Finally! Today was the first day of classes for the spring semester. Along with classes which meet on the campus, I’ll be flying on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays at 12:15 pm to 2:30 pm (1215 to 1530 or 1715 to 1930 zulu time). Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fly today. The weather was below the VFR minimums for student pilots (3 SM visibility and 1000 feet ceiling) so I had the chance to brush up on flying. I haven’t flown in about 5 weeks and some of the information has slipped my mind. I ended the last semester by doing two solo flights and leaving it at that since my flight debit account ran out of money.

This semester, I have a new flight instructor, whom I met with today, and went over key aeronautical points. Because he is a new instructor, he cannot just let me go out on a solos. He has to endorse me that I’m ready to solo because, previously, my old instructor endorsed me. Since the new guy hasn’t seen me fly yet he’ll have to make sure, himself, that I’m ready to go. To do this, we went over the written test I took for the Stage I check ride. I had gotten a 95% on the test, but we still went over each answer to make sure I knew what was on it. I did well, only needing help on one or two questions, and my new instructor, Drew, said that all we need to do now is fly so I can show him my skill level. I want to fly twice before soloing again, but if all goes well without first flight, I’ll solo after that.

After we went over the test, and reviewed a few more things, I had to update the documents which expired while I wasn’t flying. One of the things I needed was the new FAR-AIM (federal Aviation Regulations – Aeronautical Information Manual). This book comes out every year on New Year ’s Day and is updated with changes from the past year’s edition. Generally, only a few changes are made, and the ‘meat’ of the information contained in the book stays the same. More information HERE about the FAR-AIM. Another thing I had to get was the new aeronautical charts. These come out every few months for the same reason as a new FAR-AIM. Changes are made to the charts from the old ones. Changes could include the demolition of a building, or a new building, changes to airspace, or airport information. It’s illegal to fly with outdated charts so getting the newest ones is something all pilots must be on top of. Another document which I could have gotten was the Airport/ Facility Directory, or the A/FD. This book contains information about all the airports in the specific region. For me, it would be the northeast region of the United States; with a total of 8 regions. I decided not to get this yet since I won’t be needed it until later in the semester.

Hopefully Wednesday will come with better weather and I’ll be set to take to the skies once again. 

Ground school teaches student pilots everything they need to know about flying an airplane, regulations, and safety of flight. However, until the student actually experiences the lessons taught in ground school, they cannot relate to the material. For example, we learned in class about light gun signals. The light gun signals are different colored lights which the tower flashes towards an airplane, with an inoperative radio, to communicate. The signals instruct the pilot if it’s safe to land, to continue circling, or other instructions the pilots must be ready for. However, until a pilot actually has a broken radio, and needs to communicate by light gun signals, it can be hard for him or her to imagine what that experience would be like.

Something which I recently experienced firsthand, which is taught over and over again in the classroom, is wake turbulence. While an airplane is generating lift, it generates wake turbulence. This turbulence is invisible, but can damage an airplane greatly. The turbulence rotates from the bottom of each wingtip, to the outside of the wingtip, then back over the wing. While looking at an airplane from the rear, the right wingtip creates a counterclockwise vortex, while the left wingtip generates a clockwise vortex. These vortices trail the plane and sink below the aircraft’s flight path. Planes from as large at the space shuttle, to training airplanes like the Piper I use, all generate wake turbulence, however it is the size of the plane which dictates the strength of the turbulence. As you may have guessed, the larger and heavier the plane, the greater the wake turbulence. Planes which are heavy, clean (meaning no landing gear or flaps extended) and slow, produce the greatest wake turbulence.

