Brett_Henderson wrote on Mar 16^th, 2009 at 8:37am:



LOL, it's actually getting a bit confusing for me... I have to keep checking to see which of these flights I've already posted writeups or pics on.
A lot of work... but then again, so is the whole thing, and I'm almost done, so I may as well plod onward. Good thing a lot of the more recent flights have been documented here and elsewhere, because I haven't been keeping a journal, really, since  resumed flying.  a lot of it, even since resuming flying, is a bit blurry.
I'll tell you right now, there ain't gonna be an entry for every glider flight so far, or logbook details form each flight... I've made 33 flights so far in the 2-33, all since last July. To put that in perspective, that's just a few flights short of the total for my last year of training for the PPASEL, including the checkride!  Two or three short flights in a day, often twice a week, for 6 months, will do that.

I'll probably just post a write-up of the whole season, with links to some of the highlights I've posted already.


I know not very many people are interested, but at this point it's just a little project to pass the time and reflect on my personal experience. And conveniently, one result will be that all those scribbled notes will finally be typed up and on the HDD!

Brett_Henderson wrote on Mar 16^th, 2009 at 8:01pm:


Embellish?! Dude, there's already a lot of filler there...


Regarding "expanded comments" in your log book... I started my journal mostly for analyzing my flights during my training, but it turned into a writing exercise. I have tried to squeeze a few extra things into that narrow strip in the logbook instead, but pretty much stopped after a flight review instructor was poring thru it and said "You shouldn't write stuff like that in your log book."
That actually encouraged me to write in the real journal more, and with enthusiasm. I guess it tapered off recently because I've been flying a lot (thank you, sky gods!), and also because.... fade in sound of the Internet eroding the world of literature...  I've been photo-documenting and pretty much using this site to blog about my flying.

Going back and retrieving those posts to lump them together with the "official" journal entries has inspired me to get back into the habit of doing more detailed writeups when the memories are fresher, and not lean on photos so much. And also with the thought in mind that it all might get printed some day.  We'll see how I do with that... it's so much easier to  throw up some pics and a few words!

Actually, nowadays, that format is all many people have patience for, so it's not necessarily bad. I think your idea of a little book of Ohio airports, with decent pix and blog-like descriptions of your experiences there could be a hit. Unless you're thinking more along the lines of a history book...


Finish collecting your Ohio landings, and definitely write that book!!

There is a market for curious little flying books, because most of us have all the "required" ones already, and those buying thoughtful gifts for pilots often don't know what gizmos or pilot supplies we might need, but they'll see a flying book and go "Aha!!".

I've thought about publishing my flying story, or maybe selling it to a magazine. If I could figure out how to make money with a blog, I'd self-publish that way, maybe. Thought about getting into writing aviation nonfiction in general, too... but I have a ways to go before I'm disciplined enough as a writer to keep at that (also need a semi-colon-ectomy, I think... I have some bad habits).