Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...Easy as 1, 2, 3

Since taking Aircraft Dynamics, I've been interested in getting my pilot's license. I'm working on ground school materials on my own time right now, and am anticipating my first flight lessons this week!

The smallest aircraft I have ever flown in is a Beechcraft King Air, which I sky-dove out of. Andy was going to get some flight time in last weekend in the Cessna Flying Club's 172s, so he invited me to come along as a passenger.

The Cessna Flying Club has a fleet of brand new planes (all less than 2 years old), all equipped with Garmin G1000 glass cockpits. This means they have GPS navigation systems, Traffic Collision Avoidance Systems, weather updates, etc...all on these nice little screens. There are a few back-up steam gauges in case of a failure.



The plane we took.



This is your captain Andy speaking!



We didn't fly far...only out to Ponca City in Oklahoma. It's a favorite destination for Wichita pilots, because there is a Mexican restaurant right by the airport that everyone loves to eat at..and it's only a 30 min flight away.

The Arkansas River


The G1000 glass cockpit


A view of Downtown Wichita




Our own shadow! This was so cool...watching your own shadow during take-off and landing.


I can't wait for my own flight lessons to begin!!!

Weekend Fun

I thought I would have plenty of time on weekends to study for ground school and to finish my homework from the Rome class, but I have been keeping unusually occupied...

Weekends are often filled with being outdoors, planes, and some sort of hodge-podge grouping of the motley crew.

Scattergories! People in Uniform that begin with S........"s-cops???"



I've been trying to fly my kite, but the winds always die when I bring my gear out...oh well. :( We keep busy with volleyball and swimming...the Sedgwick County Park is really close to our apartments, so we often go there to enjoy the outdoors. It has a ton of bike paths, open fields, a sledding hill (not really applicable for summer), volleyball courts, basketball courts, and some nice small ponds.

Kelly's 20th and the Triple Feature Drive-In

I am pretty behind on blogging...so bear with me as I try to catch up.

The other interns here are great. We have a lot of fun together, and the best part is that we all live so close to each other! Andy and Shana are our "backwards" neighbors...the entire backs of our apartments share a common wall, so our places are exact mirror images of each other. There are two other interns that we know of who live in the same complex, and four others who live in neighboring complexes (our complexes even share outdoor pools, they are so close).

Kelly turned 20 on Friday the 13th, and it was her first birthday away from home. We decided it'd be fun to surprise her with a birthday party. I was going to host (seeing it'd be easiest to surprise Kelly when she got out of work and came home), but it turned out that Kelly got out of work really really early that Friday because her group was moving offices. So, Shana and Andy decided to host, and we decorated their apartment with streamers and balloons.




We all brought a dish and did a group potluck dinner, which was a lot of fun.


When Shana and I went shopping for decorations, we came across the piñatas and couldn't leave without one. We asked the store clerk if they had any airplane ones, but the woman replied with "no, but we have tank ones"....yeah, I'm still confused about that one, too. So, we decided on a rocket one. We couldn't find a string strong enough to hang from a tree, so we used Matt instead.




When we were out hitting the piñata, we discovered that one our neighbors has a really weird lawn ornament...a creepy pink elephant that is wearing a single shoe.



After this, we decided to go to Starlite Drive-in. I've never been to a Drive-in theater before, and this one is particularly awesome because they show THREE movies for the evening for $8. Triple feature! The screen we parked at was The Hulk, Don't Mess With the Zohan, and Baby Mama. We got through the first one and almost all of the second one before leaving (Don't Mess With the Zohan is terrible, FYI).

Zoo Day and All Star Adventures

Between Cessna Employees Club (CEC) and Young Professionals of Wichita (YPW), there are a lot of organized free or heavily discounted events for us to do. For example, one of the movie theaters (really close by, about a mile and a half away) does free movies for CEC members on the second Saturday of every month...and each person gets 4 tickets! Last weekend, we all went to go see Forgetting Sarah Marshall. I cracked up a ton in that movie, to the point of tears...it was definitely a keeper.

