Flight School – Recap – Week 6

Best week so far! Finally we had a stretch of decent weather and were able to fly 5 days this week. I surpassed my 20th hour of flight time this week and everything seems to be coming together. I feel that 20 hours is really the minimum starting point where you have developed enough muscle memory to be precise with the controls, and quick enough mentally to multitask the demands of safe controlled flight.

We spent basically the entire week working on pattern work. Pattern flying means that we are practicing the traffic pattern around the airport. All airports, whether controlled or uncontrolled, have a traffic pattern which pilots must adhere to in order to keep congestion down and the sky safe.
A standard traffic pattern consists of 4 ‘legs’. First you have upwind, as in a straight out climb directly after takeoff. At our airport, due to noise abatement, we must climb to 1200ft in altitude before turning. So we climb upwind to 1200 feet, and then turn left 90° to our “crosswind” leg. Crosswind puts you perpendicular to the runway from which you just departed. The next leg of the pattern in downwind, which is another 90° turn from crosswind, and puts you parallel to your departure runway (or landing runway for that matter), but heading in the opposite direction. Downwind is usually where you enter the traffic pattern, for instance when you are returning to the airport from a flight. When flying downwind, you usually communicate with the tower, do pre-landing checks, and begin to configure the airplane for landing. As you fly parallel to the runway from which you just departed, heading back in the opposite direction, your next turn will be on to ‘base’ leg, which will now have you perpendicular to your runway. From base leg, you make your last left turn on to ‘final’. From downwind and through final, you would be configuring the airplane for landing in stages.

We flew this pattern, landing and taking right back off (touch-and-go’s) 14 times on Monday of this past week. Some landings were good, and some were not so good. Some that were good were luck and others I really worked for. All in all, it takes practice to get a feel for the controls and to understand and interpret the depth perception as you come down toward the runway. We also practiced simply holding the plane off and flying a foot or two off the runway for as long as possible. Once the plane would settle, add some power to get back in the air and then do it again. With 6000 foot runways at our airport, we could get a few of these practice bounces done on each pass, utilizing the entire length of the runway.

On Tuesday we continued the pattern work but also worked on glide approaches. This is basically simulating an engine failure in the pattern, and how you would bring the plane in with no power available. If you are in the pattern, and especially at our airport (due to minimum altitude requirements), making the runway if there was a sudden loss of power is fairly easy.

For Thursday, my instructor suggested that I get on the schedule with another instructor after my regularly scheduled lesson for a progress check. From time to time you want to fly with someone else so they can give you feedback on your progress, make sure that you haven’t developed any improper habits, or your instructor hasn’t missed anything. Each time you fly with a different instructor, you will learn something new, even if it is just a tip or trick to help you along. I scheduled to fly with the chief pilot of the school after my regularly scheduled flight with my instructor on Thursday. I wasn’t nervous going into this progress check, but obviously wanted to do well. If the chief pilot was satisfied with my proficiency, he would give his blessing that I was ready for my first solo flight.

I had Wednesday off and returned to school early Thursday morning. It was a clear but gusty day. The plan was to fly my regular lesson with my regular instructor and then fly the progress check with the chief pilot. I felt good about this because it would let me get a feel for the day’s winds and brush up on some skills I was still working on. Right then plans changed! The chief pilot asked if we could go first, as he had another commitment arise for later in the day. Sure, why not. Lets fly. After all, I’m a student, and this isn’t a test, so nothing to worry about. Doesn’t have to be perfect. We started with the preflight and he gave me some good suggestions and critiques along the way. After taking off, we headed out toward the practice area and he asked me to demonstrate several flight skills and maneuvers. Climbs, descents, slow flight, steep turns, and turns around a point. I felt good about all of them. Then, as we were flying along, he pulled the power to idle and called out, “you’ve had an engine failure”, what are you going to do? Immediately I pitched up to get my best glide speed of 68 knots. I trimmed the airplane to hold this glide speed as I looked outside for a suitable place where I would be able to land the airplane. Ok, I see a field, it seems like my best bet in terms of shape and length, and I can approach the field into the wind. I begin a series of turns to set myself up on a good approach. I make my “mock-mayday” call, and give my passenger brief. My turns are complete and I am approaching my point. I tell my instructor I feel good about my choice and that I feel I would make the field, and am ready to start putting in flaps to descend further. He is satisfied with my demonstration, and we initiate a go around. In reality I felt very good about that scenario and my reaction. I chose a spot, flew toward it, and had it been a turn emergency, I feel it would have a successful outcome. We head back to the airport, fly the pattern, and do several touch and go’s. After about an hour of flight, the progress check is complete. Upon debrief, we review some improvements I can make and highlight some positive points. All and all, he is happy with my progress and gives his blessing on my readiness to solo, green lighting my instructor to sign me off for a solo flight as he sees fit. It was nice to hear the chief pilot say, “you fly us along quite well”.

