flying lesson - emergency procedures

Went for my next lesson this morning (damn this is fun). Today was emergency procedures for engine failure where you have to attempt a restart and, if that fails, find some place to land. We also worked on steep banks turns again. Things are beginning to become more familiar to me but once again, when I get busy I fail to notice things like speed/altitude/bank angle and so on. Mentally managing everything at once is still a challenge. For today, my instructor dropped the throttle to idle and I had to configure for best glide (65 kts) and look for a spot to put down. When I found the spot I started a pattern for landing and then, on the base lost where it was. Once I found it (ie she pointed it out to me again) I went through the checklist and then we went back to normal flight.

flying lesson - emergency procedures

Went for my next lesson this morning (damn this is fun). Today was emergency procedures for engine failure where you have to attempt a restart and, if that fails, find some place to land. We also worked on steep banks turns again. Things are beginning to become more familiar to me but once again, when I get busy I fail to notice things like speed/altitude/bank angle and so on. Mentally managing everything at once is still a challenge. For today, my instructor dropped the throttle to idle and I had to configure for best glide (65 kts) and look for a spot to put down. When I found the spot I started a pattern for landing and then, on the base lost where it was. Once I found it (ie she pointed it out to me again) I went through the checklist and then we went back to normal flight.

flying lesson - touch and go

Had another flying lesson today. Did 7 touch and gos and then a full stop. Did ok but I still tend to not want to raise the nose too much on touchdown. On one approach, I had someone decide they could make it out before I got to the runway and they didn't leave enough margin for safety so we elected to go-around rather than take the chance. That does make you realize something that I learned on a motorcycle many years ago, someone else can kill you just as fast as you can kill yourself.

flying lesson - power on stalls, radio comms procedures, tight turns

Had another flying lesson today. We did a little more practice with power-on stalls, some more correct radio procedures and then tight turns (45 degree bank during 360 turns). Getting a little more confident here and there. I landed and they could use the airplane again so I figure that's a plus...

flying lesson - stalls

Went flying yesterday. Weather was excellent except for some turbulence 1,400-3,000. We worked on power on/off stalls. It is a bit unsettling with the nose pitched up and the stall warning horn on. It does get your attention. The sudden nose drop also kind of makes you go ""whooooo"". One bad thing about training in this area is that the ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone) requires us to head out a ways to get to the practice area which means you're paying for transit time as well as training time.

flying lesson three

Had my second flying lesson today. Went pretty well (we walked away afterwards anyway). I took off, went out to the training area and then worked on maintaining low speed flight (throttle down, flaps down, pitch up) to maintain altitude. This is prep for landings. Then did some maintain speed and altitude 90 and 180 degree turns. Headed back and I landed (with some obvious help from the instructor). I guess I was tense because we landed before I even realized it. Duh.

flying lesson two - bad weather

Went for flying lesson 2 this morning and clouds kept us from flying so instead we spent time on how to read charts and then did some low speed taxiing. If you were watching from the area, I would have been the Cessna going a little left, then right, then left, ... I suspect it looked like a drunk was on the pedals. Keeping the thing on the line is tougher than it looks.

first flying lesson done

Took my first official flying lesson today. If you live in the area and happened to look up you would have seen a Cessna 172r zooming here and there and up and down (although not entirely in the directions the instructor intended) but close enough for day one.