The day I got firsthand experience of wake turbulence was on a nice clear day, when I was practicing touch and goes. My instructor and I decided to fly over to MacArthur Airport (check out the airports I’ve flown to, to see what MacArthur looks like) to practice landings so I can get use to flying to different paces. There are 4 runways there, but only one of the runways can facilitate the takeoffs, and landings of the heavy Boeing 737’s, which are operated by Southwest Airlines. (It is common to see 737’s flying in and out of MacArthur, while training there.) After I had done 5 or 6 touch and goes, the tower instructed me to change the runway which I would be using. I radioed back my change of course for the new runway. The reason for this (which I was about to find out) was because a Southwest jet needed to use the longer runway, which I had been using, for a takeoff. It was a little tricky getting into the downwind for the new runway assignment because the two runways, the first runway I used and the new one, are perpendicular of one another. This caused my downwind leg to be almost 2 miles wide. My instructor told me that the wide downwind leg wasn’t a concern so I continued. I entered base at the proper spot, and then eventually turned to final. The turn to final ended up being about 4 miles out, so I had a clear view of the whole airport, and all its’ runway surfaces. The runway I was using was parallel with another runway, which was also in use, and I could see the first runway I had been using now had a large orange and blue 737 sitting at the one end. Because the final was so long, I had expected the 737 to takeoff before I was close to my runway’s threshold. However, at the mile and a quarter mark, the tower radioed to me to caution for wake turbulence from the departing 737, and at that moment, the 737 started rolling down the runway. (The threshold of the runway I was using is located about 4/5ths, down the runway of the perpendicular runway, which the 737 was using. The two runways don’t intersect; however, the far edge of the 737’s runway is where my runway started.) I acknowledged the wake turbulence warning and watched the 737 pick up speed. The jet rotated almost directly in front of me, while I was about a mile away from my runway. This may sound like a close call, but when on final, the airspeed is slow enough that this distance is sufficient for both airplanes to continue flying normally. Because the rotation of the 737 occurred in front of me, my instructor told me not to worry about the wake turbulence of the heavy jet. We expected that because the wake sinks below the airplane, we would miss it. We were wrong. While at an altitude of about 80 feet, and a speed of 70 knots, we hit the wake turbulence. My little piper warrior shuttered and dropped 50 feet in less than a second. The force caused my instructor to instinctually grab the control. I was less than 10 seconds away from wheels on the runway when we hit the 737’s wake. Because my Warrior dropped dramatically from the wake, my head hit the roof of the cockpit and my headset flew off. After only a second or two, I knew what had happened. My instructor knew it sooner than me and was already realigning our plane with the runway. He knew that the encounter with the wake threw me off. However, I was still able to land the plane myself for another touch and go.

What both my instructor and I didn’t take into account was the wind. Planes generally take off into the wind in order to produce lift more easily that with a tailwind. However, since the 737 was taking off into a crosswind, (I was doing touch and goes into a head wind) the wind blew its’ wake into my flight path. I would say it was the first major “non-planned” lesson of my flying career, and one that I’ll never forget! 

It happened again; Farmingdale State College let me fly an $850,000 airplane, alone. My second solo flight was just as fun as my first one. The main point of the second solo flight is that the student does touch and goes instead of taxi backs. The purpose of this is because there is a greater chance of something going wrong during touch and goes than with taxi backs.

Unfortunately, I almost didn’t even get to fly. Everything was great during the preflight and run-up. I did the ground checks on the airplane, did the walk around checks, got the weather and weight and balance data, and made sure to tell maintenance that there was frost on the airplane so they could remove it. Once again, I was ready to fly by myself for the second time. I started the Warrior and did the necessary after start checklists and called to state ops that I was outbound. 3 seconds later I got to the end of the ramp area and called up ground control to request the touch and goes. I called again, and again. I called a fourth and fifth time. After 6 call ups and 8 or 9 minutes of waiting, I radioed back to state ops that I wasn’t getting a radio back from ground control. Just then, another Farmingdale airplane called out “State 88” (me) “use comm. 2, comm. 1 isn’t working.” So I frantically unplugged my headset from comm. 1 and into comm. 2. I repeated my request for ground controls to do touch and goes and finally I heard their response to taxi to the active runway. During the time with no radios, I was sweating and nervous that either I broke something or was encountering a situation I’ve never been in before. Luckily for me, an instructor form my school figured out my problem without being able to even hear me on the radio.

