First Flight Tommorow

So It has been about a week and tomorrow is my first flight. I doubt I will get much sleep tonight just thinking about it, but it doesn't help that I have to work from 0500 to 0900 before my 1000 flight lesson. Oh well, after that I can come home and relax. Tonight I will review everything for tomorrows flight. I'm pretty sure tomorrow will be just absolute basics. Pre-flight, taxi practice, takeoff, 4 fundamentals of flight (climbs, descents, turns, and straight and level flight). Hopefully we can do some touch and go's if we have time. I am pretty sure I will be able to master the 4 fundamentals within a couple flights. I may be cocky but I think I can do it. I just have to remember right rudder in a climb and left rudder in a descent. In a turn it is rudder in the direction of the turn. Seems simple from the ground and in my head, I'll find out tomorow if it is that easy. I'm pretty nervous about talking on the radio, it is something I have never done, but from what I've read (and I've read a lot) most pilots are a little aprehensive about it the first few times, then it becomes natural. I don't think my instructor will throw that on me the first flight, but I don't know for sure. Aight, time to go review for tomorrow. I will back to update you about tomorrows flight. I'm sure you can't wait to see how it went!! lol..

~Joe

Day One - Sunday 26 April 2009

Today was my first official ground school lesson. I have had some previous flying time (6.5 hours) but for the purpose of this blog I am going to talk like I have had zero time.

I called the flight school early in the morning after getting no sleep the night before. I told them that I was interested in meeting with an instructor and getting started flying. When I got to the airport at about 12pm my instructor, Alex, was already waiting. We shook hands, grabbed my new King School training kit and headed for a conferance room. Here we talked about our lives and what brought us to flying. My instructor is a great guy, originally for Yugoslavia he flew for their Air Force and has only been in the US for 20 years. He has instructed here in Arizona before, but it was for a Part 141 pilot mill in Mesa. After that he went to Hawaii and flew Cessna Caravans for a small airline. I told him about my small previous flying experience and he told me that it would help me out a little bit since I knew some of the basics of flight.

After the discussion about our past and what brought us to this point we went to check out the airplane we would be flying. The beautiful C172 SP. Alex and I mutually agreed that we did not want to train in the G1000 cockpit. I wanted to learn the basics and then when I'm good enough I can switch to the glass. We walked to the dispatch counter to sign out an airplane. At this time Alex went through the checkout process and the book that is issued with each plane. We had a long conversation about the MEL (which for some reason the M is escaping my memory. I want to say it stands for Minimum Equipment List, but I will check w/ him again on Friday.) and why it is important to the safe and legal opperation of the airplane. We signed the paperwork and walked out to the parking spot of the airplane.

Once we were to the airplane we unlocked the doors and talked about every button, switch, guage, screen, placard, and book in the plane. I am very comftorable with all of that after our long conversation. We talked about the necessary documents that are needed in the plane in order to safely and legaly fly. After that we stepped out of the plane to talk about the preflight. We went through a very detailed preflight of the aircraft and deemed it worthy of flight for the day. Unfortuantly for me, I would not be flying it today.

After the preflight we went inside set up our next lesson for Friday, 1 May 2009. 10am to 1pm. I cannot wait. This time we are actually going to be flying!

The reason I did not fly today is because of my budget. I explained to Alex that my budget is very low, and I would only be able to fly once a week. We discussed the disadvantages to this, but I think I will be able to make up the time not flying, with a lot of home study. The book hasnt left my hand yet! The great thing about this day is that it didnt cost me much. I paid for the books and the pilot kit, but Alex is so great, and understands my budget situation so much that he didnt charge me anything for the 3 hours of ground school that we just had. He also said that in the future he can give me discounts when he can, and only charge me for 1 hour when we had 2. I think I found the perfect instructor and I cannot wait to go flying with him!

Thanks for reading! I will be back on Friday to quickly document everything that goes on in flight and on the ground. If I have any questions I will be looking to my friends on the AOPA forums and I will hope not to get flamed down for asking stupid questions. :)

Thanks again for reading... Time for me to hit the books, I have so much to learn!!!!

~Joe

Today's flight: 0hrs

Total flight time: 6.5hrs

Finally Flying

Ok, so I finally got some money together and I'm going to set out on this mission to become a pilot. I am going to fly out of Stellar Air Park (P19) and training with Angel Flight Service. I have been there a couple of times to check them out and I am pretty excited to begin. I will update this blog with my experiences each time I fly, mostly for myself to look back on, but I hope I can make it enjoyable to someone else who has dreamed to fly as long as I have. Thanks for reading, I am headed to the airport for my first flight now. Talk to you later!

~Joe