Yesterday I flew my long solo flight from Addison to Stamper, OK. I almost didn't get to go...

Winds were a tad high over DFW only. Not sure how this happens, but anyway... Winds were 9 knots and gusting at 210 that afternoon. I saw this as perfectly fine so checked out the plane with Sam (hangar mechanic and pilot), I preflighted, got into my scheduled plane, started the engine then saw Sam waving at me. Engine off. He asked me about the winds. I just happen to have gotten an updated ATIS, now 9 knots and gusting at 190. He asked what I was endorsed for crosswinds.

8 knots

What's the current crosswind?

Less than 8 knots

Really?

Um... I think. I'm pretty sure. (I wasn't confident at all)

Hang on. Sam talks to Patrick then tells me to check with him directly.

What are the winds?

9 knots gusting to 15 at 190.

Gusting to 15 knots!? You can't fly in that. Students shouldn't fly in winds over 10 knots. The gusts are well over that...

We discussed this for a moment. I was told to wait in case the winds died down some. I was very bummed BECAUSE there won't be another good weather day for a week. And it had already been 12 days since my last flight. I didn't want a long period of time between a lesson and practice.

I waited in the lobby checking weather underground and current metar readings, which hadn't changed at this point.

Long story short, 10-15 minutes later Patrick discretely cleared me to go under the promise I returned before dark (I didn't) and that I was safe (I totally was).

My flight was awesome! I found my visual checkpoints along the way, had flight following from Fort Worth Center, did a superb full stop landing at Durant, found my second leg checkpoint to Stamper, found Stamper and did a good enough landing there (6 knot headwind baby!). I taxied to the airport to text Rusty about my timing and get organized with my flight plan papers.

I did one touch and go at Stamper before departing back to Durant. Along the way to Durant, the sun was dropping faster than I wanted (and blinding me) so I decided to try flying directly towards DUA airport from one of my checkpoints. All I had to do was figure out my VOR course (check) and point the plane in that direction (check). Once I flew off course for this plan, I felt a bit apprehensive because this was all new territory. I was deviating off course by about 15 miles.

Then I saw the airport, gave a loud YES! to myself then called Fort Worth Center for flight following to ADS.

When I got back, it was dark. I lost Addison airport twice before finally locking in the runway. My landing there was superb again. I tied up the plane, called a few people (including Patrick to let him know I was all good) then went home. on cloud nine.

My Take Aways:
Trust what you know. I knew in theory the VOR heading would get me to my point but to see it work in practice was comforting.
Rehearse your route well. Even a second flight deserves review of checkpoints and travel plans.
Be prepared. I wasn't expecting to take off late, thus I wasn't expecting to return in the dark, but I was prepared! I had completed night flight training, I had a flashlight in my pilot bag and I had a well lit GPS dash to get me the last 20 miles home.

next up: written exam, which I got endorsed to take. :-)

I finally broke through the 80s with practice tests for the written FAA exam. I scored a 90% on a practice test, which is good enough to be endorsed for the real thing

I'm working with my school to schedule the real test for next week.

we got to tour Addison's air traffic control tower this morning. We also got to meet some of the controllers. Very nice guys, and gals. It was quieter and calmer than I imagined. I got a number to call for a tour of the Ft. Worth center tower. Mayb this summer we can do that. The rest of the wekend is booked to do camping with the boys.

I am exhausted! I flew a cross country flight today with an instructor from Addison to Hugo, OK. I had been dreaming of making this trip for a long and was THRILLED to finally make it!

No, seriously thrilled. The winds were screaming from the south (averaged 180° gusting to 20 knots) so it was pretty bumpy in areas. Luckily it was all headwind for landings and take-offs. On the landing in Durant, my half-way point, I think I said oh shit a few times right before my beautiful landing. (The plane straightened up last second)

I have to say, I enjoy dead reckoning navigation. That's where you look at what's on the ground to get there. From Durant to Hugo we followed a road and railroad line all the way and spotted a few small cities along the way.

On the flight back, as my instructor warned me, we flew straight to Addison and I had to wear the torture device that covers the view of the ground outside. All I used were the instruments: heading, VOR and GPS. I started feeling a bit woozy in the stomach after an hour of "hood time". If only I had held out for 6 more minutes, I would be done done done with hood time. I guess 6 minutes won't kill me during one of the several check rides I'll take before my final check ride.

