I realize I’m a bit late for 9/11 content, but I happened across these when I returned from a cruise. I’m happy to say that the Captain of the cruise gave a remembrance speech and asked for a moment of silence on the anniversary of 9/11 – even at sea. Anyway…
The New York Times compiled recordings of phone and ATC radio communications from the time of the events on September 11th, 2001. Conversations between ATC and the hiacked planes, conversations between NORAD and the ATC centers, stuff like that. It’s actually a VERY cool compilation, putting all the recording with a detailed timeline and description of the unfolding events. The conversations themselves are at times very shocking – from hearing the actual hijacking to authorization from the Vice President to shoot down civilian planes if they don’t cooperate. Scary stuff!
I highly recommend taking a look and listen…
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As part of my pre-solo check flight last time flying, that CFI recommended I only need to work on crosswind landings before going solo. So, that’s what I worked on this past lesson…for over two hours! 
Luckily there was a fairly decent crosswind of about 10 knots or so, directly across the runway. As such, we had the option most of the time to takeoff and land from either direction, which made for an efficient use of time! All-in-all, the lesson wasn’t terribly interesting as we literally just stayed in the pattern and worked on landings and takeoffs over and over. Some were better than others, some were pretty ugly, but ultimately by the end I had a much improved grasp on this complicated maneuver. I still wouldn’t want to tackle heavy crosswinds all by myself, but that’s what practice is for. I also now finally get (and can verbalize properly) how to put the ailerons while on the ground with wind…that got me last time out.
Hopefully next lesson will be the big one…my CFI told me “not to wear my Armani t-shirts”…I figure that’s a good sign. This lesson I logged 2.3 hours of flight time and 16 landings.
P.S. – While en route to Mexico for my vacation last week I listened to ATC while on my United flight. It was funny and interesting to hear air traffic control in Spanish half the time once we crossed the border. Our pilot/navigator was definitely having a hard time understanding them sometimes and had to have commands repeated multiple times (in the heavily accented English). I was expecting the controller to swear in Spanish, but they always kept their cool.
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