First Lesson

Monday evening I was browsing the internet and ended up back on my blog here, which is when I noticed I had a new follower, Flygirl. I went over and read her blog, and realized something I must have known all along, I am not the only person learning to fly, and its got to be pretty normal to be nervous at the beginning of such an undertaking.
Immediately afterward I dug Bob Dotlich's business card out of my wallet and gave him a call. At this point, I am 0 for 2 at actually motivating myself to get this going, that's finished with as of today!
I spoke with Bob for maybe five minutes, we arranged a first lesson for Wednesday starting at 6pm, and talked about what we would be doing. I then went to the Flight School's website and reserved the Cessna 152 for 3 hours that day.

Wednesday eventually rolled around, as it tends to do, and after work, I rushed home to have dinner with my wife Melodie, then hit the road for the airport. Which is when I realized, the only other time I have been to Riverside Airport, is when I rode in Mike's truck for the intro flight. I probably should have paid a little bit more attention.

This is the route I took to get to the airport, compared to what I will be using in the future.

I actually arrived just at 6pm, and so avoided a bad first impression (I hope). I can just imagine showing up late for a flying lesson, and having to admit poor navigation as the reason, as navigation is pretty important when you are trying to get somewhere up in the air. I met with Bob, who is a super knowledgeable pilot, and we went to the Fixed Base of Operations (FBO) to look at some supplies for the course.

I bought a Private Pilot Syllabus, which is what we will structure the lessons around, and a Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, which has all the information I will need for the time being. I already had an Airplane Flying Handbook, as Brian, my brother-in-law had given me one when I first started talking about taking lessons.

Supplies taken care of for the time being, we went to pre-flight check the Cessna 152 we would be flying. I learned how to check the fuel tanks for fuel level, and took a fuel sample to test for water or contamination, made sure all the control surfaces moved correctly, checked the hinges and linkages, tires, brakes and propeller for wear or damage. Bob explained what we were looking for, and what the various components we were checking actually did. This plane is not rated for Instrument Flight Rules, so no flying through clouds in it, but it also means that the instrument panel is a little less crowded than the 172.

We went through the remainder of the checklist, and started the engine. Bob explained that we would be heading to the northwest practice area to do some turns, then head over to Tulsa International for some Touch-and-Go's. He got the latest weather from the tower, and taxied us out of the parking area, giving me the controls once we got to the taxiway. The wind was coming straight down the runway from the south at 10 mph, and it was about 95 degrees Fahrenheit.
When the airplane is on the ground, all the steering is done with your feet, using the rudder pedals; push left foot down to go left, right foot down to go right, and the brakes are at the top of the pedals.
I taxied us more-or-less along the center line to the run-up area and we ran through our next checklist. We checked the ignition magneto's and carburetor heat, and a half dozen other things, all was good to fly.

Bob got clearance from the tower to taxi onto the runway, and I got us lined up for takeoff. I was told to ease to full throttle, and watch for 50 knots on the airspeed indicator, then we pull back on the flight controls until the nose gear lifts. The plane rolled along on the 2 main wheels until it was ready to fly, which was a few seconds later.
We climbed out at 68 knots airspeed until we were 500 feet above the ground, which is actually about 1100 feet on the altimeter, as Tulsa is around 600 feet above sea level. I turned us north and we continued the climb to 3500 feet. It was noticeably cooler at that height, the average temperature drop is 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit per 1000 feet.
Once we got up to the practice area and level at 3500 feet, we started to practice turns, first at 15 degrees of bank, left and right. I had a bit of trouble maintaining altitude. The wings don't generate as much lift when you go into a turn, so you have to pull back on the flight controls and use the elevator to bring the nose back to level. When we had done those, Bob called for some 45 degree turns, all the way around from west to west, left and right. The nose really wanted to drop on those turns, after the first one we had lost almost 200 feet! Trying to regain altitude in a turn that steep really pushes you down into your seat.
It's a good thing the Cessna is rated as a Utility aircraft, so it's sturdy enough for anything we will be doing, and then some. The second 45 degree turn went a bit better, Bob explained how to pick a point on the engine cowling to keep on the horizon to help keep the airplane at the right altitude.

After we were done with the turns, we headed southeast toward Tulsa International airport for some Touch-and-Go landing and takeoff practice. The tower redirected us to 090 degrees, direct east, as there were a couple of other planes ahead of us for landing. Once they had both landed, we were given clearance to head straight in.

I lined us up for landing, and Bob explained the 4 lights to the left of the runway, the PAPI - Precision Approach Path Indicators: Four white lights means you are too high on your landing approach, four red means too low. Two red and two white means you are at the correct altitude for the distance from the runway.

Bob talked me through the landing approach as we dropped a notch of flaps, lowered the RPM to 1500, and maintained 70 knots airspeed, then lowered the flaps to full and maintained 60 knots, keeping the two red and two white lights showing on the ground.

We eased down to the runway, pulled the throttle to idle, pulled back on the flight controls at the last second to flare on the landing, and we touched down with a quick squeak from the tires. I reset the flaps, and gave full throttle for the takeoff. We climbed out to 1700 feet, the "pattern" altitude for Tulsa International, turned right as we cleared the runway, and went around for another touch-and-go.
After the second landing, we headed back to Riverside airport. On the way we were asked by Riverside Air Traffic Control to slow by 20 knots to allow another airplane time to land ahead of us, then we were given clearance to land.

The total time in the air was .9 hours, so now I have one and a half hours in my logbook, as well as four take-offs and four landings. It's always a good idea to have the same number of take-offs and landing logged.

Bob asked me what I thought of the lesson, to which I replied that it was a lot of fun, but a lot of work at the same time. He assigned me the first chapter of the Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge to read as homework before our next lesson, which I am hoping to schedule for this Saturday morning.

See ya next time!
-Gareth