A lovely day..a lovely flight

So as time goes by so fast, I know that eventually, I am going to take a look one day and realize I've been in school for 6 months and that I'm about to solo in the helicopter by myself. I am super excited about this! James's next flight is three days from now and he will be soloing. He has been in school since about February. As for now, I've learned that when you are in school for such a dynamic and complicated field..that there is so much I don't know! I'm excited to learn, but a little overwhelmed.

The first thing I would tell a potential student about learning how to fly a helicopter would be:

 1. It's going to be hard. Really hard. Probably one of the most difficult things that you will have to surpass.
2.It will test your patience, and your willpower. You definitely do need 4-5 hours a day studying.
3. The faster you go, the further you'll soar. What I mean by this is that the more time you put at home studying, the faster your classes will go, and the sooner you can get going with your new adventure of piloting. Also, it saves you money on student loans :)
4. TRUST your instructor. Your instructor is obviously your key to success while you are learning. They will be the ones to help you along your way if you have a million questions and a good CFI (certified flight instructor) will be patient and supportive.
5. Feel the fear, and do it anyway. The only way that you are going to succeed past the fear roadblock is to ignore it. Fear means that you are out of your comfort zone. This is good. If you don't have any fear, something is off or your instructor isn't pushing you far enough.
6. Positive thinking. You MUST think positive. Even if you have a crappy day at school, you've got to find a place in your mind where you come to agreements with yourself and find the attitude that you want to be in. Ultimately, it's you who decides how hard it is going to be to YOU.
 7. Willpower. Definitely the most important. You are going to be making decisions as a pilot whether to fly or not, or be in situations where you really do need to have all of the knowlege you were taught in school, even if you haven't practiced it since school. This is where the willpower comes in. Even when you are out of school and past being a CFI and are in the job market, you need to have the willpower to study study study everything and persevere through anything that comes to you to be the best pilot that you can be.

"To master a skill, you must input at least 10,000 hours"
- Unknown

This may not make much sense to someone who hasn't been introduced to this field, but it is completely different than memorizing some answers and knowing how to do a calculus problem and reading a book and doing a book report on it for English. This tests WHO YOU ARE.
Anyway, if I didn't have any confidence in myself as a person, it would be a million times harder to do what I and many others are trying to do. So take it as it comes, keep a positive attitude, and fulfill your best potential. It also helps SO much if you have someone who absolutely believes that you can do it. When you feel down, talk to them and listen to what they have to say about your successes.

Onto lighter subjects,  I HOVERED today! Also, I passed my first and second lesson test. Now the next lesson I will get is pattern-work and more intense aerodynamics. Very excited. I am in a great mood with school and I got a great result out of persevering for my first two weeks of school. I'm not sure how fast other people learn to hover, and I know it is different for each person and there isn't really a time limit to how fast because you go at your own pace, but on my second hour of hovering I picked it up. I am definitely not finished learning hovering because it is something that every pilot still has to work on, but I am proud of myself and it makes me want to move forward! Or..aft cyclic? :p

[Enter picture of me hovering here. :( aww, I don't have one!]