What's next? If weather is good on Thursday I'll fly solo to Hugo. If I can score a 90% on a practice test, I'll do my written exam that day too.

I flew to Sulphur Springs, TX with an instructor today! It was a good flight, though the winds (18 knot gusts, 39 aloft) made the ride bumpy, bouncy, and thrilling as all hell. My landing at Sulphur Springs was beautiful. (My landing at Addison was less than 100% but not terrible.) The instructor kept testing me on my preparations asking if that body of water over there was where we were going. No, I'm positive it's that one. My heading was spot on the whole way, my timing was close enough and my pre-flight prep was good. I had radio & VOR frequencies and a folded map readily available.

My one big thing to work on is level flight. I was consistently ascending or descending. I couldn't seem to fly more than a few miles before dropping or climbing 500 feet. My plane does have "auto pilot" which can hold my position and altitude, but for some reason I tend to resist using it. Part of it is stubbornness to get better at holding altitude on my own instead of relying on that. And part of it is... I can't think of another reason. I'm just stubborn.

If I can show up next week Wednesday morning fully prepared for another trip to Sulphur Springs, I should get endorsed to fly there and back solo. I'm so there!

I drank 2 glasses of wine recently then took a practice exam. I passed with an 81%. The day prior, sober, I passed with an 86%. I think I'll be ready to take the written by next week or so.

For a third time, my plans to fly a cross country were squashed by weather. Last time it was encroaching low clouds in the area. Today it was winds gusting to 20+ knots.

I'll try again on Friday morning for a flight. I thought February would be a boring month to fly, but apparently it's more restrictive than I expected. I REALLY want to finish in Spring, before the high winds of summer sit on us.

I snapped this picture of "Fifi" today from the taxiway at Addison. I did landings at Mesquite airport during my lunch break.

The clouds were reported overcast at 5000 feet from the surface but there were some smaller clouds floating around 3000 feet. I stayed clear of them, but it was neat see those wisps of cloud so close. There was a line of fluffy clouds moving West (I was going East) but I stayed below them at 2000 feet, more or less.

My patterns at Mesquite were alright but I was consistently high on final approach. In all, I did 4 landings at Mesquite and one beautiful, damn-near perfect landing at Addison.

I told Patrick (owner/manager guy) that I was batting an 80% average on practice tests for the FAA written exam. I feel I'm ready enough to take the test knowing I won't ace it. But he insists I continue striving for a 90% average before attempting the test. I'm not in a rush so I'm not going to push the issue. But now once I've done a couple cross countries, I'll be (hopefully) more than ready to take the test.

In other news, Joshua got a part in the school play Aladdin. He's the part of an apple peddler and some character named Yogi. He worked hard to memorize the line that earned him his spot. We're proud of him. I guess I'll rent Aladdin so he can get the big picture idea of the story.

Also in family news, Rusty was diagnosed with having stage 3 osteoarthritis in his right knee and a torn meniscus. In addition to pampering his knees, he will likely need knee replacement in the next 10-20 years. He's been having knee pains leading up to the doctor's visit. Now we know why and that it's not going away. :-(

I spent time studying for my FAA exam this morning by attending the flight school's ground school. Today's session was about multiple topics that will be on the exam, in the form of a Jeopardy game. I won't bore you with the nerdy details of what I learned.

EXCEPT for this really cool trick for converting Celsius to Fahrenheit in your head without fancy math or needing to know it's 9/5 plus 32. Ready?

Prime example: let's start with 15° C
First, double the number = 30
Take away 10% = 30-3= 27
Add 32 = 27+32= 59° F
That's it!

Another example:
9° C doubled = 18
18 take 10% = 16.2 (I'll round down)
16 add 32= 48
48° F

Last example:
38° C doubled= 76
76 take 10%= 68.4 (I'll round down)
68 add 32= 100
100° F

Let's go backwards!
59° F
subtract 32 = 27
add 10% = 27+2.7= 29.7 (I'll round up)
30 in half is 15° C

85° F minus 32=
53 add 10%= 58.3 (I'll round down)
58 in half is 29° C


This doesn't help me pass my exam or fly any better, but now I can convert inflight or without my E6B handy if I need to.

(Thanks Captain!)

My first real solo flight was yesterday and it went very well. I flew out to a practice east of Lake Hubbard and practiced my turns. I did S-turns over a long road and some steep turns. I really focused on turning without ascending or descending.