The following day we continue pattern work, in very gusty conditions. Not my best day of flying. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with the wind. We did 15 take offs / landings. I felt sort of discouraged but my instructor wasn’t to concerned because he knew the wind was really throwing me off. The next day, we ended the week by flying out to an uncontrolled airport (no tower), and practicing the pattern there. At an uncontrolled airport, you need to make the necessary radio calls as you move through the pattern on your own, in order to make sure you keep separation from other planes. The runway at this airport was much narrower, and much shorter. We did a few laps in the pattern and my landings were much better today. Dusk started to set in and I had the very cool opportunity to operate the runway lights from the airplane for the first time. A pilot can turn on all the runway lights from the airplane by pressing the microphone button 7 times in succession on a certain frequency. Seeing all the lights come alive while on final approach is really a cool sight. We headed back to our home airport, flew the pattern as the sun set, and did one lap / landing in the dark. The week ended up very well, and I feel there is a SOLO flight in the very near future. Stay tuned.

Flight School – Recap – Week 5

Happy New Year! Well this will be a short entry, because it was a short week. The weather did not cooperate at all, I only flew one day this week! I went the entire first week of the this new year without flying. I was well aware of the downtime I would inevitably have when starting flight school at the beginning of the winter in the Northeast, but this past week really wore me down. If you have been reading since my first post you know that on my very first official day of flight school, we did no fly due to weather. I wrote in that post that it did not discourage me and I knew it was to be expected at this time of the year. I went back and reread my words and that helped me get through the continuous back to back days which did not allow us to fly. Sunday came around and we finally had an opportunity to fly; the morning after the first snowstorm of the season painted our area white.

I got to the airport, conditions were bright and clear but we had wind gusting to 22 knots. Not having flown for the entire week, I wanted to fly despite the gusty conditions. Our lesson for the day was on emergency procedures. We flew out to the practice area, and my instructor demonstrated the procedure to follow in the event of an unexpected engine failure.

As we cruised around in normal flight, we cut the power simulating an engine failure. The first thing to do is pitch the airplane up to set our best glide speed, 68 knots. We trim for this setting as we look out for a suitable landing area, and start to fly toward it. My instructor selected a field which he deemed suitable for landing had this been a true emergency. As he flew toward the field at the best glide speed, he began the engine restart checklist. Fuel selector on both, fuel cutoff in, mixture rich, cycle throttle and set halfway, fuel pump to on, master switch check on, magnetos both. This checklist is done in a matter of seconds, from memory, and then we call air traffic control. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! followed by our call sign, position, emergency, and intentions. Next he gave me the passenger brief, as we continued to descend to our intended landing place. As we approached 500ft AGL, my instructor demonstrated a ‘slip’ which is a maneuver which can help to further reduce our altitude and get us down faster if needed. At this moment, a massive gust of wind came and tossed us uncomfortably off course. We initiated a go around, adding full power and climbing out of our mock-engine-out scenario.

The gusty conditions of the day made it very difficult for me to practice emergencies as I kept getting blown off course from my chosen landing spot. Before heading back to the airport my instructor demonstrated a spiraling decent, a maneuver that could be used in the event of an engine fire or other emergency that would require getting the aircraft on the ground as fast as possible. In the spiraling desent, you are spiraling basically straight down at just below the “do not exceed” speed of the aircraft. What a ride! I can’t wait to start learning and practicing these maneuevers myself.