I finally was on my way to runway 1’s run-up area for a pre-takoff check of the plane. This part went smoothly and I taxied to the runway threshold. Because I was using comm. 2 and was sitting in the seat which uses comm. 1, I had to reach over and push that button while flying. After reaching over and calling the tower’s frequency, I got clearance to depart and make left traffic. As the plane rolled onto the runway, I checked the engine instruments, all in the green, and the gyro to make sure it lined up with the magnetic compass on the dashboard. It did, so I advance the throttle full open. The feeling I felt last time swooped over me as the airplane gained speed. I even remember glancing over to the right seat to prove to myself that no instructor was in the plane with me. I was completely alone and it felt amazing. I had already flown solo, last week, but the feeling was just as strong. Pride, nervousness, excitement, and pure joy all filled the cockpit as the plane’s wheels left the ground. I climbed out at Vy and radioed to the tower of my rotation. I went through my call outs

“200 feet. No more available runway”

“600 feet. Return to runway if emergency occurs”

“800 feet. Turning crosswind”

“1100 feet. At pattern altitude, lowering speed to patter speed limits, adding 10 degrees flaps”

Once in pattern altitude and at pattern’s speed, I called tower to tell them I was in the downwind, reaching over of course. I was instructed to follow the traffic in front of me and I was clear for a touch and go. I did as was told and had a smooth landing. As I rolled down the runway, I put flaps to zero and advanced the throttle full once again. Within 6 seconds of wheels touching down, they were off the runway. The second, third and fourth touch and goes were perfect, or at least as good as I’ve ever done them. However, on the fifth landing, I had some excitement. I was lined up with the runway on a 4 mile final, which is enough time to not have to rush things in order to put the airplane in landing configuration. I was cleared for a touch and go at a one mile final, a little closer than I would have liked. The wind was calm all morning, I felt no bumps, and I didn’t have to correct for a wind angle… until right then. A burst of wind shook me off the centerline at only 80 feet. I quickly jerked the yoke to the left to correct for this and accidently over banked the airplane and was almost perpendicular to the centerline. I didn’t know what to do for only a split second, and then it was clear. “Tower. State 88 going around” I won’t ever forget any of the many times my instructor told me that a go around is one of the best things you can do on a failed landing. There’s no reason to risk your life when you can simply gain altitude and try it again. So I added full power and took out some flaps in order to pitch for the best altitude gain speed of 63 knots I was at patter attitude again before reaching the end of the airport’s property.

After the go around, I had no problems with the last three touch and goes. In all, I did seven touch and goes with a full stop landing on the 8th approach. I taxied back to echo ramp, after getting clearance from ground control to do so, and shut the plane down. As I walked in, I got another set of claps from everyone in the briefing room. I got applause after my first solo, but why this one? I was being congratulated because for the first time by myself in the airplane, I encounter a problem, lost communications, didn’t freak out, and was able to continue my flight. Although all I did was change from comm. 1 to comm. 2, I didn’t loose my awareness and didn’t panic. My instructor told me I’m the first student who was cheered after their second solo.

To see pictures from this flight, check out the Media page. 

Just did my first solo! That was the most amazing feeling I’ve experienced in my life. I had to keep swiping the air next to me in order to prove to myself that my instructor wasn’t in the seat next to me. The second I rotated and was free of the earth, a sense of knowing came over me. The flight felt just like any others I’ve done. While I was doing the run-up I was nervous, but once I got into the air I knew exactly what I had to do.

The first part of today’s lesson, I went up to do three touch and goes with my instructor. This is standard protocol in order to make sure the student didn’t forget how to fly. I did one landing, had to go around on the next because the tower never gave me clearance, and finally landed on the third attempt. Since I did everything correct during the go around, my instructor counted that attempt as a landing. After the third landing, I taxied to the school’s ramp. My instructor and I went back into the briefing room in order to fill out a solo worksheet. This basically just said that I was going for my first solo, ever.

