My dear friends Bernoulli and Newton

**I'm going to write these as if they were letters to Dad because these are all of the things I would want to say**

I was able to get my first flight in today but before that had spent a couple of days going through some of the ground training. The weather in Chicago is its usual... predictably crappy. The amount of wind, lack of visibility and temperature spreads are less than ideal for an amateur like myself. I'm starting to think I have my own personal bad weather system that follows me as the weather is usually good one day before and one day after I have my training.

My instructor, Chris, is a young guy...probably close to my age. In fact, most of the people at Windy City are young, ambitious pilots eager to move up the ladder. I find myself picturing you during your time as a pilot in training and I wonder what it was like for you. I think you would really like Chris and the group at the school in general. They truly love their job but don't take themselves too seriously. However, I'm still trying to break them in on my sense of humor...

...The first day we went out to the airplane to go over a pre-flight inspection. As we opened the canopy to climb in the cockpit, I looked at Chris and said "I step directly on the wing, right?" Now if there is one cardinal rule...it is DON'T STEP ON THE WING. Of course I know this, but the look in Chris's eye when I said this suggested my face had been too deadpan. I'm still working on him.

After the first day, I purchased all of my student pilot books and promised to study ever so diligently while I was away in Holland. I did study of course and found myself eating it up. I feel like the timing of this is perfect as my chemical engineering background helps my tiny brain wrap around the concept of flight. I find it hard to believe that I will ever read and know the FAR/AIM 2009 edition by heart, but I'm sure you did...and I think about how amazing that is.

Speaking of flight, and the theory behind it...Chris and I spent some time going over basic aerodynamics and how the plane pitches, rolls and yaws. As he is talking and drawing pictures on the board I can tell he was nervous. I start to wonder if I'm one of his first students and what it must be like to teach people to fly. He's explaining to me in simple terms, Bernoulli's theory for lift and Newton's thought on forces. For a few moments I found it very difficult not to raise my hand and say "I already know this, Bernoulli and I go way back...Fluids 101". During this time I was also thinking that you and I would have had a great conversation about lift and why planes fly. I know you would have been the master at teaching this concept.

As Chris is teaching, it occurs to me that we will learn a lot from eachother as I pursue my license. I realize that it is really important for me to just take in all that he has to say, and for me to challenge him and ask questions and to just trust him. It will be my first time in a small plane with anyone besides you and I know that if you were here you would have words of wisdom about what to look for in a pilot and certainly you would have an anecdote about what it's like to be a CFI.

The other part of yesterday's ground training was weather. I don't disclose the fact that I used to come downstairs to the basement while you downloaded DUATS information before a flight and explained what we were looking for. I'm trying to battle the "My Dad does this" reflex because I know that once again it's important for me to let him take the wheel and teach it to me as he knows how.

We use an aviation weather website which has METARS, TAFS and FAs and cover all the information that is given. At one point we come to one of the remarks (RMK) and I ask Chris about one of them and the meaning. He was unsure and mentioned that for the most part he found the details of weather to be quite boring. This may be true, but I knew that you would be able to explain to me that portion of the remarks and that you would even make it sound interesting, would probably know a little history about it. That was one of the best things about you, you always dove deep into whatever you were doing and made sure to know the inner workings. Even the apparent mundane weather remarks. Every day I miss that about you.

I also asked him about the temperature dew point spread...being an engineer I wanted some quantitative information. I know we had talked about this one crisp Wyoming morning. I only wish I could remember what you said. At the time I was a teenager up early on a Saturday morning and probably wasn't thinking of the weather...or the dew point.

I spent the evening reading the manual for the DA-20 trying to envision my first takeoffs and landings...and how the hell am I going to keep all of these numbers in check. The truth is, there is no way I will be able to manage it all, at least not at first. It's hard for me to imagine that you were ever unsure about your skills as a pilot but I'm sure you would know just the right thing to say.

I was really nervous before I went to bed, the night before the first flight...but I slept perfectly. Maybe you would have said "just get some rest, you will feel better about it in the morning". So I did.