101 Degrees

Aircraft: C172N

Weather: Clear 101 Degrees Wind Minimal

Let me tell you, I picked the wrong season to start flying in! Today was 101 degrees in beautiful Arizona. Lets just say, I need to start drinking more water.

I guess this would be a good time to explain the way this flight school works. This small flight

school called Wings 270 (wings270.com) is owned and operated by a guy named Mike. He comes in every morning that someone is going to be flying and unlocks the door so we can get the key to the airplane. If Mike isn't available, the door doesn't get opened. I was a little bit early this morning so no big deal. After parking my truck I walked up to the building and it was locked. My flight wasn't scheduled until 1100 so that was no big deal. Dan (new flight instructor) wanted me to show up at 1030 so we could go over the pre-flight together. I put my bag in the airplane before they showed up and was able to do so, because the security on this high tech 1980 Cessna 172N is so great. The door can be opened with any key. In fact, if your fingernail was long enough you could turn the lock to pop open the door. Mike and Dan both arrived at the same time and I went in to prep for the flight with Dan.

Dan uses the Jeppesen syllabus for training which is fine with me. It has me soloing around flight 8 which is great. Seems a little more high speed than the Cessna kit that I got. Todays flight was

basically a review of the first 3 lessons from his syllabus and getting some of lesson 4 demoed to me. The first 3 lessons are all about the 4 fundamentals of flight, climbs, turns, descents, and straight and level flight. I must have done really good with all of this because we moved through it pretty quickly and moved on the the next task. Dan demoed slow flight and power off/on stalls. Those will be concentrated on next flight which will hopefully be on Friday if all goes well. We used the same practice area as I did last time with my previous flight instructor. I recognized the same small mountain that we were flying over which was cool. This time I got pretty turned around and really had no idea how to get back to the airport. Of course Dan knew and pointed me in the right direction when it was time. I don't think I actually knew where we were going

until we were on base leg of the pattern, which is pretty bad because ATC had us enter the pattern on the base leg. Listening to the radio we had at least 2 other aircraft behind us trying to land, so Dan expedited our trip to the ground. The tower kept calling our position out to the other planes as if to almost rush us onto the ground. He told us to do a short final to the runway, which Dan did. He said that we didn't have to if we didn't want to, because he is the PIC (pilot in command) and we have the final authority when it comes to how we fly the airplane. He said since our time is up anyway, we might as well just put it down and get back. Dan greased the landing and I followed along with my hands and feet on the controls. I can't wait to get into landings!!!! It shouldn't be too long.

Dan handled all the radio work from when we left to when we got on the ground again. After we exited the runway he turned it over to me to make the call to ground. Talk about being scared. Why is that, I don't mind flying all over the place in an aluminum machine barely bigger than my truck, but when it comes to talking on the radio I FREEZE! Dan told me what to say and that is not what came out. I think I managed to squeeze out something like this "Chandler ground Cessna 4653 g g golf, clear of the active, request um...... ..... .... Taxi to..... Wings 270? 53Golf" You could almost hear the controler laughing, but I'm sure he gets it all day because there is a lot

of training at Chandler. I didn't even have to say "student pilot" at the end, because I made it very clear that I was a student pilot. Oh well, after he spit out my instructions, I had a little bit of confidence and read back "Taxi to wings 270 Cessna 4653 Golf". What really kills me is that I KNOW what to say. I've even practiced at home. I made little cards w/ the things I'm going to say at different stages of flight. But when you finally get in the airplane and press that button, it is different. I'm sure I'll be ok next time, but we will see. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Now when I get hot, I sweat. I don't think I am normal! I sweat more than anybody I know. When I got out of that plane I was soaked from head to toe with sweat. I feel bad for Dan because he has to sit next to me in such tight quarters, but he seems to be a sweater too, so that is good. LOL. Like I said, summer in AZ, not the best time to start flight training. At least when I

get done, I will be able to take Brittany up and it wont be 100 degrees outside. She will throw up without the heat, so I think Brittany will stay on the ground until the weather is nice and PERFECT.

That's all for this installment of "Joe Has the Greatest Life Ever Because He is Finally Flying" and be sure to tune in next time when I don't crap my pants when I have to say a couple things

on the radio. Thanks for reading! I've included a couple pictures of the new plane I'm flying. For the cockpit picture, subtract the GPS system because we didn't use it for my flight, and probably won't.

Oh BTW, If you are still reading this, please click on an add or two on the right, I make money for every click, and It would really help my flying fund. If you see something you like, click away my friends. Thanks!

This Flight: .9

Total Time: 8.5 hours