On a whim, I decided to do a touch-and-go at a small airport called Rockwall. I located the pattern radio using the GPS, entered the pattern and proceeded towards Final. As I was on Final, I noticed there were tall electric lines in front of the runway. No worries! I stayed high to scale those lines then landed beautifully! My landing was so good, I got distracted that I intended to do a touch-and-go and kept going down the runway. Change of plans: taxi back to the end for another take-off!

Coming into Addison was fine. I began to drift north of where I needed to be, not from wind, but by sight. I confused a group of tall building along the tollway north of Addison with my destination. Once I realized this, I corrected myself. My landing at Addison was fine but I came in high. The benefit to coming in high is that I took up a lot of runway and was closer to my turn off for taxi. But really, I know I need to work on landing at Addison, especially when coming in from a non-pattern direction.

Overall, the flight was great! I was beaming at the end. Turns out, I did make one mistake. I was not supposed to land at any other airport than Addison or Mesquite. So that Rockwall experience is mine alone and doesn't count towards my logbook. My flight instructor forgave me but made it clear not to do that again.

Next on my schedule: prove I'm capable to plan a cross country so I can fly that.

By the way, the stylish blue visor is my solution in lieu of sunglasses. I intend to have it signed by my flight instructors when I'm done.

I'm studying for the FAA written exam. I got a 78% on my practice test earlier today. It's an improvement, but I need more focus on certain topics.

But here's one series of questions I'll never get wrong again because I came up with an easy way to keep it straight in my head.

FAA advisory circulars containing subject matter specifically related to Airmen are issued under which subject number? 60

FAA advisory circulars containing subject matter specifically related to Airspace are issued under which subject number? 70

FAA advisory circulars containing subject matter specifically related to Air Traffic Control are issued under which subject number? 90

Here's how to I'll remember which is which. The above bold words happen to be in alphabetical order and the only three numbers to remember for this type of question are 60, 70 and 90. Alphabetical order = numeric order

I truly hope I get this question on the real test. :-)

By the way, FAA advisory circulars can be found online here. I haven't figured out why this type of question is testable- who cares what number it is?

I flew today after work taking an instructor for a ride. He didn't interfere or talk much. He just wanted to know I could get around without assistance. I did fine. In the end, he endorsed me to solo out of Addison (my home airport) so all that's left is solo time!! And ground work to plan a cross country flight. And LOTS of practice tests until I'm ready for my written exam.

In other news, I went to a safety seminar last night put on by AOPA. That was engaging. I wished Rusty could have joined me but he was working late. I loved that the meeting was interactive. There were some good safety reminders and reinforcement to training concepts I'm practicing such as stall recovery, flight planning, weight & balance, and generic good judgement.

AOPA sent an email asking members to support them in a stand against a proposed general aviation user fee. It would raise approximately $11 billion over 10 years by charging $100 for flights by commercial and turbine jet airplanes, and a fraction of the fee for small planes.
Here's the FAA's FAQ on the matter: http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/reauthorization/media/Questions_Answers.pdf

I'm conflicted as to whether I support a user fee for general aviation usage. If the bill means to tax corporate jets and commercial planes, I'd support a small tax like $50-100. But most small plane pilots are far from rich and wouldn't be able to afford a user tax. A small tax would help fund outdated equipment upgrades, which we need. But I do have a "don't tread on me" attitude. Taxing small plane pilots would likely deter pilots in general. Fewer pilots would mean fewer airplane sales, fewer supplies sales, high costs for flight schools (thus fewer students and some business closure), and fewer taxes from avgas fuel consumption.

But I respect that we're in tight times and need funds to support an aging aviation infrastructure.

My opinion: a proportional user tax would be fair. Small tax for small planes including flight schools, larger taxes on larger commercial planes and corporate jets. Then a repeal of this tax when we finally beat this long recession!

Honestly though, I doubt it would pass during this administration since the Republicans are very opposed to it.

I don't know for sure if he heard me but right after I took off for my first solo flight out of Mesquite, I loudly shouted,

"Yeee-haaw!! Woo-hooo!!"

(What did you expect from a Texan?)

I did three touch-and-goes at Mesquite all by myself. My landings were all great, my patterns were good, my approach was low for one landing but I adjusted fine. It was a great feeling to finally fly alone. And eerily quite without the company.