We headed back to the airport and called it a day. I didn’t get to practice much of the manevuers myself, but the weather is looking better for the coming week, and I am scheduled for almost everyday. I’ll have alot more to report next time, and will be very close to my first solo!

Flight School – Recap – Week 4

Well we had a short week — not much to report this time. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day fell on the Saturday and Sunday leading into this week. New Years Eve and New Years Day fell on this past Saturday and Sunday, respectively. In between we had, wait for it… bad weather. I ended up only flying on this past Friday and Saturday, and utilized some of the rain outs for ground lessons.

On Thursday we did a ground lesson on ground reference maneuvers in anticipation of flying and practicing the maneuvers on Friday. There are three basic ground reference maneuvers that we practice and are part of the private pilot practical exam. There are turns around a point, rectangular course, and s-turns across a road.

The forecast for Friday was good, but come Friday there were gusty wind conditions, although it was a relatively clear day. We opted to fly anyway, as the point of ground reference maneuvers is to be able to maintain your intended flight path while correcting for wind. Practicing ground reference maneuvers on a day with no wind is counterproductive, although working on them for the first time with gusts up to 22 knots is just the opposite end of the spectrum. I figured it was worth it to go fly, at least to have my instructor introduce the maneuvers to me in practice. We flew out to the practice area, and although we had some pretty bumpy air, we were able to get a lot done. My instructor choose points on the ground and demonstrated each maneuver. After each demonstration, I took control, and started working on the maneuvers on my own. I found S-turns across a road to be the most challenging.

On Saturday the 31st, New Year’s Eve, we were lucky to have nice weather, although it was still rather gusty. We flew for 2.3 hours, a tie for my longest flight to date. While doing our run-up and pre-takeoff check list, we noticed a red fox frolicking around the runway! More on that later.

We took off and headed out to the practice area to continue work on the ground reference maneuvers we had started the day before. I choose the point to fly around, and began the “turns around a point” maneuver on the downwind. Entering the maneuver with the wind behind you, you use the steepest angle of bank and gradually shallow your bank angle as you fly around your point and the direction of the wind changes relative to the aircraft. Maintaining a constant altitude and scanning for traffic adds a degree of technicality to the maneuver, but overall, this seems to be the easiest of the three basic ground reference maneuvers for me.

Next was rectangular course. For this maneuver, we choose something on the ground resembling a rectangle, such as a large field. The idea is to fly around this rectangle maintaining a constant altitude and distance from the edge of your ‘rectangle’ all the way around. The wind will push you away from your rectangle when it is behind you and you will slow on the upwind. You need to manipulate your angle of bank when making your turn, and your degree of turn (in order to crab for the wind). This maneuver basically mimics flying the traffic pattern around the airport.

The last maneuver is S-turns across a road. The idea is to cross a road on the downwind with wings level, and immediately go into a left or right turn at a steep bank angle, and shallow your turn all the way through until you cross the road in the other direction again, perpendicular, with wings level. You then immediately go into another S-turn to the other direction, this time at a shallow angle of bank with a constant increase in bank until you are at the steepest angle of bank as the wind is behind you again, and you can again cross the road in the other direction, perpendicular, with wings level.

I practiced these maneuvers, and about an hour and a half into our flight, while practicing S-turns, I asked my instructor to take control and demonstrate one for me, as I was having trouble manipulating the bank angle correctly. This is the point at which I realized that until just then, he had not flown the plane at all… I had done everything and had been flying since we took off. Great feeling. We continued to practice maneuvers, and as dusk set in, headed back to the airport.

As we headed back to the airport, my instructor had me practice some stalls. I was much more confident and was able to enter and recover the stall much more smoothly, and minimize altitude lost on the maneuvers. We contacted tower and were asked to report a 3 mile base for touch and go’s. Being a gusty day, we were going to work on some crosswind landing techniques. I worked the radio and brought the airplane in for a landing to the best of my ability. My instructor helped at the very end due to the wind conditions. We touched down and immediately took back off. By this time, it was getting late, and dark fast. It was first time flying in the dark, with the instruments lights on in the airplane. As we reported our downwind to air traffic control, they asked if we could come in for ‘short approach’. I replied back ‘negative’ and they had us do a 360° turn to the right in order to hold us off as other traffic came in to land. When we came out of that turn, joined a base and then turned on final approach. The aircraft that was landing ahead of us, had to do a go around, meaning they aborted the landing and rejoined the traffic pattern around the airport. The reason for the go around? A fox on the runway!

