My Life in the Sky

                                      

This is my first pilot logbook which I bought in June of 1965 when I began my flight training.  I was on active duty with the U.S. Air Force at Niagara Falls International Airport.  After I graduated from RIT,  I worked at the Rochester Times Union for 6 months and then took time off to do 6 months active duty with the Air Force. I had always wanted to learn to fly since I was a kid and finally I had the means to do that.  A pilot's logbook is kind of like a Bible where you, or your instructor, enter every flight you make, describe the training and maneuvers, record the number of landings, and record the time you flew in hours and tenths of hours.  Every pilot needs this because you need a certain number of hours minimum for each type of license, and a certain number of hours to be "current" meaning you can carry passengers, or you can fly on instruments in bad weather.  I haven't looked at this logbook in years, although I always know where it is.  It was finally filled, and I bought a new one to continue recording my flying experience.  It is so cool to really look at it and see how dusty it is, and that the binding is worn.  What a beautiful thing this is, showing its age!

                                      

So this is what you see when its open.  Please click on the photo to see it in more detail.  On the left I can see the places I lived, and on the right the numbers of the two Student Pilot Certificates, and then my Private Pilot License. 

              

Starting at the top of the page, on the upper left you can see the year, 1965, and my very first lesson was on June 15.  The aircraft registration is N4221M, and I would never forget that airplane.  It was a tailwheel airplane made of steel tubing and covered in fabric, and painted with dope.  You can see the flight was from Niagara Falls, and to the right, the maneuvers I was taught.  Reading  these words brings back that first flight as if it were yesterday!  I was in an Air Force flying club, so the costs were reduced, but I believe the airplane cost me $20 an hour to rent, including fuel, and the instructor, Phil Musiccio received $15 per hour.  I flew with Phil for 9 hours and 30 minutes and then I made my first solo flight! We flew together one more time for 45 minutes and that's the last entry by him in my logbook.  My time was up in July and I returned to Rochester and began training with another instructor in another airplane.  Then I flew with my first woman flight instructor, Ninita E. F Bogue.  She was a wonderful teacher and so thorough, making sure I understood everything she was teaching me.  I won't forget her.  I just decided to do a Google search and discovered that she died in June of 2020, in Amherst, NY.  That has to be her!

         

And this is the last page in this logbook.  The date of my last flight in this book is a memorable one.  I flew up to Capt Cod to meet my friend Malcolm Wells, an architect who did earth sheltered buildings.  I had photographed him for an assignment, and we became friends.  That flight was October 11, 1989 and the round trip was 4:00 hours exactly.  My total number of hours shown in this logbook at the time was 548.8 hours.  By that time I had also earned my Seaplane rating, and, as a really big deal, I had earned my Instrument Rating which meant I could fly in bad weather, which I did and which I loved.  Reading random entries in this logbook was such a powerful experience - I could re-live the flights because of some of the details in the comments section of each entry.    A vivid trip back into the experiences I had as part of my life in the sky.  What a powerful document this wonderful book turned out to be!