Introduction and First Flight

For my birthday my best buddy Mike got me a Pilot's Logbook and a certificate for an introduction flight, so technically this is all his fault. That was in February. This past Sunday at about 11:00am I got a call from Mike saying there was an opening for an intro flight, but I had to let him know ASAP as Michael Schield, the head instructor at Roadhouse Aviation, was waiting to hear back.

I feel at this point I should explain why four and a half months had passed. It was a combination of a lot of things, but basically I was nervous as hell, but not about the actual flying. I find it hard to psyche myself up to meet new people, and that was a big part of it. The weather was terrible for weeks at a time, excuses excuses. I should have at least called. Finally it took Mike giving me an hours notice and picking me up at home and driving me to the airport.

So Sunday morning, just before noon, Mike and I arrived at Jones / Riverside Airport just outside Jenks. We found the Roadhouse Aviation building and met Michael Schield. Michael talked to me for a short while about what I want out of aviation, and how the Flight School operates. Then we went outside to do a pre-flight check on the Cessna 172 that we would be flying.
Fortunately, since the 172 seats four, Mike was able to come along for the ride in the back seat, which was great. Michael walked me through the pre-flight walk-around, explaining briefly what he was looking for and why, then we climbed in.

I have been "playing" Microsoft flight simulator since our old PC could play FS5, and that came out in 1993. I own FlightSim 10 now, the latest offering, and have spent many a happy hour buzzing around in virtual airplanes in the virtual sky.

Because of this, I know the basics of what the different instruments do and how to read them, which meant that my first view of an actual airplane dashboard wasn't too immediately overwhelming. We went though another checklist once we were in the plane, got the weather information from the tower (a balmy 32c, with winds out of the south at 16 knots gusting to 20) It would be a bit bumpy, but not too bad, Mike told me that it was about as rough as I should encounter until much later in my training. Michael called out "Contact" and the engine fired up immediately. We checked the brakes and headed to the runway.

Just before taxiing onto the runway, we pointed into the wind for an engine run-up test. 1800 rpm, checked both the ignition magnetos to make sure all was well, 50-100 rpm drop with the different ignitions shut off, everything checked out, good to go!

We got clearance from the tower to get onto runway 19R for a takeoff to the south. Michael eased the throttle to full power, and as the airspeed indicator hit 60 knots, pulled gently back on the yoke and we were airborne! We climbed at around 70 knots straight ahead until we got to 1700 feet, then banked right, still climbing until we were parallel to the runway pointed northeast. At this point, Michael explained how to hand over control of the airplane. He would say "You have the controls." to which I would reply "I have the controls." confirmed again by him "You have the controls." No chance of misunderstanding there! I was instructed to continue the climb to 3000 feet and maintain the current heading, I had control over the Yoke and Rudder pedals, Michael controlled throttle and fuel mixture, as well as making sure I was OK.
All that time spent on the PC simulator really pays off!

I had purchased a Saitek flight yoke and rudder pedals with some Christmas and birthday money from Dad, figuring that if I knew how to work the controls before ever getting in a plane, I would be ahead of the game.

I flew us northeast across the Arkansas river until we were just east of downtown Tulsa, where Michael took over the controls so I could enjoy the scenery for a while. We could see the new Bank of Oklahoma building, and the Driller's baseball stadium. Michael turned toward the west and gave me control of the plane again, and we followed the river out toward Keystone lake. He told me to turn back southeast toward the airport just before we got to Keystone Dam.

I was told to line up on a water tower on the hillside west of the airport. It was a bit hazy, so it took me a little while to visually find it, but I was only a few degrees off course when I finally did see it. Michael pulled the throttle out, to slow the engine, and we started our descent. I was told to try for 500 feet per minute according to the Vertical Speed Indicator, but the wind was pushing us around a bit, so it might have averaged 500, but was bouncing between 250 and 750 at times.

Michael took control back as we approached 1700 feet altitude for the final approach to the runway. There was another airplane, a Mooney, headed into the airport from the East that got landing clearance ahead of us, and the tower gave us permission to land after it was down. Michael turned just short of the runway, got us lined up, and we returned gently to the earth.

We taxied back to the parking space and we all piled out of the airplane. It sure felt a lot warmer on the ground than it had in the air, almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit. We had been in the air just over half an hour, Mike figured later that we had covered around fifty-five miles.

We went back into the air conditioning and talked about how the flight had gone.

I had an absolute blast, and will definitely be taking lessons as soon as possible! I would like to train in a Cessna 152, which is a 2-seater, as it's quite a bit less expensive than the 172 but I will be training with an instructor I haven't met yet.

Having my first entry in my logbook is a real confidence booster, its nice out today, maybe I'll go flying.

More to Come!

-Gareth