We were on final approach and were told to deviate as they investigated the whereabouts of the fox. It was pretty busy in the air and everyone was put in a pattern around the airport. After a few turns at the direction of air traffic control we came in for our full stop landing. I executed the landing, and taxied us back to home base. It was completely dark at this point, and we were the last ones at the school… for the year. We had a short debrief and locked up and left. Happy New Year!

Flight School – Recap – Week 3

This week was amazing. We flew on Monday 12/19, Thursday 12/22, and Friday 12/23. I left the airport on Friday afternoon with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. During our flight on Friday afternoon, I made my first fully unassisted landings. Not a bad “self-given gift” for Christmas.

Lets backtrack a few days… On Monday 12/19 I returned to school for the start of my second week of flight training. If you read my last post, you know that there were some ups and downs during week one (no pun intended :p ). I was scheduled to fly on Sunday 12/18 but lost the day due to weather. This gave me the weekend to relax and recharge starting my second week with a clear mind and positive outlook.

I arrived at school on Monday and we made it a point to get as much flight time in as possible. We ended up logging 2.2 hours, my longest training flight to date. I learned slow flight, steep turns, and started traffic pattern!

Slow flight consists of configuring the airplane in a way which results in flight at an airspeed of around 60 knots. Regular cruise is around 110 knots for comparison. Slow flight is achieved by combining a low power setting with the necessary pitch attitude which results in your desired [low] airspeed. During slow flight, the airplane’s controls are sloppy and less responsive, due to a decrease in airflow over the control surfaces. When turning during slow flight, you want to limit your bank angle, keep it shallow. The steeper the bank angle, the higher the stall speed, and during slow flight, depending on your bank angle, stall speed and airspeed may be converging.

The next skill we worked on were steep turns. Steep turns are 360° turns at a 45° bank angle while maintaining a constant altitude. These are lots of fun! The maneuver begins with a turn to either left or right, holding 45° of bank, adding power and back pressure as necessary to maintain altitude, and following the turn all the way through 360° until you are back on the heading your began with. When approaching the heading you started the maneuver on, you roll wings level and immediately go into the same steep turn to the other direction. I had a lot of fun with steep turns, although I definitely need more practice in order to keep all the variables in check.

After practicing these maneuvers, we headed back to the airport, and while we still had daylight, decided to do some touch-and-go’s! A touch-and-go is a landing followed by an immediate takeoff — with no stop on the runway in between. You simply land the plane and as it is rolling, reconfigure it for immediate takeoff. As we approached the airport from the practice area, I did most of the radio calls, with the assistance of my instructor as necessary. My instructor demonstrated the first touch and go, landing the plane, and immediately taking off and rejoining the traffic pattern around the airport. I then took control and flew the pattern, made the necessary radio calls, and brought the plane in for landing. During my first two attempts at landing, my instructor was helping me on the controls, fine tuning my inputs. I hadn’t done it completely on my own, but it was exhilarating nonetheless. We did two more touch-and-go’s and then a full stop landing, and our longest flight to date was complete. The experience was incredible.

I returned on Thursday 12/22 and the skills we worked on were steep turns and stalls. We departed the airport for the practice are and began our training. Aerodynamic stalls occur when the aircraft’s wing is no longer able to generate the lift required to sustain flight. Inducing a stall and practicing the recovery is necessary in order to understand at what limit this condition may be encountered and how to recover if you should ever experience a stall outside of a training environment. Going into this, I imagined stalls as being more violent and uncomfortable than they ended up being. We practiced three types of stalls — power-off stalls, departure stalls, and approach stalls. In each scenario, the aircraft was configured in a certain way to simulate a scenario either during takeoff, flight, or upon landing. We then induced the stall, and worked on recovering the aircraft. Lets take an approach stall for example.

