Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Gabby's Final Scholarship Essay


The time has arrived - when we read the final essays of the Girls With Wings Spring Scholarship Winners and anxiously await the announcement of the Summer Scholarship Winners (August 1st).

The Girls With Wings Scholarship Program provides funds for flight training to selected individuals with a willingness to be superlative GWW role models. Winners show potential to continue her interaction with the GWW organization, via the website and events, so she can assist GWW in encouraging more young girls to have an interest in aviation. Part of the obligation for being awarded the scholarship is to submit at least one picture and an associated journal entry once a month for three months to the Girls With Wings blog to share with others her training, as well as email a final essay summarizing how the scholarship helped her, what she learned and her intent to continue her work as a role model and volunteer for the Girls With Wings, Inc., organization.

This is Gabby's final essay:

Outline about ATIS & ATC
If someone asked me, Which is easier to operate: a car or a plane? I would say a plane but not because it's easier, but because its better! Flying a plane is very fun! I like to experience new things and being in the air is definitely one of them. In fact, that is why I enjoy flying so much. Being in the air is a new thing for me, and the flight is different every time so it makes it that much more exciting! I anticipate it every time I schedule a flight lesson with my flight instructor. I scheduled a lesson for July 30th and of course it was different. My CFI let me speak to the ATC, or air traffic control, for the first time. It was intimidating, but I learned how to do it with his help. I learned how to write down the ATIS which includes wind speed and direction, temperature/dew point, visibility, sky condition, altimeter, and runway(s) in use. I also learned how to tune in to the different frequencies for the airport and to ask for clearance before taxing on the runway and before takeoff.

Smiling after preforming slow flight
After that, the lesson for that day was to practice 90 degree turns and slow flight. The 90 degree turns were pretty easy to do. It gave me more practice with maintaining altitude and keeping the vertical stabilizer at zero! The slow flight was simple and easy to do as well for me. It is just the point of remembering that in slow flight, pitch controls speed and power controls altitude which basically means the way to maintain steady flight changes. We stayed in slow flight until my CFI and I decided to go to a different airport to land. We went to Pine Mountain and landed at their short field airport. It was very small and it did not have a tower, but was nice to land at a different airport for a change. The wind was beginning to pick up, so when we were ready to depart, takeoff was difficult. We really had to focus and I had to know how to handle the situation.We managed to make it back to Columbus airport okay, but when we got there, we realized the wind was picking up there too! So, landing and taxing was difficult as well. The ailerons had to be used during taxing to compensate for the wind to keep the plane from blowing over. While my CFI was pushing the plane back into place, I took the tach and hobbes time and logged it down. Then, we discussed the flight, and I left to go home and study!

Pictures after postflight!
My scholarship reward is now used up. Will this be the end of my flight forever? Of course not! I will keep flying and I will stay with the aviation program as long as possible. I will keep my affiliation with the Girls With Wings Organization and I always blog my progress! I feel very privileged to have been chosen to receive this scholarship from Girls With Wings. Without it, I would have never been able to progress in my dream of flying. It helped me to go to the flight school of my choice and to get one of the best CFI's. I'm almost sure I'll be able to get my private pilot license very soon before I go to college at Embry-Riddle. I learned so much as well. I learned how to do almost all the things pilots do such as safely takeoff and land, speak to the ATC, and to work hard. I have every intention of continuing to be a role model to other girls and a volunteer for Girls With Wings. As mentioned before, I will continue to blog and share my stories and experiences with others. I want to say a special thank you to Lynda Meeks for being a great model for young girls and myself as well! Also, thanks to Alaina and Natalie, who are the other scholarship winners, for sharing your stories which I read and will remember as a great example for me!   Thanks again! 
 
Sincerely,
Gabby Howell

[p.s. Awesome T-shirt, Gabby! - Lynda]


Saturday, July 28, 2012

Alaina's Final Scholarship Essay

The time has arrived - when we read the final essays of the Girls With Wings Spring Scholarship Winners and anxiously await the announcement of the Summer Scholarship Winners (August 1st).

The Girls With Wings Scholarship Program provides funds for flight training to selected individuals with a willingness to be superlative GWW role models. Winners show potential to continue her interaction with the GWW organization, via the website and events, so she can assist GWW in encouraging more young girls to have an interest in aviation. Part of the obligation for being awarded the scholarship is to submit at least one picture and an associated journal entry once a month for three months to the Girls With Wings blog to share with others her training, as well as email a final essay summarizing how the scholarship helped her, what she learned and her intent to continue her work as a role model and volunteer for the Girls With Wings, Inc., organization.

