Congratulations!!! You should have a little party to celebrate! (always a
great excuse I use to eat some chocolate cake GRIN). Myself, I'm just
nearing 500 and will probably have a little 'birthday cake' to celebrate the
personal milestone (okay, yeah,,, it is also an excuse to eat some chocolate
cake g)

Once again great job! Enjoy every minute in the skies!!! :0)

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Good Flights!

Cecil
PP-ASEL-IA
Student - CP-ASEL

Check out my personal flying adventures from my first flight to the
checkride AND the continuing adventures beyond!
Complete with pictures and text at: www.bayareapilot.com

"I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things."
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery -

"We who fly, do so for the love of flying. We are alive in the air with
this miracle that lies in our hands and beneath our feet"
- Cecil Day Lewis -
"Dan Luke" wrote in message
...
When I totalled up the hours in my log book after the OSH trip Friday,
they came to over 1,000. As I did when I turned 500 a little over three
years ago, I stopped to reflect on what has changed about flying for me in
the last 500 hours:

* I used to do a lot of just flying around the local area, doing t & g's,
etc. Now, 95% of my flying is IFR cross country for business, pleasure
and Angel Flights.

* Angel Flight has become an important part of my flying and my life, even
though it makes up only about 20% of my hours these days.

* At the end of 2001, I had no weather gear of any kind in the airplane.
Thunderstorms were my masters; they kept me from flying a few times every
year. Now, I've got XM weather and I haven't canceled a trip for t'storms
since I first started the system up in September of '03.

* Complacency is more difficult than ever to resist. Flying ~140 hrs./yr
has rendered many things routine and there's a real tendency to let my
attention wander. This is dangerous, I know, and I'm struggling to find
ways to maintain an alert attitude.

What hasn't changed:

* I'm still flying my "starter" airplane. It isn't big enough, it isn't
fast enough, and it damned sure ain't sexy, but I've never quite gotten
around to trading up to that Bonanza I thought I'd have by now. "Delta"
has taken me a lot of places safely and has never missed a mission since
some early engine problems were fixed a few years ago. She'll carry 600
lbs. of payload at 155 mph for a looonnngg time. Every time I start to
put the ad in Trade-A-Plane, something makes me back off. Some day I'll
do it - no, really, I will.

* I'm still nuts about flying; doing more of it now than ever. I may not
read as many magazines or buy as many gadgets as I used to, but I'd still
rather be in my airplane than anywhere else, and I feel very fortunate to
be able to be there.

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Dan
C172RG at BFM