During an approach stall maneuver, we configure the airplane as though we were coming in for a landing. Power is decreased to between 1500-1600rpm, full flaps (30°) are applied, and pitch is set to achieve an airspeed of 60 knots. This simulates the configuration of the aircraft during a decent to landing approach. At this point, we pull back on the control yolk, increasing the angle of attack until the wing can no longer produce the lift sufficient to maintain flight, and the stall occurs. As you pull back on the control yolk, the airspeed drops and the stall warning horn begins to sound. Shortly there after there is pronounced buffer that can be felt through the airplane’s controls, and immediately there after the aerodynamic stall occurs and the nose of the aircraft begins to fall sharply [toward the earth]. When the nose begins to fall, you relieve the back pressure on the yolk, add full power, and add rudder as necessary to level the wings. Retract flaps and pitch for best angle of climb. I’ll have to get my Go Pro into the cockpit one of these days, as a written explanation of the maneuver does it no justice.

On Friday 12/23, I had my best day of flight training to date. When I got to school that afternoon I told my instructor that I had been talking to my cousin, who is a private pilot, and we were planning to fly to the 2017 Air Venture Airshow in Osh Kosh, WI, in July of 2017. I mentioned to my cousin that I wanted to go and he expressed interest as well. If my training stays on course I should be an instrument rated private pilot and working on my commercial rating by this point. My instructor suggested we do a cross country flight, as a bit of an introduction to flying from place to place, rather then just going out to the practice area and flying around doing maneuvers. We headed out and decided to fly out to Lancaster, PA, where we would call the airport, join the pattern, and do touch and go’s. Along the way, he had me practice climbs, descents, steep turns, and stalls. As we approached Lancaster airport, I made the calls to ATC and was cleared into the pattern for touch-and-go’s. These were my first two, completely unassisted landings of the airplane. I made the calls, flew the pattern, landed the plane, and took back off. I remember coming in for the first landing. I was on final approach, maintaining 70knots, with the runway’s glide slope lights indicating a proper angle of descent. As I came down over the threshold, I brought the power to idle and glided the plane down close to the runway. I brought the nose up and let the airspeed bleed off, and we had touchdown. It was an amazing feeling. When my instructor confirmed that he had no input on the landing I remember saying “That was ****ing awesome!”.

We flew back to home base, and I left for the week feeling on top of the world. Everything felt right. It felt like I was finally doing what I was meant to do. I ended the week with 12 hours of total flight time complete, with a feeling of complete satisfaction and achievement. Plenty more to come.

Flight School – Recap – Week 2

So I’ve decided that going forward I’ll be writing weekly progress posts as I continue on through flight training. My previous posts outlined my first official day and first day I got airborne, but daily journals aren’t necessary.

I’m training on a Cessna 172SP round dial. I will be switching to a G1000 glass cockpit once I start my instrument training. I think that it is a good idea to have experience with traditional instruments so I prefer to hold off on the glass cockpit. I’ve picked up quickly on the preflight and each day this becomes more and more like second nature.

We started off with the basics– climbs, descents, turns, and straight and level flight.

Theory, theory, theory. Understanding the fundamentals behind flight and the flight controls is absolutely critical when learning to fly. I cannot emphasize this enough. In my first few flights, I had still not fully learned all the material associated with the maneuvers I was learning and this made things difficult – almost overwhelming. After my second flight I did end up feeling overwhelmed and was left questioning whether this journey is for me. I didn’t let it get to me, and just pushed forward.

We fly out in a practice area a few miles north of the airport my school is out of. This practice area has a radio frequency all aircraft in the area should be on. We use this frequency to make ourselves known to other aircraft in the area. When entering the practice area we announce ourselves over the radio and ask if anybody else is flying out there. When leaving the practice area we do the same. On my second flight, we announced ourselves to the practice area and there was no response back. I was learning basic maneuvers at about 2500ft of altitude when I saw and verbally called out to my instructor traffic off our right side at the same altitude coming straight for us! A split second later this other plane banked left and I saw a low wing Piper from another flight school shoot by us no more than a few hundred feet away. They were not on the practice frequency or simply did not make themselves known on the radio. I asked my instructor if this was considered ‘very close traffic’ as I did not have much to compare it to. He said that this wasn’t the closest traffic he’s had to avoid, but it was indeed close. This honestly shook me up a bit. Soon after I told my instructor I had enough for the day, and we headed back to the airport early.

