Flight# 1

Bill showed me around the flight school including the maintenance shop.

He introduced me to the weekend administrative assistance, Donna to complete the paperwork. She took copies of my passport, Driver's license and Medical certificate. I just had to fill up two other forms and it was all set. The plane I'm going to be using for Training is Cessna 150 with tail# N4655X is older than me! I know that it is still safe to fly as every plane goes through 100-hour and annual inspections with Engine getting overhauled every 2000-hours. The FAA regulations are very strict in this regard. You can see it in the photo below on the left and the one on the bottom right is a Lake amphibian waiting outside the hangar to be serviced.

We are ready for the first flight! Bill showed me the flight school procedures on dispatching the aircraft. Weight and balance calculations are also part of the procedure. With full tanks of fuel and for our weights, it was very close to the limit. I'm glad we didn't have to defuel a few gallons. We signed out the airplane for half an hour (1:00 pm -1:30 pm) for a quick flying in the pattern. However quick it is, there is a long list of verifications and procedures to be performed at each and every stage of the flight. Nothing is taken for granted. A sample preflight procedure looks like this. This is before you even step into the plane. Then there are procedures for Starting, Pre-Taxi, Taxi, Run-Up, Pre-Takeoff, Takeoff, Climb, Cruise, Descent, Pre-Landing, Landing, After Landing, Securing! I learned about some thing called Gascolator today during the preflight.

Bill let me steer during the taxi. Unlike car, the steering on the ground in small airplanes is completely done with your feet. The same pedals control both rudder and breaks. On the ground, the speed is contolled by the throttle (push and pull with your right hand when in pilot seat). It basically controls the propeller speed there by the forward movement. The trick is to apply breaks slightly for quick corrections whenever there is a deviation from the center line.

There was hardly any wind. Since all the traffic was using Runway 11, we did the same. Look at the bottom of this article, if you are interested in knowing how the runways are numbered. We reached the pattern altitude of 1000 ft and Bill then pretty much took control to fly cross wind, down wind, base and final legs to land it smoothly. It seems, the trick is to configure it correctly so that the plane lands itself. The flight was uneventful with no issues at all. I think my noise canceling headset, Lightspeed Zulu,  also contributed to the comfort. I performed some more rudder work after landing. Hobbs time of this flight is 0.4 hours.