Second Lesson & Early Morning Flying

Thursday afternoon I signed up for my second lesson with Bob, scheduled for nine to eleven Saturday morning. Friday afternoon I got an email, the lesson had been rescheduled to seven AM, as Bob had a class to attend at nine.

My first reaction was "No, that's entirely too early on a Saturday, that would mean I have to get up at six! That would mean I have to go to bed early Friday night!" Second reaction, about thirty seconds later, "Hey, I can get up at six if it means I get to go flying!" I emailed Bob saying that we were still on.

I set three alarms Friday night, and arranged a wake up call from a friend, Jari, who was taking a road trip and leaving early. I actually woke up by myself four minutes before the first alarm was set to go off, and Jari called while I was getting ready to go. My loving and extremely understanding wife got up to see me off, then (as I suggested) went back to bed. I made a cup of tea, and grabbed some breakfast from McDonalds on the way to the airport. Traffic was very light, so I got to the airport about ten minutes early.

I got the 152's folder containing the Airworthiness certificate, Operating Manual and Weight and Balance sheet, and went to check the fuel level in the tanks. We had 11 gallons, so we didn't need to call the fuel truck. Bob arrived as I was climbing down, so we went inside for the ground portion of the lesson.

We talked about the three control axes of the aircraft; the Lateral or Pitch axis, controlled by the elevator, Longitudinal or Roll, controlled by the ailerons, and Vertical or Yaw, controlled by the Rudder. Bob explained that Dihedral is the angle at which the wings meet, Chord is an imaginary line drawn from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the wing, and how lowering the flaps moves that Chord line.

We also talked about the Weight and Balance sheet. The point where the three control axes meet is the Center of Gravity, or CG, which the whole plane pivots around. The idea of the Weight and Balance sheet is to make sure that CG is in an acceptable location to fly. It's effected by how much weight you take, in fuel, pilot, passengers and luggage, and their location in the plane. If the CG is towards the rear of the acceptable range, the plane will be tail-heavy. It will cruise slower, but be a bit more stable. If the CG is towards the front, or slightly nose-heavy, the plane will fly faster, but be less stable.

At this point it was almost eight AM, and the wind had started to pick up to seven knots from just east of south, but the temperature was still below ninety Fahrenheit, so pretty nice.

After the ground lesson, we went out and did the pre-flight check on the C-152, then fired up the engine. I taxied us from the parking area to the run-up area, to check everything out. We had a bit of rough running when we tested the right magnetos, but it turned out to be slightly dirty spark plugs, which were cleaned by running the RPMs up and leaning the mixture a little. They passed the second check and we were ready to go. Bob called the tower for clearance, and I took off, turned right until we were pointing north and continued the climb to 3,500 feet.

Bob showed me how the elevator trim works in practice, and I soon had the hang of adjusting it to keep the plane level with very little control input needed. We flew northeast to Tulsa International Airport for some more touch-and-go landing practice and Pattern work. Bob talked me through the procedure for landing, and rode the controls lightly for the first landing, only needing to pull back a little on the flight controls, as I wasn't flaring enough on the landing. The next landing went better, but still not enough flare, so around we went again. On the third landing, I flew us down with no assistance from Bob, it was a bit rough, but we didn't bounce at all. We climbed back to 3,500 feet, headed back to Riverside, and I did a straight in landing with no physical assistance from Bob.


After parking the plane, we went back inside where we filled out my logbook, 1.0 hours exactly, four landings. They say any landing you can walk away from is a good landing, and any landing when you can use the airplane again is a great landing. So four great, but not perfect, landings. I was grinning the whole way home!

I like this Wednesday evening, Saturday morning schedule, I have enough time to go over the reading required (chapter 2 of the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge this time), but not so long that I forget what I learned in the air.

See you next time!
-Gareth

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

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