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve... since 2003.

The highest sand dunes in North America, surrounded on three sides by grasslands, wetlands and shrub-lands and nestled beneath the San Juan mountains.

Daytime on the dunes.

Apparently the sand can reach temps of up to 140 Fahrenheit. Thank goodness, not today.

Just before the dunes, this abandoned building caught the afternoon light... Blue sky, greenery, white washed walls. The discovery of copious quantities of animal bones inside, broke the spell!

Camping here is easy and fun. You would never know that our campsite was one of one hundred!

We only had one hiccup... a torrential downpour that left a lake in the tent... Nothing that couldnt be tipped out, swept out, dried out. :-)

S'mores were involved!

Wandering the dunes at midnight, tripod in hand, it was the perfect night to experiment with the camera.

Its a wonderful, magical place that has always captivated me! What better time to visit that a warm August weekend with a full moon?

The Grand Campfire Muffin Experiment of 2011

It started as an idea... inspired by You-tube, as all good things are.

But what quickly evolved, was a mission to try - no, perfect campfire baking.

Using my Swedish camp cookware and a muffin-in-a-box recipe, I added the wet ingredients and set about cooking.

The batter goes into a ziplock bag, then rests atop of a handy-dandy hot plate which is raised about an inch off the base of the cook pot. The pot gets water filled to the level of the hot plate.

The pot is lidded and placed over heat.

Yes... that would be a camp fire or cook stove normally, but in the experimental phase, its ok to use all available resources. I have found that a new kitchen, complete with granite and a stainless gas range, works very well in a pinch.

And 25 minutes later... OMG, it's steamed chocolate cake in a bag! Delightful!

Ok, so you've noticed... The "hot plate" is a do-it-yourself treasure. You too could make of these... Just open the can and remove the tuna, drill holes in the base and CLEAN it!

I would be lying if I said this didn't taste amazing. Every warm, gooey, chocolatey bite of it!

However, as I mentioned at the beginning, this is a quest for perfection and despite all its deliciousness, I feel I could do better. As such, I am driven to keep "experimenting and tasting" until no further improvement is possible. Life is SO hard.