I began taking flying lessons while in high school in Reno, Nevada. After soloing it became too expensive so I quit. In December 1996 we flew in a commercial jet to Las Vegas. I listened on the headphones to the radio communications guiding the holding pattern and approach, and decided it was time to become a pilot.

See my Logbook Entries

Learning to Fly

On a Saturday January 4th 1997 I visited Atkin Air at the Lincoln/Harder airport north of Sacramento, and said I wanted a lesson. Mike Remmel took me up in a Cessna 150 for stalls and turns. Soon we were doing pattern work - takeoffs and landings. The following weekend the valley was fogged in, so Mike used IFR to get above the fog to allow practice at Auburn and Georgetown. I flew the IFR approach, which was zero visibility for several minutes: Trust the instruments - intense.

After further instruction in emergency procedures, I soloed February 5th, and practiced alone through February. March 1st Mike and I did a dual cross-country to Chico and Sacramento Exec. Two weeks later we did a dual X-C at night to Sacramento Exec and Placerville.

March 17th -- 60 years to the day from when Amelia Earhart crashed in Hawaii, I took my FAA written exam, scoring 100%.

April 13th I did my "big solo cross country": Lincoln -> Redding -> Oroville -> Nevada City -> Auburn -> Placerville -> Jackson -> Rancho Murietta -> Lincoln. It took 5.0 hours Hobbs (engine running) time, and was exhausting. My next X-C was to Sonoma, Napa, and Sac Exec.

On the final leg I flew over my home and snapped this photo while circling. I called home on a cell phone, so my kids are watching in the backyard - pretty cool, I thought! (Cell phones were not so common in 1997.)

The Piece of Paper

On February 5, 1997 I did my first "re-solo" - since I had soloed once in high school too. Photo after solo with instructor Mike Remmell:

Through May I practiced my technique - slow flight, steep turns, cross-wind landings... Then on May 31st FAA Examiner Jim Rutledge granted me my license, just 5 months (and $3000) after walking into Atkin Air.

Through the summer I got checked out in a Cessna 172, and my passengers have included: my family, Mark Blackburn, Steve Beach, Guido and Konstanze from Germany, Paul Storey, Gary Hamilton, Vikas Gupta, and Sundar Rajan. I also function as the right-seat safety pilot for Rick Silveria as he practices his IFR work -- flying around with a hood that restricts vision to only the instruments. I've also had one lesson in a twin engine Piper Seneca.

Me first, me first!

Around September 1999 I was acting as safety pilot as Rick Silveria departed straight-out south-bound from Sacramento Executive airport. I was charged with watching for other aircraft and was scanning left-right, and Rick had not changed the radio from Sac Exec to the S.F. "flight following" channel for tracking other aircraft. I looked up and a Cessna 150 was on head-on collision course with us, apparently on final approach to Sac Exec. I shoved the nose down, and within a few seconds Rick and I saw the other plane go over the top of us.

When my father was learning to fly he subscribed to AOPA Magazine. When I was in around third grade I recall showing him the ad and asking what he would do. He said "I would shove the nose down." I never forgot that. (And it's a good thing that the other pilot didn't see us and have the same idea. With each plane going around 100mph, this was a very close call.)