Two of the biggest free events were the Cessna Employees' Zoo Day and the YPW All Star Adventures Day. Cessna sponsors a Penguin Cove at the Sedgwick County Zoo, and they host a free day at the zoo accompanied by a free BBQ after regular hours for the zoo...so the entire place was for us!

This sign cracked me up.


Ducks with silly looking "hats"!


The penguins at the penguin cove.


A nice pic of us all.


Another event from last week was the All Star Adventures Day...this was strictly for interns, new-hires, and their supervisors and mentors. All Star Adventures is a mini-amusement park in Wichita, with small rides (think carnival sized), putt-putt golf, go karts, batting cages, etc. We had pretty much "free reign" over the entire park, so we spent the evening acting like kids and enjoying ourselves!

Some miniature golf fun...


This is my favorite photo from the evening...me and my roommate, Kelly! We are "big personalities", as she puts it...pretty accurate, and I'm glad we get along so well!


My second favorite photo from the evening. Somehow, Andy kept on getting left with Shana's purse when she went to go on a ride. I asked him to do the leg kick for the picture.


One of the mini roller coasters.


I am going "Godzilla" on that miniature golf miniature house!

Cessna Livin'

The building I work in is called East Field...it's separate from the Cessna facility, but still close by. McCauley is the name of the propeller division that I work for.



My supervisor has a Caddy that he did a lot of work on...he never drives it to work because of the terrible gas mileage, but Friday he decided to bring it.



The Mid-Continent facility has a mock-up room where they have all the really swanky Cessna Citation jets for potential customers to check out...they are essentially the planes without wings or tails. You can go inside and mess with the interiors, play with the electronics, or, if you are me and Shana, sit in the cockpit and pretend you are piloting a Cessna Sovereign. The building that houses the mock-up room is really fancy, and the spiral staircases have golden handles...we went to use the restroom, and found this really cool modern sink faucet!



Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures in the mock-up...it seemed like a stupid way to lose my internship, so I didn't risk it.

Sperlonga and Final Rites

We had one day off in the two weeks, which we spent at the beach! Since Sperlonga is over a 2 hour drive away, we stopped halfway through at Monte Casino to visit the WWII memorial.



The rest of the day was for soaking up the rays and enjoying the ocean.





The final day found us back in Rome. We completed a final exam at a cafe (complete with complimentary cappuccinos), and spent the rest of the day walking, shopping, and soaking up the last bit of the city that we could. The lovely ladies...



In front of the Trevi Fountain was a church, and these locks were on the gates. A nearby vendor said that couples in love would write their names and the date on these locks before placing them on the fence. Cute, but also kind of a twisted and unfortunate symbol for a relationship, in my opinion! :)



There is a belief that by throwing coins into the Trevi Fountain, you guarantee a return trip to Rome. So, on our final night, the 28 of us took a group trip to the Trevi.




A phenomenal three weeks...it is insane to look back and think we did so much. A wonderful class, a great trip with Rose and Elsbeth, and I could not have asked for more.

Castelgandolfo

Castelgandolfo is also a train ride away, and is the former residence of our professor and his family. He lived there for 10 years before coming back to the states. Castelgandolfo is also the summer residence of the pope, as well as the location for the pope's observatory.

Our first stop was at La Gardenia, a restaurant owned by our professor's friends. The restaurant featured an underground grotto, as well as a patio that overlooks the lake.






We then made our way to the pope's observatory, to speak with the pope's astronomer...WAY cool!! I didn't even know the pope had an astronomer. He talked a lot about the history of science and religion.





These books are from the 16th and 17th century....



Here is the pope's astronomer with a 3rd edition copy of Newton's Principia.



Tektites!



Delicious dinner with the class! My table with the gals. Marqui (roomie), Chelsea, me, and the two sisters, Sarah and Rachel.



Our meal was three courses, + focaccia bread. First course was assorted antipasto, second course was ravioli, and third course was pizza!!