Lesson 2

On Thursday of this week, I went out to the airport for a lesson. I had a short discussion with the instructor about what we would do. We then went out to the plane, went through the preflight checks, and then started it up.

The parking brake was off so the plane started rolling forward as soon as the engine started. Both of us stomped the brakes before the plane could go very far. Then there was a problem with the radio. The instructor kept calling the tower, but I heard nothing in my headset. In fact, we heard nothing at all on the radio. The instructor kept fiddling with the radio until finally we heard the tower again. Apparently the tower had heard us make the calls because the controller asked us if we had our radio issues worked out. The instructor advised him that we did. Then there was a problem with the flight plan. To fly in the DC ADIZ, we have to be on a flight plan (not the usual cross-country variety of flight plan) in which the controller gives us a transponder code. The tower had not yet received the flight plan that the instructor had filed. Apparently the transition from FAA flight service stations to contractor (Lockheed-Martin) consolidated service was not especially smooth. Just as we were about to try to call on the phone, our flight plan showed up in the tower.

Once the instructor had us rolling, he had me steer the plane down the taxiway. I've read plenty about how it takes some getting used to steering with the toe brakes. It's tricky. I had a hard time keeping the center line of the taxiway until I throttled back to reduce speed. We went to the runup area, checked the magnetos and carb heat, saw the expected RPM drops and then I pulled up to the hold-short line for 34R.

The tower cleared us for takeoff and the instructor piloted the plane into the air. Once clear of the end of the runway, he turned us left and we headed for the practice area near Culpeper. He handed control to me and I was flying for the first time in 20 years.

I practiced straight and level flight to maintain altitude and heading. I practiced shallow turns to a heading. I found it difficult to fly smoothly because the plane was getting tossed around a bit - the air wasn't smooth. Every time I got to the right heading and altitude, a gust would tip a wing and I would correct and during the correction I would climb or descend. Staying at a constant altitude was a chore. I was chasing the needles. I also practiced maintaining an airspeed with a constant throttle setting. At 80mph (not knots) I was trying to manage speed by changing pitch.

Then we did steeper turns - 30 degrees. Once again, I had a tough time maintaining altitude. I've read about using the rudder in turns but I was just too busy to even try. Then we called it a day and headed back to Manassas. I got to fly simply by holding a heading and altitude. The workload was lower so it was much more enjoyable. I actually had time to look around and see the things on the ground. The instructor landed the plane, I taxied back to the parking area, we tied it down, and we called it a day.

Initial impressions...

The air was bumpier than I expected. I didn't get airsick at all but the bouncing around makes it hard to hold a heading and altitude so the workload is higher than I was expecting. Now I'm wondering about doing all of that while also navigating and watching for traffic and monitoring the radio. I didn't even try to look for traffic during this lesson because I was so busy just trying to control the plane.

When it was all over with and I wrote the check to the instructor, the bill was higher than I expected because we spent a lot longer doing this than I had anticipated. It was only 1.08 hours of tachometer time, but the ground time added up. If this is typical, I'll run out of money fast.

Taxiing the plane was a lot easier after the flight. Either I got better at it, or the nerves were calmer, or maybe both.

For this lesson, I logged 1.2 hours.

Lesson 1

I encountered lots of delays before getting to my first lesson. It took a while to work out a meeting with my prospective instructor and then there was a problem with the paperwork for the plane.

On Wednesday of this week, I went out to the Manassas airport and we had our first meeting. We went through some administrative items and then we went out to the airplane for familiarization. It's a Piper Cherokee Warrior PA28-151. It looks to be in fine shape from the exterior. Inside, it's showing it's age. The controls and instrument panel are showing 30 years of use.

We went through a full preflight checklist and then we sat in the airplane. I wanted to test my headset that I bought on eBay. We tested the headset by listening to the ATIS. The headset works. But according to the ATIS, visibility was good, but the ceiling was below VFR minimums so we didn't fly.