After we got the paperwork figured out and Chris gave me some last second advice, I went back out to the plane. It was go time. I didn’t have to, but I gave the plane a walk around, just in case something serious happened to the plane during my previous three touch and goes. It was fine so I climbed inside, closed and latched the door behind me and there I was; all alone in an airplane ready for a flight for the first time in my life.  I did everything as I would if I was with my instructor, after completing the pre start, and start checklist I began my taxi. When I called up ground control and awaited confirmation to taxi to the active runway, I caught myself grinning from ear to ear. Anyway, I received clearance, taxied to the run-up area to do my last minute checks, and taxied to the runway threshold.

“Republic Tower, Farmingdale State 11 is at the active on Brave, ready for takeoff”

                “State 11, clear to takeoff, make left traffic”

“clear for takeoff, wilco on left traffic, State 11”

Here I go. I taxied onto the runway lined up with the centerline and advanced the throttle to full open. 15 knots, “flaps set zero.” 25 knots, “airspeed alive”. 40 knots, “instruments green”. 50 knots, “we’re a go.” 55 knots, “rotate.” As I increased back pressure to lift the plane off the ground, the airplane responded to my control inputs with precision. I’ve finally accomplished my goal of flying an airplane. Ever since I was 6, and went on my first plane ride ever, I’ve literally dreamt and thought about this moment, a moment that won’t ever be forgotten. It gave me chills as I climbed out at Vy.

The rest of the flight was as if my instructor was next to me. I did three full stop, taxi back landings (I would land, taxi off the runway, and taxi immediately back to the active runway’s threshold and wait for clearance to takeoff again). No wind, no confusion, no problems.

After I got back to Farmingdale’s ramp, and tied the plane down, I headed in to talk about the flight with my instructor. Once I got into the briefing room, everyone congratulated me, then cut up my shirt. Apparently, once a student solos, the instructors all gather around and cut out a piece of the student’s shirt and write the date, “first solo” and which runway they used. I was no exception. As I’m writing this right now, I’m still wearing the shirt I solo-ed in, with a large piece of the back missing.

I cannot describe exactly how I was feeling as I was solo-ing for the first time. It’s one of those experiences where unless you do it for yourself, you’re not going to know what it means to you.

Today was supposed to be the day I did my first solo. However, the winds were too strong with gusts as strong as 23 knots. So instead my instructor taught me how to do short field take offs, landings, as well as soft field takeoff and landings. They’re very similar to regular takeoffs and landings; however the plane is configured a little differently for each. For example, for a short field takeoff, 25 degrees of flaps are used. In addition, once I got onto the runway, I pressed the brakes, applied full power and waited for the rpm’s to reach maximums. Once they did, I released the brakes and the plane shot forward. It was an awesome sensation to accelerate so quickly.

However, the interesting part of the flight was when I was in the downwind leg for one of the landings. On the radio I heard “Blue Angel 7 requesting to land on the active runway.” A blue angel form the Navy’s elite pilot corp came to the airport! He shot past me, making himself look like a blue blur. Once I landed and was done with the day’s lesson, I went and got a few pics of the F-18 while it was parked on the ramp.

Earlier today, I finally passed my first stage check. For the past two weeks, I had struggled with the practical. I failed horribly the first time, and during the second time, the ceiling came down to just over 2,000 feet and the visibility was less than 6 statute miles. Because of these past two attempts, I had experience of the mistakes I made. The mistakes left me feeling confident and comfortable this tie around.

The winds were definitely not optimal for a check ride. During the preflight paperwork, the winds were coming 30 degrees off the active runway at 11 knots. By the time I was practicing my touch and goes, 2 hours later the winds were still 30 degrees off the centerline but at 14 knots and gusting to 25. While you might think the winds made it harder, they somewhat helped. My check airman judged my landings more leniently than if the winds were weaker or variable.