This is Alaina's final essay:

"As the summer is winding up, so is my flight training. I have had a month jam-packed full of new experiences, so hold on to your headsets as you read about these new adventures!  First off, my instructor and I worked on towered airports. Thankfully, the Aeronca Champ I had been flying had a radio, so talking to other people while flying wasn’t totally new to me. 

Checking the fuel in the Cessna 150
I was going to begin my tower work at Springfield Beckley Airport, a relatively quiet and tiny Class D airport. As luck would have it, the tower was closed for the day, so instead of throwing in the towel, we went to Dayton International. You know the really busy airport that has jets flying in and out all day long? That one. My first towered airport was in a highly congested Class C airspace; I swore I would never return until I landed on runway 6R in a Cessna 150 while a Delta airliner landed on runway 6L. THAT made the stress of dealing with the crazy instructions totally worth it. It was only until I went back to Springfield Beckley that I learned that towered airports weren’t all that hectic. Also, I soloed in the 150!! I’ve shot some takeoffs and landings at Red Stewart Airfield, Lebanon Warren County, and even Springfield Beckley. I have the sectional maps of Ohio on a poster board in my room; each new airport I land at gets a thumbtack stuck over top of it. I guess without expressly stating it, I have a secret goal to hit all the public airports in Ohio before I leave for the Air Force Academy next summer (if I’m so fortunate to make it in).


Enroute to the 4th airport on my 6 hour cross country flight
As for my solo cross country flight over 150 nautical miles, I chose to take the Champ up around Columbus, Ohio; I hit nine new airports in just over six hours. The trip was over 232 nautical miles of fun, with a mix of grass fields, paved runways, and tons of new faces. Next up is night flight! WOW! The lights of the city are absolutely gorgeous up in the air! If things weren’t so hard to find at night (This glob of lights looks really similar to that glob of lights… and emergency landing spots? Yikes!) I would get no sleep because I’d be flying all night long. Last but not least, I have to mention instrument flying. This is the part of the private pilot training that I was dreading the most—something about not being able to look out of the window seemed terribly frightening to me. However, when I put on the hood, flying instruments wasn’t as bad as I had been envisioning; keep a heading, keep an altitude, don’t turn too steep—not too bad. Navigating could get a little tricky (okay, maybe a lot tricky), but hey, I’m in one piece, and so is the airplane.


So what does all this mean?? I am getting close to my checkride! My instructor says I am on target to have it completed before school starts at the end of August, which is really really exciting because it seems like it is within reach now! I have to give one million thanks to Lynda Meeks and the Girls With Wings Program; without them, this never would have been possible. I’ll make sure to keep you all updated on my flying- you will hear from me again soon!"

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Gabby's Second Scholarship Essay

The Girls With Wings Scholarship Program provides funds for flight training to selected individuals with a willingness to be superlative GWW role models. Winners show potential to continue her interaction with the GWW organization, via the website and events, so she can assist GWW in encouraging more young girls to have an interest in aviation. Part of the obligation for being awarded the scholarship is to submit at least one picture and an associated journal entry once a month for three months to the Girls With Wings blog to share with others her training, as well as email a final essay summarizing how the scholarship helped her, what she learned and her intent to continue her work as a role model and volunteer for the Girls With Wings, Inc., organization. 

Stay tuned for more essays from our other scholarship winners AND an announcement of winners for our Summer Scholarship Program, too. 

My parents have always told the truth whenever they told me I still have a lot to learn. The reason is because I do! I have a lot left to learn about being a pilot, but I have learned much already. 

I believe I have advanced pretty far since my first lesson on Monday, June 4th. I had a total of 5 lessons so far! I couldn't settle with just knowing how to takeoff and land, so I enrolled in ground school as well. Then I purchased a private pilot kit and now I have books to study out of and to use as references. This helps me to get to know the plane inside and out, know more about the weather and how it affects the plane and to pass the private pilot exam. 

Gabby holding the ATC lightgun
My flight instructor and I developed a pattern where I go in every Monday and we do ground school twice in row and then we fly the next time. In fact, this Monday we were supposed to go up, but the ceilings were too low for VFR flight. Instead, though, we took a tour of the Air Traffic Control Tower. Although, this wasn't my first time going up to visit the ATC, every time I go up there I learn something new! 

This time I learned how they do the Automatic Terminal Information Service ATIS. They have to change letters every time they do one and they do one every 3 hours except, of course, when the weather is extreme. The ATC also has to keep in touch with all approaching aircraft in order to keep them from crashing into each other. For example, if a plane loses its radios, ATC has to guide it in with a spotlight, or lightgun, that lights up different colors such as red, green, and white. 

I experienced something new in the Tower and I hope to keep experiencing new and exciting things I never knew about as I continue my flight training. I know I have a lot to learn and thanks to Girls With Wings, learning just got a lot easier!