Let's Light This Candle
The plane I'll be training on is already at Jim's place in Green Cove Springs. It's called a Gobosh G-700S, and it's derived from a Polish aircraft called the Aero A-T4. I've already flown the plane I'll be using once before; I had a demo flight in N702GB at Oshkosh last year, and I really liked it.
I won't try just yet to make comparisons between the G-700S and other LSAs I've flown, but from my notes from that flight at Oshkosh last year I recalled it felt a bit more substantial than the SportStar I was training on in Dallas -- tighter in the cockpit (by four inches in width) and a tad more deliberate on the controls. It's also slightly heavier, which should hopefully reassure my grandmother that I'm flying a "real" airplane. (The Gobosh does have a tough act to follow, though... I loved N676EV, it just "fit" me.)
None of this will be "real" for me until I actually have my certificate in my hand -- or, at least, take the first flight with the instructor Gobosh lined up. But it's a good sign, I think, that I have my ticket down to Florida. I'm scheduled to leave Easter morning, with class starting Monday the 24th. That gives me two weeks to get my training done, which should be more than enough. The only things I need to do above what I've already accomplished are the cross-country flights... which should be pretty neat to do over Florida, within sight of the ocean. (I've plotted out my cross-country already, which includes a run up the coast from Burnell to St. Augustine.)
My goal is to have my sport pilot certificate in time for Sun 'N Fun, which starts April 8. It would be nice to go to an airshow as a real pilot, at long last.