Emel

My wife and I went up together for the first time for a nice tour of downtown Pittsburgh and a fly over our house. After putting up with me, and moreover, supporting me, throughout the whole training process, I was excited to show her a little of what general aviation is all about. It is so important to have a supportive spouse through this process and Emel was a true friend through the whole private pilot ordeal.

For the trip, we had an amazing combination of calm winds, clear skies, unlimited visibility and a setting sun, in other words, a picture perfect evening for flying. I had just been checked out by the club to use the 172s so I figured we would take 573, one of our club's training Skyhawks. We met the plane at the fuel pump as it had just been out with a great fellow club member, Larry Teal. After a preflight and a run-up we were off and headed south towards downtown. I called PIT approach and she was very pleasant, giving us a squawk code and some traffic information. Emel got a chance to see a lot of the area we go to in the North Hills from the air and helped me with avoiding some towers and traffic. I slowed down as we neared the city and we circled the skyscrapers a few hundred feet above them. We also got a great view of the new, just about completed, construction and renovation project at Point Park.

After snapping a few pictures, we headed up the Allegheny River toward out house. I dialed in two VORs to triangulate our house position and before we knew it, we saw the steeple of Fox Chaple Presbyterian and the Fox Chapel High School football field. We circled our house a few times, got some waves from our neighbors and we then headed off back up to Zeli with a wing waggle. After an easy landing, we tied down the plane and had a fantastic post-flight dinner at MadMex to cap the perfect evening.