Without boring you with the details,
Kate talked me into going ahead with the flight training.
So, after all the years of building model airplanes, I'm
ready to take the plunge - well, not literally I hope.
Me, a pilot?? How surreal.
The following weekend after my trial flight, I went back
to Barton and signed up. Had an hour's ground school,
got a log book and a Cessna 150/152 Check List. Tony outlines
the syllabus: 5 hours of ground school, a 2 day radio-telephony
course, multiple choice exams on Aviation Law, Navigation,
Meteorology, Radio-Telephony, Human Performance &
Limitations, Aircraft Performance & Aircraft Technical
- 7 exams in total, and a minimum of 45 hours flight time.
1 down, 44 more flying hours to go to qualify for the
Class 2 Private Pilot's License. Yeehaa! Now the real
fun begins....
Saturday, February 18th.
My first practical lesson is of course the all important
pre-flight walkaround. Checklist and key to the aircraft
in hand and wearing my shiny new yellow safety vest, an
airfield requirement, I grab the ladder and trudge off
through the mud feeling at the same time pride at being
elevated to the ranks of the elite, and unabashedly self-concious
at the thought that it must be painfully obvious to all
around me that I'm a complete neophyte. Ah well, even
Chuck Yeager was a rookie once I tell myself. Nah, who
am I kidding? People like Chuck were never rookies.
The walkaround goes as well as you would expect it to
when you're examining an airplane that's at least as old
as I am. I console myself with the knowledge that it's
probably had better maintenance than I've had. Seats back,
inspect seat belts. Well, they look okay. Switches off,
key out, radio & nav aids off. Okee dokee. Turn on
master switch. So far so good. Check Hobbs reading. Errr....
no idea. Ignore that. Fuel cock on, check contents. Alrighty.
I later learn that Cessna 150 fuel gauges are notoriously
unreliable, which is always nice to know. Check rotating
beacon & pitot heat. Ahhh... the model building is
paying off already. I know what a pitot is and even what
it looks like! What's more, I even manage to find the
switch to turn on the pitot heat. Select flaps fully down.
Well, they work. Master switch off, pitot heat off, beacon
on. Off, off and on. First aid kit & fire extinguisher
in position. Yep. Certificate of Maintenance valid (checked
before I left the office), weight & balance checked.
Don't know how to check the latter two so I'll just have
to take their word for it at this point.
Port side, check undercarriage. Hmmm, let's see. There's
a wheel and it has a tire, that's a good sign. The tire
isn't flat - another positive sign. Tire creep? Nope,
the red marks on the wheel and tire are still nicely lined
up. Hydraulic brake leads & disc brake look okay.
On to the wing. Flap hinge points and linkage. Yep, it's
got 'em. The flap actuator, I note, is a disturbingly
thin metal rod. Best not to dwell on that thought. Aileron
hinge points & mass balances. Yes. Wing surface, upper
& lower. Well, it's got the usual dents and undulations
that pretty much every airplane has and the leading edge
has a fine collection of dead bugs so that looks to be
in order. Wing tip & navigation light. Yep, there
they are. Wing leading edge condition (see "dead
bugs" above). Fine. Fuel vent. Yep. Stall warner.
Yep. Pitot head. Didn't we do this already? Never mind,
it's still there. Strut, condition & security. Hmm,
well.... it seems pretty straight and it's connected to
the wing on one end and the fuselage on the other. Good
enough for me. Up on the ladder, visually check fuel contents.
Harken back to my teenage years working at Chilliwack
Airport when I used to fuel these things up. By golly,
there's fuel in them thar tanks all right. And on it goes:
nose wheel, cowling, static vent, windscreen, propellor,
oil cooler, oil contents, cowling on the other side, other
wing/aileron/flap/strut/landing gear, rear fuselage skin,
stabiliser/elevator, fin/rudder, rotating beacon, rear
nav light, other side of rear fuselage, antennas and back
to the cockpit where we started. Sounds like a lot but
doesn't take too long really, though I imagine an experienced
pilot doesn't have to keep looking at his checklist every
twenty seconds like I do.
We climb in, start up and off we go. Tony lets me do the
takeoff again which is fine by me, I need all the practice
I can get. Today's lesson will be straight and level flight.
How hard could that be? Surprisingly it's a bit more difficult
than I had thought. Tony gives a quick demonstration.
It looks pretty straightforward (no pun intended) but
then, he's got 22 years experience - if he can't fly straight
and level by now then there's no hope for me. He then
demonstrates flying on the edge of the stall. Flying at
40 knots with the nose high in the air and the stall warning
buzzing in our ears is a rather unnnerving experience,
like the aircraft is about to drop out from under us at
any moment, which is pretty much the case.
Back to cruise power, we head towards the coast and it's
my turn to take the controls now. I quickly realise that
it's a bit of a balancing act and that every control input
has a reaction somewhere else which requires an additional
control input to correct. Pulling back on the control
column slows the aircraft which requires more power to
correct. Conversely, adding power pitches the nose up
which needs down elevator to keep the aircraft level and
a bit of rudder to counteract the yaw. Trimming to reduce
the control forces is nowhere near as easy as it looks.
My straight and level flight is about as straight and
level as the slalom course at the Winter Olympics. Nonetheless,
when the lesson nears the end I'm starting to feel a bit
more comfortable with it and though I still find it difficult
to stay level and remain on course (I can do one
or the other but not both at the same time!), my flying
is beginning to look less like a drunken rocking horse
than it did in the beginning. Back on the ground I'm wondering
if 45 hours flight time will be enough for me to get my
license. All I can do is try.
Back to Lesson 1
Lesson 3: Climbing & Descending