Jamail's Journal - Week Two

The DreamLaunch tour is requiring a lot of earlier mornings! Last Saturday I woke up extremely earlier, and I did so again on the following week. On Friday January 30th, 2004 I visited Orlando, FL for the second stop on the DreamLaunch tour. Since Orlando, FL is only an hour away from Daytona Beach, FL (where I attend Embry-Riddle) I decided to drive to Orlando, instead of flying.

I had to arrive at Oak Ridge High School shortly after 8:00 on Friday morning. Oak Ridge High School is a public school in Orlando, FL that has an aviation magnet school. The students in the aviation magnet school receive the opportunity to take flying lessons and obtain their pilot's license. There are approximately 175 students enrolled in the aviation program, and all were invited to attend the DreamLaunch Presentation.

The presentation went extremely well, and afterwards, we had some interesting questions from the students about aviation, careers, and flying. I spent almost two hours at Oak Ridge High school speaking with the students. Unfortunately, it was scheduled to rain the following Saturday, so we postponed the Young Eagle Flights until later this spring.

After a quick lunch, I visited Liberty Middle School in Orlando. We had an excellent time with the students, and I really enjoyed answering their questions about flight training, airshow flying, aviation careers, and colleges. Their seemed to be a lot of interest in military aviation. The students asked a lot of questions about military aircraft, the Air Force, and the Navy.

To make the day even a little more special, it was my birthday, and unexpectedly, the students started to sing happy birthday to me. It was completely a surprise, and it caught me a little off guard.

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Since we postponed the Young Eagles Flight (due to the weather), it left my Saturday open. On Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday) I had to fly to Atlanta, GA for an interview and photo shoot for an upcoming story AutoPilot Magazine is writing. I really enjoyed the flight up to Atlanta and back. On the way back, I encountered a lot of rain (shortly after I flew over Florida) and flew my first instrument approach by myself (An instrument approach is a specific way pilots navigate when they are trying to land the airplane in bad weather). It was a lot of fun, and I broke out of the clouds about a thousand feet above the ground.

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Next week (after my financial accounting test) I get to go to Greenville, SC. I can't wait!

Jamail