After my last landing, I picked up my CFI waiting on the ground and we departed towards Addison airport. Over Lake Hubbard I called into Regional Control. Normally, they would give me a squawk code for my transponder and direct me towards to the airport but today was different. The controller was very busy diverting traffic away from Addison. There was an airplane that (apparently) had a rough or fast landing without brakes and went off the runway. Nobody got hurt and his aircraft survived. It was a bit of a non-issue really except all of us in the sky had to circle around, land in other places or come back later. The runway was shut down for at least 10 minutes.

So we flew to the north DFW area over Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Aero Country and north of that in an area I call the North Practice Area. Oh fond memories. :-)

We did some practice turns and practiced traffic avoidance with the navigation system. After a while, Addison opened so we went straight in from the North, landed beautifully, taxied to the hangar and that's where I saw Rusty waiting for me.

My instructor* cut my shirt up, three instructors signed & decorated the shirt tail and tacked it up on their wall. It's going to stay at the flight school a few days for others to see. Call it inspiration to other students and discovery flight visitors.

So what's next??

I will review cross country planning and navigation with Rusty, do an hour of ground time at the school to review, get questions answered, and prepare for my first solo cross country. Before I do a cross country, I'll go up to do maneuvers around the lake area solo. That should be easy enough. Maybe next week if the weather is good I'll go up for maneuvers.

yay!!

*My primary instructor cut a small patch off my shirt then Patrick corrected that and cut a gigantic patch off my back. The giant patch of shirt is at the school. The humble signed patch is in my flight bag and will likely travel with me from now on.

I am endorsed to solo!!!

*happy dance*

My day went something like this...

Work in the office, leave at 2pm for scheduled flight. I flew out with Stuart, my usual CFI, to do landings, slow flight and emergency landing procedures. We did touch-and-goes at Caddo Mills on 17. That was a fun little runway space. I say space because there's another adjacent runway and a road all making a triangle. It's hardly an airport. My landings were great, my maneuvers were good, and I was on my game in every way. Back at the hangar, I was hoping he would endorse me right there. uh, no. He couldn't (apparently either he's too new of a CFI at this school or... I don't know... that's my only guess) so I turned to Patrick, the owner/manager guy.

Winds will be high tomorrow.
He's out Friday through the weekend.
We don't know the weather for next week yet.

Rather than play it nice and say "oh whenever", or get all bitchy about not knowing Stuart would not be able to endorse me, I jumped in with an enthusiastic "How about right now!?"

"Take 30 minutes and we can do that."

So I apologize to Rusty on the phone that I'm messing up the evening routine, speed through town, take the kids from daycare to home, speed back to the hangar and begin preflighting. At this point, the sun is hanging low and we have a little more than an hour of light. Patrick dumps in some fuel then we shove off with haste. < /speed reading>

My earlier flight was on runway 15 at ADS (17 at Caddo) but the winds changed within the hour so we taxied to 33. Take off was great. Navigation to Mesquite airport was good. I did 4 touch-and-goes.

My landings were all perfect. I got nothing but praise on those from both instructors. My first pattern at Mesquite with Patrick was a bit sloppy (was I nervous, excited, distracted?) but my other patterns were all fine and the last was mah-velous!

In flight as we departed back towards Addison, Patrick signed my logbook & medical certificate endorsing me to fly solo. Normally he would ask me to drop him off, I'd fly around then we'd fly back. But the sun was dropping fast so he stayed in the passenger seat the whole time.

Friday I will go out with Stuart, fly him to Mesquite, he'll jump out and talk to me from the ground while I do a few touch-and-goes. Then he'll cut my shirt. :-)

What does this mean for me?

I can finally get on with my ultimate goal of a pilot's license. I need to do a few cross-country trips solo, I need to practice some maneuvers solo and I need to pass my written exam with the FAA. And flying solo is cheaper than with an instructor so in theory I can fly more frequently.

Free at last!!

(Pictured above: my brand new paper airplane socks that I wore all day with hopes they would be good luck.)

It was another beautiful day to go up! I launched with my regular instructor, Stuart. We some basic maneuvers (turns, stalls) and slow flight. I hate slow flight because. it's. too. slow.

Then we did some touch and gos at Mesquite. My landings were all fine but my approach was consistently high today. I need to work on that.

Rusty gets his FAA check ride on Friday (followed by libations) then I fly again Saturday afternoon. wippee!

