Yup! Finished my final practical exam just a couple days ago. After dedicating the last 2 years to studying for this thing non stop (plus the *redacted* number of years it took me to work just to get on my feet long enough to make it thru school this 3r attempt. oof, been suuuper rough ngl :'D ) I finally have my aircraft mechanics licenses!!!!
I'm extremely happy and can't wait to exercise it at my new job that I start in about a week! :D
Flying off for school again ~*
Been a hot minute since I've updated this thing on DA ain't it?
Well I've been meaning to keep better track and attention to my DA since it's honestly still one of my preferred art host sites, I'm just terrible at keeping up with things :')
Which tbh may continue over the next year or 2 as I head off back to school in a few days. Which I'm hella stoked for! I've bee working extra hard these last few years to be able to do so, so I may finally establish myself a career in the aerospace industry as I've been trying to do, but each time I tried something incredibly crappy came up to screw with finances and forced me to put that on hold. But now I have a straight shot opportunity to not only attend a professional aviation mechanics school, but I'll be able to finish my little experimental project plane with it and my private pilot's license all at the same time. It almost doesn't feel real sometimes with how many times I've had my dreams of aviation ripped from me, but I'm too stupid to give up. uwu
Anyhow, I don't know what this will mean for me w/art, I intend on working on my comics little by little when I'm not faced with mountains of reading & studies, but for my own sanity, fandom will be mostly shoved to the back burner as getting thru this school is my top priority. (and ngl space car robo fandom can be a stressful one for real. (': )
BUT I also did just get Colors on my Switch to play around with while away from my PC & Wacom at home and will be getting an ipad for foreflight navigation & for school with Clipstudio Pro installed soon. So I'll have tools on hand at all times for free time doodling shenanigans.
Anyways, blue skies and tailwinds uwu
And for funsies, here's said airplane :3
(well what it looked like before I started full restoration work in it. It's just a little 3/4 scale experimental MiniCub, but it's mine <3 I may eventually post some later progress I've made on it either here in a journal, instagram, and/or ticktock.
This ship started in Seattle’s massive Lake Union where I helped renovate the boat then set sail in Shilshole Bay to hop around the same little island towns every week like Anacotres Friday Harbor in the San Juan islands, Port Angeles, Port Townsend, & finally Poulsbo.
Here, with the guidance of the captains I steered the ship around mountains and thru deceptive currents- whirlpools, eddies, high wind seas, sea fog, Pacific swells, we even felt that little earthquake just north of Seattle a couple months back. I even got to race the local ferries from island to island! They always won of course, as they travel 15-20 knots while we kinda maxed out about 11kts and they’d overtake us every time despite being over a mile behind. 
All of my favorite moments aboard the Spirit definitely involve the wildlife. Once when I was at the helm and a huge humpback whale came and breached alongside the bow! We immediately slowed down and it continued to swim alongside us at the water’s surface for almost an hour! Captain thought it was trying to challenge the ship thinking it was a bigger, loud whale. The same happened another time when the biggest Orca I’d ever seen lept fully out of the water right in front of the ship! Captain immediately took the controls and swerved around the big guy!
This truly was one of the best and most memorable experiences I’ve ever had, sure it had it’s difficulties; the lack of sleep on some shifts and seemingly never ending weeks without time off really push your strengths and weaknesses to the maximum test. But thanks to awesome friends made along the way, I want to keep doing it as I use it to build up cash so I can finally get back to flight school, all while experiencing a new adventure each day
I can't begin ti state how great this year's airshow was, but I guess the awesome aircraft out on display is a start, & the best news gets saved for last ;D
(btw, I had a hand in restoring a couple of these experimental birds- I even designed the paint scheme of the museum here- I don''t just draw cartoons
)Aircraft of all types, ages, sizes, and alll stopped by my city's little airport. While I haven't heard the official numbers yet, last year we had nearly 10,000 aircraft movements recorded on our little base then an additional 600-1k aircraft diverted to each of the surrounding small airports. It's always super cool to see so many planes flock together like this
Among those aircraft were mighty birds like the Osprey VTOL
The concept from the late 1940s made a completely restored Twin P-51 Mustang-
And NASA brought down this neat lookin science jet- the wings were loaded with various sensors and things I've never seen on a jet.
But the coolest thing was the name on the pilot's side of the plane- Buzz Aldrin!! Typically only the captain of an aircraft gets their name inscribed on this side- so there might be an actual possibility that this was his jet!
Even if it wasn't his jet (tho still possible, astronauts and NASA staff stop by all the time- infact astronaut Nicole Stott gave a presentation here last week), it's still a pretty awesome science jet. B)
Here's some more photos I thought were pretty awesome- no filters here, credit to the sky for setting me up for some fantastic shots <3
OK now for the awesome news.. okay, it's awesome to me :'D
Well, you know what they say about being in the right place & time? Well, I was just leaving my post from volunteering in the workshops and noticed some of the guys crowded around the little old Mini Cub that belonged to my old high school. Curiosity defeated any shred of social anxiety I had just minutes before and I had to find out what they were doing to the cute little bird the (incredible and ever responsible) staff of my school had left to the elements for the last 7 years.
Turned out, the school wanted to junk the poor little thing! It broke my heart to see her in such horrible condition (lmao it's a pilot thing, planes require so much care & attention, they're almost like living things to us ;u
especially after I've seen it fly before and I used to help keep it cleaned every now & then after school.. Welp, after very little persuasion (the mechanics didn't want to chop it up any how & all they wanted was the engine- which they actually gave back!!) a few miles run for the (lost) paperwork/parts & some elbow grease, this little airplane now belongs to me! ^u^ (lmao I kinda feel I went the route of the gals in one of those horse movies
but i don't care, I own an airplane now! lmao I'm not even a full pilot yet! :'D)With the help of the incredible volunteers in the airshow workshops, we gathered tons of parts & materials needed to rebuild my airplane- it's not everything of course and I'll need to work extra hours in order to afford the aircraft grade parts & stuff needed to make it airworthy again (and boiii do I need to learn some more mechanical skills
) and I've got a t o n of work ahead of me on this- but it'll be SO worth it in the end when I finally do make it fly again.We looked funny af going down the road & into a McDonalds with half an airplane strapped to a rigged on the fly trailer, but so worth it ^u^
Meanwhile, a certain alien robot jet isn't so sure about this...
& while I'm still on the subject of airplanes (lmao that'll never end- aviation is my life
) I got hired on the spot for an airport lineman job! I've only been at it for a week nnow and man, I've never thorougly enjoyed a job like this before, I'm having so much fun just towing & fueling aircraft around this tiny laid back country airport- I also get to work a similar seaside airport around the Tampa coast. ^u^
Might be sailing out again
But of course I can't be without a sketchbook, I'll have a couple with some watercolors and Micron pens on hand, which of course, I can always digitize when I fly back home c:
If all works out and I have enough money to finish my pilot's licence (I'm aiming to solo by August! :'D )I may even be gone for a winter semester of school (trying to finish one degree in airport management and get some aircraft mechanic experience)if all goes according to plan. c':
But until then, I'll be hitting the Mighty Muddy Mississippi & doodling all sorts of shenanigans~