Time flown so far: 0h 55m
So -the first lesson started on Saturday 25th at 13:00. I showed at elegantly at the club just after 13:30! I've had the time wrong in my calendar and whilst I was thinking I'm being extra careful arriving half an hour early, it turned out I was actually half an hour late....never again!
Pete, my to-be-instructor, called me as I was on the way to the airfield and so as I was driving to the club he did all the preparations- fuelling, checks, etc. to help me make up the time; there's plenty of time for me to learn these....
I arrived at the club and we went straigh into the briefing room for ground briefing where Pete covered what we would be doing in the air - experiencing (and experimenting) with primary and secondary effects of the main controls - the ailerons, elevators and rudder.
Obviously I have nothing to compare to to, but I think that the hours on the flight simulator paid here as I knew the material discussed fairly well (in theory!) and so fairly quickly we headed for the plane - a Piper Warrior II (PA-28-161) registered as G-BTNH.
Pete showed me how to climb onto the cockpit (which I've only done once, a few weeks earlier, when visiting the club) and explained the basics - how to adjust the seat (I think I can get away without needing a cushion, luckily), plugging in the headset, fastening seatbelts, etc. and then went over the main instruments.
With that done we buckled in and Pete went over some checks and started the engine; he then called tower and received instruction to hold at B1 for runway 24 and off we went.
We've started to roll out from parking spot on the grass and Pete turned the plane to the 45 degrees recommended to go from the grass to the tarmac of the taxiway.
We've started to taxiing towards the holding point, and - about a thid way and a couple of turns in, Pete passed the control of the rudder to me to practice manouvering on the ground; I did a reasonable job in keeping straight, which is not that difficult after all, and then experimented with turning a little bit to either side and returning to the centre, but I did not do a perfect job centering on the line; Pete reminded me I'm not sitting in the middle of the plane and so I had to keep the line slighly to my right, which I though I did, but clearly did not.
Final turn arrived and I directed the plan to the right relatively well, having to apply some brakes in the process, Pete then took control again and turned the plane 45 degrees from the taxiway centerline to perform the power checks.
The 45 degress is a good habit to avoid annoying any plane waiting behind when we raise the engine's RPM us as well as avoiding rushing into the runway should the brakes fail.
We then checked that all engine guages are in the green, raised the RPM from 1200 to 2000, and checked the effect of turning off either magneto (RPM should drop, but less than 150 RPM for each) as well as the effect of the carb heat (again - RPM should drop slightly - failure to drop would suggest carb heat does not work)
Last we checked that the engine does not stop when throttle is on idle (a good idea!) and with that power checks were done.
A quick check with Tower that we're ok to be taking off and Pete aligned us with the runway and started the takeoff roll.
Pulling back at 55 knots or so the plane started to gain height slowly as we proceeded with the runway direction; I was a lot more nervous than I expected to be and the ride was certainly bumpier than I thought it would; this is something flight simulator can definitely not help with!
Climbing through 500 feet Pete turned south towards Woking town centre and continued climbing, each minute my nervousness grow bigger, to the point I was actually thinking I made a very big mistake getting onto that plane to begin with...
During this time I'm pretty sure Pete contacted Farnborough Radar, but I wasn't quite following :-(
We were past Woking town centre, and quickly approaching Guildford when I decided its time to stop being a fool, compose myself and try to, if not actually, enjoy myself; at least I should calm down and concentrate on what Pete is doing...
Surprisingly enough that, and possibly the fact that we were now over 1000 feet up, and the ride was way less bumpier, was enough and my nervousness pretty much disappeard.
I guess that initially it all feels just incredibly unnatural, and the bumpiness from the thermals at low altitude in a warmish day did not help, but 10 minutes in I was starting to feel much better about it all, managed to enojoy the view a little bit and concentrate on following Pete's actions, which is a good thing! especially as we were approaching the practice area.
When we arrived to the practice area, just north of Haselmere, Pete demonstrated the three manouvers I will be attempting - rolling to either side and levelling off, raising and lowering pitch and yawing to either side.
He then demonstrated them all again focusing on showing me the secondary effect - when rolling long enough the plane would yaw to the opposite side (as drag is increased on the higher wing, which is having to travel faster); when yawing, eventually, the wing will drop and the plane will start to roll, and when changing pitch speed will increase or decrease. all logical stuff.
It was then my time to have a go!
I got control of the Yoke from Pete and started to roll the plane to the left, intially very subtly and then with a bit more confident (yet smooth-ish) move; sure enough the left wing started to drop and a split second later we started to turn; it is counter-instinctive at this point to remember to straigthen the yoke once the turn angle required is achieved as my instinct expect the plane to behave like a car at this point and level off on it's own if I straighten the toke; it does not.
A quick prompt from Pete and I'm straightening the yoke, the wing stops to drop further and we're still turning.
A second later I'm turning the yoke to the other side and level the plane off and then doing the same to the other side. cool. I'm flying!
Next I'm playing with the pitch - pulling the yoke the nose starts to raise, we're climbing initially, but soon enough the speed starts to bleed off and with it our climb rate; I'm probably being slightly to quick to lower it back as I'm getting nervous we're going to stall, but I'm sure we were'nt anywhere near it (I vaguely remember the stall speed of the warrior II to be just over 40 knots, we we're still doing 80 or so!)
Next I'm lowering the nose, and that's much nicer (although I dared not get too much ground on my windscreen) and the speed picks up again (ah, yes - and we're losing altitude rapidly).
Last in turn is playing with the rudder - I pick a spot on the horizon and apply right rudder; sure enough - the spot moves to the left (ok - we're yawing to the right...)
Next I went through all the exercises again, this time paying attention to the secondary effects better, but all very logical.
Soon enough its time to head back and Pete lets me do one last turn to get us back toward Guildford before he takes control.
We fly past Guildford and then towards the disused Wisley strip - which is easily identified for navigation (it is also the home to the Ockham VOR station) and a good reporting point before approaching Fairoaks for landing.
Pete turns does the radio calls as we turn towards Fairoaks, where we fly over the runway and join the right hand downwind in operation, we then follow the circuit and Pete brings us down in what must be a near perfect landing; I've nothing to compare to, but I'm well impressed!
There's a very short taxi to the club's parking where we shut down and step out.
What an experience! I'm so excited I can barely make sense....
I can't wait until the next lesson, which would hopefully be next week!
