First Solo flight

Today, I got back from a weekend away. After landing at home for about an hour, Calum asked me if I would go up in one of his flight lessons to take video of his take offs and landings for a physics project. This was my first time flying with Calum and his instructor. I watched as Calum meticulously did the pre-flight check list. I had a smooth and beautiful ride. I am so thankful for the beauty of where we live, as I looked out over to the ocean, the lush farm lands and hillsides.

I got out of the plane and Abe and Calum continued to fly while I sat in the middle of the field, next to the runway. The weather was so beautiful and Calum was so happy to be flying again after so many weather cancellations. After 1 1/2 hours, I notice that Abe and Calum were fueling up for gas. Then, taxied and parked next to the flight club. This seemed strange but, I assumed that they had finished, and started walking over. Abe secretly gestures to me to stop. I sat down again and pretended to look away at the other planes. After a while, Abe came over to me and said that Calum was going to solo. To keep the pressure off of him and keep him focused, I stayed seated (glowing inside). Calum would be doing a series of take offs, landings and maneuvers on his own. Abe, his instructor, would have communication with him on the ground if he should need it.

I sat, trying to be casual as he taxied around to go for his first take off. I smiled and gave him a wave and thumbs up. I called Matt and Eoin and told them to go outside and send a little prayer/thought to Calum because he was going on his first solo flight. After learning that Calum would be in the air for a while (an hour), I called Matt back and told him to come down. I loved hearing Calum over the radio, his voice so deep and sure. After the solo, he said that when he learned that he was going to fly, he was excited and a bit nervous until he got up and then it all felt very natural to him. He said that is was so beautiful with the sunset. Matt and Eoin made it to see him. He made his last landing as it just turned dark and it was the best landing of all of them.

His instructor was very proud of him and knew that he was ready. When we got back in to the club, his instructor cut the back of his shirt off with scissors. This is a tradition from back when pilots didn't have radios to one another. The instructor would pull on their student's shirt to tell them what they needed to do. By cutting off the shirt, it signifies that the student doesn't need the instructor advising them, anymore. The shirt is hung up in the flight club with "First Solo Flight, 9/26/10, Calum Cecil-Wherity, 16 years solo, N7420G, Abe Hazbun".

Calum will now be able to fly on his own during the day, at the Watsonville Airport.

His next goal is to do a second solo with a flight plan to fly to an airport 25 nautical miles away, land and come back.

It's been such a great night. I doubt if Calum will be sleeping tonight.

Thank you friends and family for helping support Calum in this next phase of lessons!

Raffle Winners!

Free Introductory Flight with Abe Hazbun, Santa Cruz Flying Club-Lisa Todd
http://scfc.org/

Wine Tasting for Two-Wendy Baxter, Janet Barber
http://www.storrswine.com/

Hot Tub and Sauna for two, Well Within Spa-Martin & Gina Hiley
http://www.wellwithinspa.com/

$35 Gift Certificate for Crow's Nest or Shadowbrook restaurants-Jerry Wherity
http://www.shadowbrook-capitola.com/
http://www.crowsnest-santacruz.com/home/home.php

Acupuncture Consultation & Treatment by Kathleen Pouls, L.Ac.-Adam Rose
http://www.kpoulshealingarts.com/

Jewelry by Claudia MacFarland, Amling Designs-Paul Buse
One-of-a-kind piece handcrafted from Precious Metal Clay (PMC, fine silver) and designs completed by a freshwater pearl. Chain is sterling silver and length adjustable to 18 inch. http://amlingdesigns.com/

Avis Day Car Rental-Wendy Baxter, Jeanie Brown

Budget Day Car Rental-Paul Buse

(4) movie passes to The Nickelodean & Del Mar Theatres-Jeanie Brown
http://www.thenick.com/

Polaroid USB Digital Camcorder-Therese Adams
2.0" color screen, 1.3 Megapixels, 8x Digital Zoom, SD card compatible, color green

Everyone who participated in our raffle was entered to win a ride for four people on Team O'Neill's Catamaran-Doug Kilner was the winner!


Thanks everyone for supporting Calum for his next series of lessons!
With love and appreciation

Dinner postponed

The fundraiser dinner has been postponed. The band we were hoping to secure is too busy this fall. We'll keep everyone posted. For now, buy up raffle tickets. Prizes are listed here:
http://www.andonia.com/calum The drawing will be done privately on Friday, Sept. 17th. Winners will be notified and posted on the website.

Hoping for good weather this weekend. Calum will be flying both Saturday and Sunday.

Thoughts and prayers go out to Bob (United Flight Services) and son, Michael's family. They tragically died in a plane crash on Tuesday. http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_16029037

Back from USS Midway Training/FAA test

We went to Calum's training graduation on Thursday aboard the USS Midway. It was so great to see Calum again and meet his mates. I'm attaching a link to the training site so you can see photos of his training in action, http://seacadetsfaagroundschool.weebly.com
Under the section, "Graduates" you will see a photo of Calum, scroll down to watch a great video!
Calum scored 92% and 96% on his final exams. This allowed him to go to the official FAA testing center and take his private pilot's written exam. He scored 88% ! Calum delivered his test results to his flight instructor today.

The training was a real challenge with classroom work up to 10 hours a day. The barracks were small and the chow wasn't good. Calum is happy to have real food and a real bed again. He had some great stories and enjoyed flying near the border in a home built experimental aircraft, simulator time and living aboard the aircraft carrier.

Gusty winds didn't allow him to fly today but, with the skies cooperating, Calum will fly on Thursday. Once he solos, he will receive his silver wings from his Naval Sea Cadet headquarters. He has asked his great grandpa (retired Navy), "Papa" to pin the wings on him.

FAA written exam

I just got word that Calum will be testing all day and then graduating from his Ground School on Thursday at 6pm. Then Friday, the cadets will be shuttled off to an official FAA test center to do the "real" test that will count as his written portion of his private pilot's license. We'll get to pick him up on Friday. Good luck Calum!

FAA Ground School/Come to Fundraising Dinner

Calum left for San Diego last Sunday, July 25th. He will be at a two-week training offered by the US Naval Sea Cadet Corp. The training is a FAA ground school aboard the aircraft carrier, USS Midway. Here he will study from 8 am-8 pm for the written exam portion of his private pilot's license. He called to say that he had made it safely and that the aircraft carrier was pretty cool. He was enjoying the views looking into the city, all lit up. He had reunited with a couple of friends from other trainings and was exited to find out that they would be on simulators every day and able to fly on the weekends.

Calum left with just over 26 hours recorded in his flight log book. When he return, he will work on soloing in August.

The date has been confirmed for the Fundraising Dinner! The dinner will be on Friday, Aug. 13th at the Whale City Cafe' in Davenport. The menu, pricing and environment is casual and definitely family friendly. Please invite friends, family and neighbors out!! The community has been so supportive and donated some great prizes for a raffle. Here are more details:
http://www.andonia.com/calum

Rotary Club of Santa Cruz Scholarship

Tomorrow will be Calum's 4th lesson through his vocational scholarship. He has been practicing take offs, landings and pattern work. He now has logged 23.4 hours of flight time. Tomorrow his instructor and him will discuss a date to solo.

the Fundraiser Dinner and Raffle are almost ready to go. Lots of great prizes have come in from our friends and community. Thanks so much!!! More info coming soon.

Love, Dana