I never understood flight as I do now – that controlled flight is achieved through a series of small inputs and together they help you achieve the outcome you are after. Understanding how an input to any given control will change another flight characteristic and how to compensate for this is basically everything you are doing to maintain your desired flight path. After the first few days flying, I was still unsure how I was going to progress to a point where I would be able to fly the plane, navigate, and communicate. That picture is getting much clearer now as I am starting to learn each of these pieces one by one. It no longer feels overwhelming at all, I understand that it will take practice and experience and as I progress tasks will become more like second nature. With my first week of training behind me, I am also pretty satisfied with the fact that I have had no negative reaction physically (airsickness). We’ll see how I feel after stalls and spins though  :).

We lost about half the flight time I has scheduled in my first week to weather. As it stands I logged my first 6 hours of flight in my first week of flight training. Each day left me feeling better and more confident than the last. I remember driving home after one of my lessons and feeling extremely satisfied and fulfilled. I’m starting to see the full picture and can see how I will be able pull everything together – it all makes sense to me now. I find myself hoping for good weather and looking forward to my next lesson.

Officially Airborne – Flight School (Day 2)

Today was my second officially scheduled day of flight training, and today we were able to fly! If you read my last post, you know that I was unable to fly on my first day of training due to weather. The past two days have been washouts but today had been forecasted to be a relatively clear day. The day started off clear with a ceiling of about 6000ft. My lesson today, 12/9/16, was scheduled for 12PM. I left home around 11AM and as I headed to the airfield I realized that it was becoming more overcast and somewhat windy.

I arrived at my flight school about ten minutes early and pulled up the latest METAR data. Winds were 30018G27 with scattered clouds at 4200ft. The winds seemed significant to me, although I had nothing to gauge them against, relatively speaking. When I arrived at my school and spoke to my instructor, he told me that despite the wind we could fly, but whether or not I wanted my first official flight to be in gusty winds was up to me. The rational against flying on a gusty day for my first experience was simply that I would not be able to get as much of a feel for the flight controls and the responsiveness of the aircraft as I would in clear air.

I told my instructor, “as long as you believe it is safe to fly, I want to go up”. My reasoning did not have much to do with the fact that I had been unable to fly earlier this week, although I was definitely looking forward to getting airborne. I asked my instructor, “relatively speaking, how significant are winds gusting to 27 knots?” He remarked that they were significant, and we would have a bumpy ride, although these winds were not overly concerning to him and we would be able to fly as usual. He further explained that it is important for students to experience winds such as these and that many times he will make it point to fly with students in certain conditions.

The way I looked at it was, as long as we could fly safely, I wanted to get airborne. It will obviously be windy at times, and I thought it was an advantage to experience and feel the wind early on in my training. What if I got sick and couldn’t handle flight in these conditions? I saw the opportunity to fly in gusty conditions as an advantage rather than a detriment. Officially, we would be doing an introductory lesson to straight forward flight, turns, climbs, and descents.

Regardless of the wind conditions, I was also looking forward to running through the checklists as we had in my first lesson, but this time actually starting the aircraft. We went out to the airplane a few minutes after 12pm and began the preflight checklists. The gusts of wind were significant but I had my heart set on getting airborne as long as it was deemed safe by my instructor. We got through the preflight checklists and before I knew it we were taxiing out to our takeoff runway.

Getting a feel for the rudder / steering system will take some getting used. Everything else was basically as I had imagined it and before I knew it we were airborne and headed toward the practice area used by students at my school. Due to the weather, we ended up being the only aircraft training in the practice area today. We spent the next hour or so doing turns, climbs, and descents. The wind was gusting and pushing us around pretty well, and at times there was visible precipitation (rain / snow) between 2000-4000ft.

