Last week

So it's over. The language stay ended last week and I'm finally back in Switzerland. The daily life already took place again and it seems as nothing changed in the last few weeks. But we still need a résumé for the last week in San Diego. It was the most exciting and the most demanding one. However, it was also the best week in this time period. I feared to miss the opportunity of having a check-ride, which would give me the federal license I was seeking for. Nevertheless I got lucky and managed to obtain a final exam with a federal examiner. Last Saturday, just 12 hours before my flight back to Switzerland, I had the pleasure to attend a 6 hours exam.
When we came back from our flight, the guy told me that I passed the test and that I'm now officially a Pilot. I was sooo glad that the whole language stay succeed with just one signature on a paper, which says that I am a Pilot now.

My Pilot certificate

2nd last week in SD

The last week of my language stay has begun and my student pilot career entered its final stage. The time here in San Diego went by quite quickly although it hasn't been an easy project, I managed to keep focused.
In this last week I had to study for several final tests. First of all I had to take my Knowledge test, which is mandatory to continue with the other tests. I wasn't really prepared for the test and did not even look at all given questions in the preparation tool, nevertheless they told me to take the test as soon as possible due to the upcoming Prog 3. Luckily I passed the knowledge test with an unexpected high score.
As mentioned before there were several other test to be done at this time. The next one was Prog 3 which included the most difficult tasks and procedures yet. However I also passed and succeeded there and I was now able to go on with the preparation for my Final Progcheck. The purpose of Prog 4 is to simulate a Checkride (the Final Test), in which every single task and all skills gained in the last weeks of my education are tested again. We first went for the Ground portion (theoretical part), which  took 3 hours in itself. At the next day we did the Flight portion and performed the respective tasks....

....and i succeeded. I'm now ready for my final Checkride to become a FAA certified Pilot.

 A picture of la Jolla Beach taken on the huge cliff, which lays behind

The transition from day to night at Gillespie Field. Just before my Night Cross-Country flight...

Gillespie at Sunset

View over Mission Bay from Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial

Another Solo Cross-Country flight

An impressive Week

One more week passed by and it was one of the most impressive ones in the time of my language stay. I'm now preparing for my next Prog-Test, which would be the 2nd last Test before my Checkride. Therefore I have to finish the written exams, which annoys me a little bit:/ However, this week we also started to perform some cross-country flights. This means that we fly from one airport to another in a minimum distance of 50 nautical miles. Some Solo-flights and a beautiful night-flight were planned for the past week too(pictures are below...)

One of my Solo flights to the Trainings Area and back. It was a beautiful day and I
finally had some time to take pictures. 

That's the strut of the left wing of my Cessna, which covers this picture of El Captain
Mountain in the background 

One day we went to the beach at Mission Bay. We took our bikes with us and performed
a little bike tour along the beach of Sann Diego (about4.5km). A beautiful and gorgeous experience:)
We also had the chance to watch, how the sun descended into the horizon at sunset.

That's one of several pictures of my night flight. It was one of my most impressive experiences in my
whole life. Everything was lighted and the air was smooth. No wind, no traffic and a tremendous visibility.
We took-off from Gillespie Field and flew to Ramona, which is a bout 15 nautical miles north. There we did some Touch-and-Goes and went back after 1 hour of flight.

A nice view over San Diego:)

Here we can see the final-approach to Gillespie on Runway 17. That's actually something really special,
because runway 17 is normally closed due to the other 2 main runways, which cross the respective runway. 

My Solo Progress C

Panorama view over all parts of San Diego on Cowles Mountain.

The last week was quite stressful and demanding for me. I prepared for my 2nd progress check, which would automatically give me the solo-endorsement to go on a flight on my own. I had to study a lot more stuff than in the past few days and still remember all the other things from before as it is a continuous education to become a Private Pilot.

Me and my plane 284LP. I nearly flew every plane of this flight school, but there are some aircraft, which  are just extraordinary and smooth to handle. This plane on the picture is one of these.

So at Friday I had my actual Solo-Check, which went good except for the landings:$ The theoretical part as well as the maneuvers and the handling of the aircraft were considered to be good. However the landing was not what the examiner expected to see at a prog-2 test. Therefore I had to repeat the landing procedures at the next day. This time I passed and was officially authorized to fly the plane all alone.
At Sunday morning I met my instructor on the airfield to get the first solo-flight done. We first did a few landings together and he was certainly convinced that I was ready. So he got out of the plane and left me alone as a Pilot-in-Command. I did 3 full-stop landings and taxied back to my flight school, where my Instructor already greeted me.

View to Gillespie Field from the mountain, which is actually the backyard of
where I live.

Redbird Simulator is a really authentic flight trainings device
to educate students how to react in an emergency in s real flight.

2nd week and still alive

So there we are. The second week has already begun, I'm still learning and the weather is still good. However, my flight career is totally successful, yet. I passed my first Progress-Check, in which I had to prove that I'm for the most part of this test able to fly the airplane. Therefore I needed some trainings and theoretical inputs. Although I ended up with just 6 flight trainings before my prog-test, I succeeded and even got congratulations on the part of the examiner.

View from the accommodation where I'm staying. Every morning before I ride my
bike down the hill to the flight school, I glance on this quite privileged view over
El Cajon.

San Diego is not just one big city, they enjoy the availability of several
parks as well as national parks, too.

El Cajon, it's encircled by hills and at some part also some mountains and warms up till
34-38°C at noon. Fells like hell on earth while sitting in the airplane and waiting for
clearance for takeoff.

That's the interior view of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. The plane I'm flying...

C172 Skyhawk from outside.

Beautiful view over whole San Diego taken at Sunset-time.

The first week

The first week passed by and I can show you now some impressions of my american life. It was a hard and uncertain way till I really arrived at San Diego El Cajon. At the beginning it seemed to me as if nothing wants to work out as it should. It even started BEFORE my flight to San Diego. 5 minutes before my checkin and just before the security-check, my mobile phone broke down and I had no chance to contact anyone from there on. So I hoped it's just a one-off, therefore I went on with confidence and without any bad predictions at all.
When I arrived in London Heathrow, my only stopover, I got to the airports transit-area and I queued in. The guy who was actually responsible to let me pass through needed a lot of time to check my documents until I finally asked him if there would be a problem. He replied with the words nobody never ever wants to hear while being at a stopover. He told me that the flight is totally full and I unfortunately got overbooked. After long discussions and arguments, they gave me a flight on the next day, however I had to spend the night in London. Due to this I had the chance to do a small city-tour through London.
On the next day no problems appeared and I had a smooth and nice flight to San Diego:)

After my arrival, a guy from the flight school picked me up at the airport and brought me to the school's accommodations. However I immediately knew I could not stay there for the whole 8 weeks and I decided to look for a new housing. Just after one day I found a really nice guy who hosts me now in his beautiful house in the hills of El Cajon.
The week itself passed by with lots of paperwork and introductions.
Down here some impressions...

Many books to read and learn.
This is all the stuff I have to read and LEARN in this 8 weeks. Several hundred pages to read.

Gillespie Field
That's the airport, where I'm learning all that stuff

Sunset on Snake Mountain
View over El Cajon

Sunset 2 

Sailing cruise

The Beginning

Hi Guys,
This blog is about how to become a pilot. It's all about my journey to San Diego CA,  my life there and my way to become a real pilot.
This blog will be based on illustrations, which will be provided by me. Therefore you'll have the pleasure to enjoy the different impressions of San Diego on the ground as well as in the air.