06/14/08 18:00

Stats: 1.2 Hours Dual, 2 Day Landings, Taxiing, Turns, Take Off, Climb, Descent, Straight and Level, Climbing Turns. Hours to Date: 1.2

Here it is; the very first lesson. Driving over I was both excited and nervous. I had no idea what to expect. I met my instructor, Ron McCormick and we went through the syllabus and did some paperwork and then we were off.

Ron walked me through the pre-flight procedures which involves making sure the airplane is airworthy, has gas and oil, no new damage, and checking the electrical, mechanical, and flight control systems. We spent a lot of time on this since it was my first time. I figure I will get it down to a 10 minute process at some point.

O.K… we start it up and get ready to taxi to the active runway. If you weren’t aware, when an airplane is on the ground, you steer it with your feet. This is totally new sensation that humbles you real quick. I’m just glad it wasn’t real busy on the taxiways because I seemed to be everywhere but right on the yellow line. It became very clear that airplanes were meant to be flown and not driven around on the ground.

We stop in the “Run-Up” area to do, well, a run-up test. This is where you check the engine and magnetos at higher RPMs to make sure everything is up to par. It’s way better to find out you have a problem on the taxiway rather than on the runway, or worse at about 500′ AGL. Everything checks out and we are off to the runway.

At this point, I can hear him talking to me, but I’m only getting every 4th word or so. The other words are drowned out by my heart pounding. I remember from the ground school that I need to add right rudder as soon as we leave the ground to counteract the torque and P-Factor. But wait, when do we leave the ground? For some reason 58 knots sticks in my head so I go with that. Throttle in to full and here we go. As I write this, I’m sure Ron was telling me what speed to look for and to check the gauges to make sure everything was in the green and saying right rudder, right rudder as I increased power, but like I said before, I really didn’t hear that stuff. So, here we are at about 58 knots and I pull back on the controls and the nose wheel lifts off the ground followed quickly by the main gear. Set the climb attitude, (more right rudder) and we’re off. That’s all there is to it.

Sidebar: I have logged hundreds of hours in Microsoft’s Flight Simulator, and I will admit that it is helpful in some regards. You learn the principles of flight and a little bit about ATC, but I quickly realize that the feel for a Sim and a real plane are completely different. I won’t trade my Sim experience, but I now know that the greatest Sim pilot out there will still have plenty to learn in a real plane.

O.K. back to the first lesson. We head out to the practice area. I slip and skid my way through the turns as I really don’t have a feel for the rudders and how much pressure it takes to make coordinated turns. I understand the concept, but it’s like patting your head and rubbing your stomach, it takes a little practice and some dexterity to get it right.

Turns and climbs and straight and level. Things go pretty well and by the time it was time to head for home, I felt like I had a better feel for the rudders and could keep from sliding around in my turns. Now we head back. Somehow, we have to put this craft back on ground. Ron generously offers to make the first landing as an example (I’m thinking first, we should only have to land once. My brain is already fried). We enter the pattern and Ron is talking about airspeed, flaps, rate of descent, when to turn, calling on the radio, rudder, throttle, flare, etc. etc. etc. Like I said my brain is pretty full at this point so I follow along his controls as he puts us down. We touch down, he pulls the flaps up and says, you have the plane, get full power in there, right rudder and take off into the pattern. I think I actually said, “Um, OK”.

As we start our descent, things are going fairly well, I turn final and realize I’m high and well to the right of the runway. Ron “helps” by adding full flaps which I forgot was going to pitch the nose up due to the increased lift. After recovering from that, we settle in toward the runway and having no idea what I’m doing, I spend a lot of time overcorrecting and then trying to correct my first correction. We end up left of the centerline and I start my flare too early and too abruptly, ballooning the plane and subsequently bouncing it. We finally get all 3 wheels on the ground, the flaps go up and says, “OK, do it again”. As we fly the pattern, he’s giving my instruction on how to make the next one better. It ends up being a little better. After this one he says, “Again?” to which I reply, “Um, my brain has had enough for today I think”. We hit the brakes and turn onto the taxiway.

We had the engine running for 1.2 hours and it seemed like about 10 minutes to me. On the way out he asked if I was going to come back next time. Without pause I said, “Yes, sir. I’ll see you Monday”.