I got plenty of time on the controls and was able to work on several turns, climbs, and descents. The majority of the first lesson was really an introduction to how the aircraft reacts to certain inputs, all while getting pushed around pretty well by mother nature. At one point, during a power back gliding decent, with gusty winds, I asked my instructor to take control and if we could add power and keep it straight and level for some time. It was around an hour into our first flight and the first time I got an ‘unnatural’ feeling. My feelings were undoubtedly exasperated by the wind, but I reached a point where I had enough maneuvers for one day, mostly likely because it was my first.

At around an hour of flight time, we headed back to the airport. Bringing the aircraft in for landing was exhilarating. As we approached for landing, a regional jet was taxing for takeoff and was instructed to hold for traffic (us). Listening to the exchanges between ATC and that aircraft and watching them positioning themselves on the taxiway anticipating our landing was an added bonus to the experience of my first flight lesson.

We landed without issue in a crosswind and parked the aircraft. My instructor and I spent some time debriefing and discussing the flight. I felt pretty good afterwards, no negative side effects or motion sickness. Ready to fly again, 12 hours exactly from now. Cheers!

It’s Official – Flight School (Day 1)

Today I had my first scheduled day of flight school, which means today officially marks the beginning of what I hope becomes a lifelong journey and career in aviation. I’ve spent the past several months heavily invested in researching all aspects of my decision to pursue a career in aviation. I am a 30 year old career-changer with a plan to one day fly commercially as a captain on a major airline. I feel proud and ambitious about my decision to move forward in this field and I look forward to the experiences and the knowledge I will gain along the way. I am prepared for the work associated and look forward meeting new people and making new friends in a community I already hold in high regard.

I can’t say that I had any specific expectations regarding my first day, or that I had in any way imagined how it would play out. Back in August 2016 I had visited the flight school (one of several), and was lucky enough to spend some very quality time with the owner of the school. He took the time to discuss most of the relevant information about the operation, and answer any questions that I had. He showed me around the facility and genuinely made me feel that this was a place where I would receive quality instruction and be invited into the community with open arms. The time he took on that day in August went a long way in helping me make a decision on where I would do my training.

Last week  I called the school’s owner and told him I had made the final decision to start my training there. We had exchanged a call or two a few days prior, helping me answer a few outstanding questions and concerns I had. Based on my plan and my background, he placed me with an instructor who he thinks will be a good fit. We scheduled my first two lessons over the phone 12/5/2016 (today) and 12/9/2016. Over this past weekend I received a call from my flight instructor, calling to introduce himself and discuss my background, plan, and expectations as a new student. He graciously spent an hour on the phone with me ahead of my first lesson today (Monday).

I woke up this morning to a wet and overcast day, gathered some necessary documents, and headed to the airport for my 12PM lesson. My commute to the airport is about 45 minutes, 38 miles. I arrived about a half hour early to make time for preliminary paperwork necessary for new students. I met some of the staff at the school – all of which were pleasant and inviting. As a new student, I had to fill out some forms with my personal information, sign some agreements and liability waivers, and provide my passport, driver’s license, and medical certificate (yes- I got my medical FIRST.. pun intended?!)

Shortly after noon my instructor found me lingering around the school and introduced himself. It helped a lot that we had spoken prior in terms of being able to start a technical discussion related to the airplane and my training rather then talk about the what, why, and how related to my plan to get my ratings. We had a relatively short, 2 hour block booked for today, and had planned on an hour of ground time and an hour airborne. Unfortunately, due to weather – BKN008 – we weren’t able to fly today. Was I discouraged? NO! Although I would have loved to be airborne today – my first official day – I know enough to know that I better get used to these things now.

We had no shortage of things to discuss in place of  today. We went over the airport diagram and we went over the interior and exterior pre-flight checklist procedures for the Cessna 172SP on which I will learn to fly. We continued on to do a mock run of the ‘before start’, ‘engine start’, and ‘before taxi’ checklist procedures. Hopefully this Friday we’ll get airborne.

Before I knew it, my two hour block was up and my first official lesson was done. A few days off and I’ll be back on Friday for my second day. Getting worked into the schedule is a bit of a learning curve and hopefully by next week I will be able to pick up significantly more time, as I am able to make a ‘full time’ commitment to my flight training at this point. My first impressions of both the school, the personnel, and the process are positive. I’m looking forward to Friday in anticipation – more to report then.