I will continue to wait until I'm ready and stop expecting anything to go the way I want it to go. After all, a pilot can't exactly control the weather or engine problems in flight.

I flew again this afternoon hoping (expecting) to earn my second endorsement to solo. Alas, no. Here's why...

I flew my instructor to McKinney Regional. Things were great. I did one landing textbook perfect. The second landing I was a bit high in the pattern and had to drop a lot of altitude on final. My landing was good but the pattern was less than perfect. We intended to mulligan and stay in the pattern but we had to wait forever for the tower to clear us for take-off. (It was a great day to fly so air traffic was busy.) While we were idle for 5+ minutes, my instructor noticed the carburetor head temperature was very hot. It went into the red zone meaning we were overheating. But we weren't moving. That was the weird thing. So we requested to taxi to the mechanic area called "Cutter" to look at things. When we started to taxi, the temp went down.

We called the owner/manager to troubleshoot. Turns out there was a plate installed when temperatures were freezing that helps keep the engine warm when idle. Problem was, it was well above 50 degrees today so it was causing the engine to overheat.

So we popped the cowling off, my instructor removed the plate, and we attempted to put the cowling back on. Another problem: one grommet wouldn't go in. My instructor tried tirelessly, I gave it a good turn, a mechanic tried, I think even a passing pilot who was oogling the airplane might have tried.

My solution: tape!

I found some foil masking tape from another pilot hanging out in the rental office and placed it over the loose grommet. Yes, we fixed our airplane problem with tape. (My friend Lee would be so proud!)

Our flight home to Addison was quiet. I landed us perfectly (again) at Addison. My instructor told the owner he wanted to endorse me but because of the high pattern on my second landing and that we ran out of time to do it over, he couldn't endorse me. But he wanted to.

So I go back tomorrow. This time I'll fly with Patrick, the owner/manager. He's been told verbally by 2 instructors that I'm ready to solo if only I had [insert whatever their reasoning].

Tomorrow I will wear two shirts. And I expect one will get cut on the back.

I got my first endorsement to solo. yay!! I need one more endorsement and to do some paperwork to really begin solo flights.

The last few flights were all pattern work. Today was my first day up with (yet another) instructor I hadn't flown with before. He was very pleasant to ride with and did a good job quizzing me. I told him I wasn't sure how to use the GPS yet so he handed me a sectional.

"Can you get us to Mesquite with this?"
I smiled, "Why yes I can!"
I found Mesquite just fine, got the AWOS, made my radio calls to the traffic and did 3 touch-and-goes there.
This instructor said I'm real good at short field landings. Go figure- I practiced at a tiny runway called Airpark!

We also practiced emergency landing procedures.

I'll fly again probably after Christmas, hopefully I'll earn my endorsement to fly in and out of Addison, and then I'll really be ready to solo.

And boy do I have some work to do! I know my weaknesses and I'm itching to smooth them out.

I was supposed to fly at 2pm but the instructor was unavailable so I rescheduled for 4:30pm. Not such a big deal. Except that I worked from 6am to 2pm just to fly in the afternoon. That sucks a little but whatever.

Fast forward- I'm pulling into the street for my flight when what do I see but Mark's van parked in front of his former office space. I caught him as he was pulling out. Rather than being pushy about the $1300 he owes us for classes he had to cancel, I asked him how things were going. I already knew the answer. I already knew what he would say. But I wanted to hear it from him instead of just speculating.

He acknowledged I called and emailed but didn't say why he didn't respond other than that he's "under tremendous stress" and "trying to sort things out". He's no saint. He should have called his students and have been upfront. He should never have used our money to fund his legal battle.

He's personally bankrupt from the legal battle that ultimately bans him from using Airpark as the location for his flight school and plane rental location. Another student of his sued to get his money and another guy went to Mark's house to collect. I was about to do the same but then I wanted to know if Mark was going to be honest. And he was.

I gave him an out. I asked "so what should we do next?" He came up with a solution: he has planes parked out of Airpark that he will let us fly. We have $1300 of rental time to use when we're ready. I won't fly his planes until I'm licensed but I think it's a fair trade. He can't rent flight time but he can allow us to use his planes as a gift. That's legal.

Regarding my flight, we took off at dusk. I did several landings at McKinney Regional, all fine landings, and a very nice landing at Addison. The first half had enough light in the sky to see the ground but the latter half was all dark. I love night landings! I got complimented on my pattern technique (Thanks David!) and was reminded to keep my hand on the throttle more often.

