Flight# 2

Finally, Bill dropped me at the place of my stay for the next two weeks. It's a five bedroom house with Pool and lake view from my bed room!

At present, I'm the only one in there with other students coming towards the end of this week. The second flight is schduled for 4 pm. So, I had little over an hour to take a break. I finally figured out the hack for Garmin Nuvi 200 GPS to record a trip. I am going to try it during the second flight.

Bikes are provided as part of the rental. The flight school is 3 minutes away by bicycle. I reached flight school by 4 pm for my second flight of the day. This time, we spent a lot of time doing a through preflight looking every nook and crook in the air frame. It's remarkable how it held up even after 43 years! I got to do lot more practice steering the plane on the ground with my feet. I'm getting better at it. Again, the take off was smooth. For some reason, I was not able to get Satellite signal to record the flight. :-( We climbed to 3,200 ft. I had the controls for most of the time. Practiced climbs, level flight and turns. We hit a few thermals on this flight which resulted in a few bumps. The Hobbs time for this flight was 0.7 hours. Cumulative Hobbs time: 1.1 hours.

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.

Destination: Winter Haven, Florida.

By the time I went to bed last night, it was past midnight. On top of that, with all the anticipation and excitement, I could hardly sleep. Also, had to get up early to catch the 7 AM Airtran flight to Orlando. Boarding has already started by the time I reached the gate. I was glad that there was no wait but, even though my bag was within the carry on dimensions, I had to leave it at the plane's entrance to be checked into the belly. Even after every one boarded, Pilot had to wait for the fuel truck to arrive! So, the plane left the Gate around 15 minutes late. I thought of posting to the blog using the iPod touch via the free WiFi on the plane as there was some promotion going on for two weeks but the gogo inflight internet wasn't working! :-(

During the flight, I also happened to notice that the cell phone was dead. I am not sure how that happened! I remember checking the previous day and I purposely didn't charge it because the battery strength meter showed full bars! Any way, the charger was in the bag and I expected it to be at the entrance when I deplaned in Orlando which is the usual practice but, I was told to collect it from the baggage claim! My instructor (Bill) would have been waiting for me. How in the world am I going to contact him? All the numbers are stored in the phone too. I had no other option but to wait at the baggage claim area until the bag showed up. Luckily, I found a power outlet in the airport to hook up the cell phone so that I could contact the instructor. Luckily he was still on the way as he got stuck in traffic. He showed up after 10-15 minutes. That wasn't bad. It all finally worked out. It was an hour drive from Orlando to Winter Haven. I was actually surprised to learn that he moved all the way from California to Florida last year just to join this flight school. California already has a few good flight schools. He joined this flight school since it was recommended by one of his friends. This gave me some comfort that I made the right decision. Bill has most of the ratings and is working on his Instrument Instructor rating. We were going to stop by the place of my stay to drop the luggage before heading to the flight school but, since both of us were hungry, we stopped at a restaurant called Crispers. There was another student waiting for Bill at the flight school so we headed there right after lunch.

The sign at the airport entrance:

Flight School's sign:

Prologue

I clearly remember my first flight trip from Madras (MAA) to Chicago (ORD) with stop overs in Bombay (BOM) and New York (JFK) back in 1993. On the MAA - BOM segment, there was a gentleman from Australia sitting next to me. Having learned that it was my first flight, he made sure air hostess got me what I wanted. I was so excited and pretty much glued to the window whenever I could see outside!

I got to make another trip to Chicago in 1993 followed by an assignment in Honolulu, Hawaii the very next year. This time, my wife and I with our 9 month old daughter headed eastward from MAA to Honolulu (HNL) via Delhi (DEL) and Tokyo (NRT). We completed a trip around the world when we moved to Richmond (RIC)  in 1995 followed by a visit to India in 1996. I guess you could say, Around the world in 21 months!

I am fascinated with flying and airplanes since then. We attended a Fly-in at the Petersburg airport (PTB) and started my first ground school in 1999 through the County of Henrico Adult Education program. Those days, the county used to have a flying program for students at the Highland Springs High School. The same instructor taught us the ground school. Around that time, I took a 30 minute demo flight in a Cessna-152 at the Hanover airport (OFP). I was glad there was a sick bag on the plane! :-(. With this experience and with all the restrictions ensued for non-citizens following 9/11, I put my interest on hold. Attended ground school for the second time in late 2007 at the Chesterfield airport (FCI), cleared the written exam with 97% and got the second class medical cum student pilot certificate right before I turned 40.

If I go to a local FBO on the week ends, it will take around 6 months to complete the minimum 40 hour flight training to become a Private pilot. There is a flight school in Florida offering 2-week accelerated Private Pilot training. With the written expiry date fast approaching, I have decided to give this a shot. I know it is not going to be easy with so much to learn in such a short span. Saying it will be like drinking through a Fire hose would be an under statement. So, I need all the encouragement I can get.