Flying Lesson #2

Another fantastic morning for flying today. We started with a few minutes at the whiteboard talking about profile drag vs. inverse drag and the power curve. It all made sense at the time, as they had also covered those concepts in the King school courseware, but you just don't get the feel for it until you experience it, so off we went.

Pre-flight went fine. I finished it up a bit more quickly than before. I'm also feeling just a wee bit more comfortable with taxiing (a wee bit). I was able to roll along at faster than idle this time, anyway, and I'm pretty sure I never once felt the pedals bouncing around under my feet as John gave me some help the way he did last time.

HOWEVER...takeoff was another matter. I kind of saw it coming. A little more comfortable with taxiing though I was, finding that straight course down the center line still eluded me. Therefore, you can only imagine how it went, as I barrelled down the runway at about 40-50 knots. John has nerves of steel. He wasn't worried at all as he helped me keep us out of the grass. Did I mention he was a carrier pilot in the Navy? His calm demeanor is really a help sometimes.

So we climb to 2900 ft. or so and he puts me through some climbing and descending turns. This comes to me fairly easily and we work quite a bit on trimming the aircraft. This is where my time in Microsoft Flight Simulator didn't do me much good. For one, I never could get trim to work very well in MSFS. It seemed that if I was climbing or descending at all, the slightest touch on the trim caused me to start in the other direction. I never could get it to trim for even straight and level. However, at least I was familiar with the concept at this point (and at least with *trying* to do it correctly - ok, so it did help a little), so my main concern was getting a feel for just how much trim wheel was necessary. I was finally able, at several points, to trim for hands-free flight.

Next came slow flight. Ya know, there's just something that doesn't seem right about flying along without a care in the world with the stall horn going off. John walked me through the exercise, pointing out the various changes in control responsiveness during slow flight. Of course I assumed that climbing would be difficult, but I didn't realize how tight I could still turn under those conditions. One tip for all you other new trainees out there. When your CFI has you trim the plane for slow flight, be ready with the forward pressure on the controls when he says, "Ok, now lets apply full power and gain some altitude." Crikes.

We then headed back for the airport. This time he talked me through entering the pattern and preparing for my approach. As we entered the base leg, it suddenly occurred to me - he was expecting *me* to land this bird! All I could conclude was that he had been drinking...heavily. We had been discussing where in the pattern to apply flaps, what my airspeed should be at various points, but I didn't realize that I would be doing a landing today. I must admit, and many others may likely feel the same way, the thought of landing the plane myself is what has made me the most nervous by far. I was really caught by surprise, as he hadn't mentioned we would be going there during this lesson. I used to like him, too. On the bright side, I checked later, and they don't charge students for having to steam clean the upholstery. Of course I'm on the hook for my shorts, though.

I think he got the message, as mid-way through final, I piped up, interrupting his final instructions with, "You just be ready to take the controls." As it turns out, the wind had picked up a bit while we were out, and we were crabbing a good bit at about 80-100 AGL, so John took over and got us down safely. My hero. Still, I'm thinking that Teacher's next apple is gonna have a worm in it.

When all was said and done, John complimented me on how well I had done with the various maneuvers, trim and slow flight exercises. He said he is very pleased with how quickly we've been able to progress. We logged my flight time (1.8 hours now, woo hoo!) and talked about the fact that I need to be spending some time with my nose in the POH (that's Pilot's Operational Handbook for the Cessna 172S I'm training in, for those of you who, like me, had no idea what he was talking about). He promised to start grilling me on the details such as load capacity, fuel capacity, etc. We also went over the METAR report, and he showed me how to decipher it. I'll be showing up early for my lessons from now on to check the METAR for that day's flight.

I've got five days until my next lesson. I'll be sure and prepare myself for trying the landing this time. He'll probably surprise me with evacuation procedures or something at this point.