I fly again Saturday morning, and hopefully will get endorsed for solo flights going forward.

I did 4 good landings today in the PiperSport. The instructor didn't have to do much, he wasn't nervous or worried, and he had good critiques to smooth out my pattern and approach.

In addition to landings, we also reviewed power off stalls, slow flight and made some lazy 8's for the fun of it.

After 5 months of slouching off, I have some studying to do. Lucky for me, the weather should be crummy this weekend so I should be able to get some good study time.

******

In other news, Joshua is preparing for a play this Saturday called the Pirates of the Curry Bean. Elliot's new favorite show is Kung Fu Panda, Adventures of Awesomeness, which airs on nickelodeon. This evening he wanted me to capture his new dance moves:

This is a PiperSport aircraft:

I flew one today. :-D

I logged 1.3 hours of flight during a long lunch break. My takeoff was good, maneuvers were OK (I need to practice turns on a point) and landing was alright considering I hadn't landed in 5 months and I was in an airplane all new to me.

The best part was flying- hands down. I was giddy and nervous and excited. A whole pot of grins.

The second best part was casually letting a colleague know I just flew an airplane during my lunch break. His jaw dropped. "Just now?? You were flying an airplane just now?! Like out there?"

I love that. :-)

This is the airplane before we pulled it out from the hanger and took it out:

MY MEDICAL CERTIFICATE!!

Apparently my case was reviewed by a LOT of people. My paperwork started at Oklahoma City (OK), then went to Fort Worth, then back to OK, then to Fort Lauderdale, then Washington D.C. then to OK, back to Fort Worth and back to OK. During all this transit my Super AME kept track of it along the way tracking down where it was and who had it.

An hour after I got this lovely piece of paper from my AME, I met with the owner/manager guy at US Sport Aircraft to sign up with them. I will be finishing my license with glass panel, light weight sport aircraft.

Some notable differences compared to the older Cessnas I was flying:

• all glass panel dashboard
• "joystick" style yoke
• 2-seater
• clam shell opening glass roof IS the door
• the craft is practically brand new
• wings are below the fuselage
• the airplanes are washed routinely

I get to go up Friday morning to meet the instructor and start acclimating to the airplane. yippee!!

I'm going to get my Medical Certificate!!!!

My Super AME called to say the FAA approved of my case. I'll go to the doc's office tomorrow afternoon to fill out another examination form and then walk out with my certificate.

I am grinning ear to ear!

tr[repeat=happy dance]

Now to get back in the air. Details to follow.

There is still no update. :-( The Super AME has been traveling instead of processing my paperwork. I've left a message. I'll leave another one tomorrow.

We met a new flight school instructor for Rusty. Lone Star Flyers is a small shop with three instructors and three planes for rent: 2 newer models with glass panel dashboards and one slightly older plane with the dials. I'm very interested in learning the glass panel craft as well as continuing on the older dials. I liken it to driving a standard transmission car (which I have) in that if you're comfy with the manual way (dials), the automatics (glass panels) will be ridiculously easy.

Rusty has probably 2-3 weekends worth of flying time left then he's ready for his check-ride. I, however, have a longer path. For this reason, I'm in no rush now to find a new school or instructor yet. I am in a rush to get my medical but it's out of my hands to make that move faster than the government.

As soon as I get word of when my medical certificate is granted, I will pursue the pleasure of flight every chance I get.

UPDATE: I saw the tilt table doctor, Dr. Levine, yesterday. He and his nurse did some tests on me. To everyone's no-surprise, nothing happened. I did not faint nor become dizzy. He concluded I'm healthy and unlikely to pass out while flying. He did note that my heart races a bit more than expected when suddenly standing up, but it didn't pose a health concern nor did it indicate an abnormality. It's just my heart somewhat over-compensating for the distance between it and my brain. (Did you know I'm tall?)

He gave me a few tips for overcoming head rushes and dizziness, such as what you'd have when standing up suddenly from a bent over position. He also recommended I take up a physical activity (like rowing or cycling) to build bone density.

I hardly have time for routine exercise, but perhaps I can find a way to squeeze something in.

He's going to send his she's-healthy-already notes to Super AME Dr. Kramer. I'll y'all know what happens next!

On September 20th I have an appointment with the doctor who has my tilt table test results from a long time ago. He'll do a basic physical exam then send me on my way.