Since the Raleigh Executive Jetport (KTTA) has been closed for runway resurfacing and Wings of Carolina has relocated to Burlington, NC, I have trained twice more with Total Flight Solutions in Louisburg (Triangle North Executive Airport, KLHZ) in the Remos GX light sport.  It is beyond fun flying with the doors off on this light sport airplane!

I also got to see the benefits of these planes first hand.  I am making ALL of my short-field landings in less than 1,200 feet of runway and that’s as a student!  The Remos is also not designed to be a STOL (short take-off and landing) airplane like the Zenith CH750 or JustAircraft SuperStol (www.justaircraft.com).  This really opens up mission access in the rest of the world.

Last lesson I practiced actual soft-field landings on the grass next to the runway.  We are allowed to do that at Louisburg.  My instructor said that I did fine and the airplane was fun to land on grass.

Today, I learned valuable lessons of “defensive driving” in the air.  I had two different airplanes fly close by me without ever acknowledging my existence and a flock of turkey vultures dive into my flightpath.

As I was practicing power-on stalls, my instructor says to watch traffic at my 9 o’clock and proceeds to pull back on the yoke and climb the airplane.  A Cessna RG flys right under us close enough for us to read his tail number!  David (my instructor) tried to contact them by radio to see if they had seen us but they refused to communicate.

I was then practicing turns around a point when about 6 or 7 turkey vultures dove right in front of me.   Needless to say, we went to another area to practice.

Finally, as I was in the traffic pattern to land back at Louisburg, an older Cessna took off and then turned left about halfway down the runway, right in front of me!  That is completely against procedure but just like driving, you always have to be on the lookout for the other guy who is not paying attention or obeying traffic laws.

I am scheduled to make a cross-country flight with David on Thursday to Kinston and back.  This is a 110 nautical mile trip that should take about 1 1/2 hours of flight to complete.  Getting closer to that check-ride.