Update from Scholarship Recipient Madeline Patterson: Fall 2021 Recap

Hello EAA 430!

I am sorry it has taken me so long to send an update! I was waiting until I had some good news. I finished my Instrument Rating and in what could be anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 months, UND will process my records and I will get my Instrument Rated License. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures from the check ride because the real feel was around -35 F so we didn’t want to spend any extra time outside. I will be honest; it didn’t go as well as I had hoped but I passed and that’s what matters. It’s just hard knowing I could have done better.

I have loved instrument flying in the Piper Archers with the G1000. We also use Foreflight to hold all of our approach plates, and it is such a smooth system. If any of you haven’t used this combination before, you can plan and calculate performance through Foreflight, then sync your iPad through Bluetooth to the G1000 panel and send your flight plan directly to it so the actual aircraft has the flight plan you created.

I think since I have had over 100 hours in steam gauges without GPS, I can now revel in the technology that the glass cockpit provides.

Mid-October, on a sadder note, we had an aviation student flying solo intentionally fly his aircraft into the ground to commit suicide. There was a scary period of time where an email had gone out to the college, informing us that there was a fatality accident, but we didn’t know that it was intentional. We all checked in with each other, trying to figure out if it was one of our friends. After his name and the cause of the incident was released, we all had to deal with our emotions surrounding the incident. Flight Operations was halted for two days and solo flight was suspended for a week while we sorted through our sadness, anger, and confusion. The details of everything that followed the incident can be found online, but UND responded well to the incident, and launched an initiative to figure out how we can best approach mental health in aviation, nationally as well as within our school.

This semester I happily declared by second major- I will be getting a BA in Spanish, as well as my BS in Commercial Aviation. I already had some credits from high school and I love language learning so I am excited for the next couple years. I hope to do a study abroad this upcoming summer, but it all depends on whether or not I need to do some flying this summer.

I really appreciate all of the support from the chapter and I wish I could attend more meetings but I keep myself pretty busy! I wish you all the best and hopefully I will able to fly with you all soon.

Blue skies, tailwinds, and positive temperatures, Madeline