September 04, 2003
First Flight
I had my first lesson. I'm flying out of Campbell Airport near Grayslake. Cardinal Aircraft Services rents out Piper Warrior II's for students. It's a low-wing plane. One pilot I know suggested I might be more comfortable in a Cessna 152 or 172, which are high-wing planes, the thought being there's a better view of the ground coming up for landings. That really doesn't seem to be an issue, though, since you're looking out the front of the plane at that point.
Speaking of landings, we landed a bit short of the runway, but I'm not sure whose fault that was. My instructor, did most of the flying for landing, but then right at the end he said something about 'Don't let it touch down yet,' and a half second later we were down. But it was still very smooth, even for being on grass. No biggie. Takeoff was cake. Those planes pretty much take off on their own.
I'm not sure if he was blowing sunshine or what but he gave me two really nice compliments. While we were up and I was doing turns, he asked, "So how many lessons have you had?" I said I had one 'introductory' flight and did some turns, but this was my first real lesson. He said I was doing awesome at keeping the plane steady and executing turns. Nice. Then when we were on the ground, he said, "I've got to tell you, you did an excellent job. I think you were the best first-time student I've ever had." That rocked. If he was blowing sunshine, it worked.
I like him, he keeps talking, so he's constantly telling me things I might or might not know, so eventually they all sink in - monitoring airspeed, how the controls work, pointing out landmarks, giving pointers and tips, etc. He almost forgot to untie the rear tiedown during the pre-flight, though. I pointed it out. Maybe that impressed him ;-)
Anyway, next lessons are next Tuesday and Wednesday. Can't wait.
