I forgot to take some pictures so I borrowed this from the NOASARA website. Hopefully nobody minds.
Well the day finally arrived. Last Monday (Nov 30) Melesa announced to the class that the plane was finished maintenance and she was ready to take bookings for Friday Saturday and Sunday. I jumped at the chance and booked a flight for Dec 4th at 12:00pm for my first lesson. It was hard to think about anything else for the rest of the week. Later on Melesa called and asked if we could move it up to 11:00 so she could take better advantage of the short daylight hours here at this time of year.
I spent the next several days reading the the Flight Training Manual to get ready for what we’d be doing. The club’s syllabus lists exercises 5-9 for the first lesson which covers: Attitudes and Movements, Straight and Level Flight, Climbing, Descending and Turns. Reading the book, it didn’t seem too overwhelming. After all, I’d already covered all of this in Microsoft Flight Simulator. Everything seemed quite familiar.
On Friday morning, the weather didn’t look promising but a little later on, things started to look better. Not great, but better. We still had a low ceiling and not much of a horizon. I wondered if it would actually happen.
Preparatory Ground Instruction
I showed up for 11:00am and Melesa was getting herself ready for the preparatory ground instruction (PGI) that happens before the flight. Basically we took about 90 minutes to talk through all the exercises beforehand so it wasn’t all being introduced during the flight. For each exercise, we covered basic definitions, what to expect it to look like out the window (the sight picture), safety considerations and other details. It was quite a bit of information, actually. After each topic she quizzed me to make sure I had a handle on what we were covering. We finally got through all the material and it was time to go flying.
We bundled up (it was cold) and got ready to go out. Called for fuel and checked the weather again. We did the weight and balance and figured out that we were within limits. We went outside and did the pre-flight inspection of the aircraft – I just followed her around and observed as she explained what she was doing and looking for. We’ll cover this more in a future flight. For now our goal was to get up in the air.
Startup
We got in the plane she briefed me and we went through the engine startup checklist. It’s a lot to take in but I followed along and I think I kept up just fine. Did I mention it was cold? We waited a few minutes for the engine to warm up, got the ATIS on 128.8 for the current information. (For the curious this is what it said: Information Quebec 1738Z 260@6 viz 20 -SN 1400 6800 20000 -8/-11 29.84 IFR Landing and departing Rwy 25 SFC RWY 25 center 100′ 70% bare and dry 30% trace dry snow remainder 100% snow 1/8")
Next we set the Heading Indicator to the magnetic compass and the Altimiter to 29.84 which we got from the ATIS. We contacted ground with our intentions and were given instructions to taxi via Delta Alfa Charlie to Hold short of Runway 25 and were told to squawk 0443. As we taxied to the runway we found that the taxiways were icy.
We get to Charlie and pull aside and orient ourselves into the wind to do the runup. The runup is just a last check of engine operation and looking for anomalies: we rev the engine to test the brakes, look for temp and pressure, test the magnetos and carb. heat operation. Pre takeoff checks (seatbelts doors etc.) done.
Takeoff
We contact the tower and get cleared to line up and wait on Runway 25. The we get clearance to take off.
The next next sequence of events went by really fast. Trying to follow all the details was challenging. Melesa advanced the throttle, checked to see that temperature and pressure are green and that airspeed indicator is ‘alive’ and at 55kts we rotate (pull back on the yoke to bring the nose up and lift off). Off the ground at last. Melesa said that we want to climb out at 70kts which we had said earlier was approximately our best rate of climb.
Exercises 5-9
We climbed up to our desired altitude Melesa said "You have control" I took the yoke for the first time and things began in earnest. First she had me just hold altitude and demonstrate nose down and cruise attitudes. Trying to judge gentle, medium and steep angles was challenging. The sight picture was a bit different than expected. Perhaps my seat was a bit high.
Because of the weather, Melesa asked ATC if we could head to Hazelwood lake area and we continued with practicing various level attitudes. After a bit of this we moved on to turns. We stayed with gentle and medium banks to the left and then the right. As we banked she explained the need to ‘step on the ball’ meaning apply rudder as indicated by the small ball in the turn coordinator. I was curious about the rudders so she got me to yaw the plane left and right to get a feel for this action.
Circuits
We didn’t have the altitude for some of the climbing and descending exercises so we went back to the airport to do some circuits which allowed us to practice several manoeuvres we’d already practiced as well as descending on approach and climbing on takeoff.
Manoeuvring in he circuit was a lot to take in all at once. Everything happens faster than you think.
On approach she asked me to judge where we would touch down. It will take a bit to get used to all the visuals but playing with flight simulator helped me at least know what I was looking for. We did a couple of circuits and I had control for most of the time except for the actual landings and when Melesa needed to make some corrections. Since we didn’t get to do climbs and descents first, I was not as good as I might have been with some practice. Lots of work to do there! Our first two climbs were at 70 knots. The usual circuit for Thunder Bay is with right hand turns but on our second circuit we were told to do go left – not sure why (I forgot to ask and missed the the reason if it was given over the radio). That was good because I got to practice turns in both directions.
On our last climb out I was asked to do it at 60 knots which is basically the best angle of climb for that aircraft. It was difficult to hold that attitude. It feels really slow and you can’t see over the nose at all.
By the end of the last circuit I was feeling a bit mentally stretched. There are a lot of things to keep in balance – airspeed, pitch, power, altitude, flying a precise path around the airport and monitoring engine systems not to mention handling the communications. Fortunately Melesa was PIC and I didn’t have to worry about the horrible consequences of being overloaded!
We landed for the last time without flaps and it was a notably shallower approach.
As we taxied back to the hangar, I got to try my hand at steering with my feet (pun intended, sorry). I find taxiing to be a bit difficult in the flight simulator but its not quite so bad in the real thing. But I spoke too soon and the plane wasn’t doing quite what I wanted it to do when I realized that I was inadvertently engaging the toe brakes. If you push on the top part of the rudder pedals they engage the brakes.
When we got back, we pushed the plane back into the hangar and debriefed the flight. Melesa said I did fine with all things considered. Because of the weather, we only flew for one hour but it was great to finally have done it.
1.0 hours dual logged.
I am looking forward to the next lesson. It is Christmas time so time and money are in short supply! Hopefully I can schedule something before the new year. I don’t want to leave it too long between lessons so that I can keep advancing instead of spending too much time with review. All together, I had and awesome time. And we finished just tin time for me to pick up the kids from school!
Clear Skies
