Planes, Helicopters, and Airports, Oh My

This week, I went to pilot camp at the St. Lucie Airport with Sailfish Aviation and with my friend Alex! It was really great. We saw some DC-3s at a place called Missionary Flights.

On Tuesday, we learned about helicopter parts and how a helicopter operates in the air. There is a stick on the left side of each seat called the collective. The collective changes the pitch angle of all the main rotor blades collectively to increase and decrease lift. The cyclic is the "stick" between the pilot's legs. If the pilot pushes the cyclic forward, the rotor disk tilts forward, and the rotor produces a thrust vector in the forward direction. If the pilot pushes the cyclic to the right or left, the rotor disk tilts and produces thrust in that direction, causing the helicopter to roll right or left.
We also went to the control tower and learned what the controllers do.  The airport is equipped with a system that helps pilots land in poor visibility, meaning not able to see well outside because of weather, called the ILS, (Instrument Landing System.)

On Friday, the last day of camp, we went flying with an instructor named Dave. We flew out over the Atlantic for a bit, did a traffic pattern, and landed. Thank you Tom Bean and Sailfish Aviation for the cool aviation class.  

I also slept over at Alex's house for a couple of nights. It was really awesome. We played with LEGOs. For all of  you Doctor Who and LEGO fans, I believe LEGO is coming up with LEGO Doctor Who sets, and the new Doctor is coming August 23rd on BBC America!  Thank you Larisa for letting me stay with Alex for a few nights.

Won A Guitar, Goin' Flyin'

A few weeks ago, I wrote and recorded a song as my entry in the Zager Guitarscontest to win a free guitar. On June 31, they announced the winner of the guitar.
It was me!
The link to the song I wrote is here. The guitar will arrive soon and I will make a video with me unboxing it, testing the strings, and playing a song.  Next week I will be going to the Sailfish Aviation Summer Camp, at the St. Lucie Airport in Ft. Pierce. My friend Alex might also get to go! Hopefully, if the weather's good, we will go flying.

I took some of my tip money from my last gig and bought The Simpsons Game for my Wii, and a new watch. This past week we have been getting some really awesome thunderstorms. The only one that didn't like it was my dog, Sam. He's so scared of thunder, that he hides in the smallest place he can find. Under my mom's desk. It was really blastin' out there, but yesterday was sunny.  Hopefully today will be, too.

Boating Experience

My boating class went really well! I learned lots of things like how to tie the bowline, the clove hitch, and the cleat hitch. We also went on boat rides, which were really fun, especially when we went fast.

On Monday, we assembled at the main building, introduced ourselves, and met our instructor Captain Don. We went to the classroom. We got our textbooks and Captain Don gave us a 'Pirates Of The Caribbean' trivia quiz, for us to pick our boats. Then, we went in three groups to our boats. My group got the 'Sea Boss' with Captain Dave. We practiced docking at the Shrimpers docks, and I got to drive a few times and practiced docking.

On Tuesday, we studied a little bit out of the books. Then, we got to our boats. This time, we got the 'Yankee Doodle,' my favorite boat in the Chapman fleet. We practiced anchoring at Hell's Gate, a little spot of water that's good for anchoring. We got back ashore and had our lunch. After lunch, we went to the pool and watched one of the adult classes practice lifeboat boarding drills.

On Wednesday, we studied some more out of the books, and studied some knots. Next, we got our PFDs,(Personal Floatation Devices), and got on the 'Liberty.' We practiced steering the boat. Afterward, we went to the pool and had lots of fun.

On Thursday, we went to our boats and piloted them to the public dock at downtown Stuart, and went to Hoffman's Ice Cream. I got a vanilla chocolate mix, with mini M&Ms, Skittles, Gummy Bears, and Cinnamon Toast Crunches. Then, we went back and had lunch and studied. After that, we went to the pool. 

On Friday, we went on the big boats. We got 'No Tee Time,' which was very slow. Then, we figured out how flares work and what different types there were. Then, we got a test. After everyone was done, Captain Don told us who won. I passed the test! We got so excited that we went to the pool.

Thank you Captain Don and all the nice folks at the Chapman School of Seamanship for all the help you gave me! 

Boating Lessons With My Friend

Next week I am going to a boating summer camp at the Chapman School of Seamanship with a friend named Vincent. I hope to have a great time and have fun learning things like all of the correct knots on a boat line. Tomorrow is the first day, so it should be really fun and I hope it goes well. I have everything I need for it, a pair of deck shoes, some lunch, a bathing suit, and a bag with all of my boating items in it. Next week's post will be all about the experience.

Guitar Contest and Summer Camps

 I am working on writing a song to try to win a guitar from Zager Guitars. They are giving away a free guitar to one lucky winner. You have to submit a video telling them about yourself, why you should win the guitar, and which one you want. The contest goes through the end of June. Next week I was going to go to an aviation summer camp at Sailfish Aviation, but unfortunately it was canceled. I also got some new deck shoes for the Chapman School of Seamanship's summer boating class coming up in two weeks.