Just like the last two attempts, I was judged on both the power off and power on stalls, as well as slow flight. However, this time, I was instructed to a ground reference maneuver. Unfortunately the winds were gusting so my circle around a point wasn’t the best I had ever done. (After the flight, the check airman actually admitted that he was expecting a horrible circle around the point. So I won’t say I impressed him, but he was a little surprised). As for the rest of the maneuvers, they went well. The stalls were satisfactory, as well were my two engine failure procedures. Like I said before, the landings were a little bit dicey. I had to do 2 go-arounds; one because the plane in front of me was going way too slow and I caught up to him, and the other because the tower told me to do so. Other than that, my flight was a success.

Next lesson I can finally do my first solo. The first solo for our school is three taxi-backs. (Which means I’ll land, taxi off the runway, and go back to the active runway to take off again). The only thing I need to watch is the crosswinds. My instructors won’t let me solo unless the crosswinds are less than 5 knots. As for stage 2, I’ll be learning how to plan cross-country flights, as well as flying at night.

Don’t worry if you fail a check ride which would have allowed you to solo. This was my third attempt at it and it finally worked out. Everyone has a little trouble with the first check ride, whether they admit it or not.

Next post will be for my first solo. Hopefully, I’ll have pictures or a video to share.

Today I retook the first stage check for the private pilot course. If you read the last post, than you know how horribly I failed my first attempt at it. I had Bob again; however he wasn’t as intimidating this time. Having done it once, I knew what he was going to be looking for and what things I had to fix.

When I woke up this morning the skies were overcast, and I knew it was going to be questionable whether or not I was going to have the stage check this afternoon. I was scheduled to have the flight at 1715Z (12:15 pm local). So after my first class of the day, I headed over to the airport for the flight.

I checked in with the Air Boss and filled out my dispatch paperwork. The weather was winds of 12kts out of 340 and gusting up to 19kts. More importantly, the clouds were OVC080, or overcast at 8000 feet. These conditions meant I would be flying.

After pre-flighting the airplane I was assigned, I went back to the briefing room and met up with Bob. We both had a laugh about how horribly I had done the last time and how I should do better today. Well it went better, but not as good as I would have liked. From when the engine started until I left the ground, I only made a few mistakes. Forgetting to take the fuel pump off after engine start, and forgetting to retract the flaps after we were both inside the plane are two examples. I was about to radio tower to request permission to take off when Bob radioed the tower and asked to stay in the pattern for touch-and-goes. The weather had gotten bad enough that he knew going out to the practice grounds would be unfair conditions to test me in. I got permission to take off and taxied onto the runway.

The take off went well, as did turning crosswind and then downwind. This time I definitely didn’t forget to do the pre-landing checklists. Bob said he was going to use the radio today so I didn’t have to worry about that. However, I did have to worry about the rain and winds, which were gusting at 1,100 AGL (traffic pattern altitude). The visibility stayed VFR but went down to 5 statute miles at times. The hardest part of the flight was finding the traffic and reporting back to the tower that traffic was in sight. Bob helped me with this because of the deteriorating conditions.

The first landing went well, however Bob had me do a go-around on the second one because I forgot to announce the decent was stabilized at 200 feet AGL. After that one, I didn’t forget it for the rest of the lesson. All in all, I did 5 landings with one go-around. The worst part of my flying was that on most of the landings, the plane wasn’t lined up on the centerline. After 1.2 hours Bob had had enough and I landed for the last time. I taxied back to Echo ramp and shutdown the plane. During our talk, back in the briefing room, Bob had said that the worst part of today was my landings weren’t on the centerline. Other than that my approaches and line ups were good, as well as my traffic pattern maneuvers.

I got an incomplete on the day (because of the weather, not because of my flying) and I will finish up the stage check either tomorrow morning or next week sometime. I’m hoping I pass the stage one check ride before the Thanksgiving break next week.

The first milestone that students pilot will reach is the solo. The solo is the first opportunity the student has to fly the airplane by him or herself. However, no flight school will let a student take a plane up without a check ride. A check ride is simply the equivalent of the road test for an automobile driver. That’s what I did today. It involves 2 test and a flight with a check airman who judges the student on their ability to perform maneuvers, complete safe landings as well as establish communications with the tower and ground control.

The test has 3 parts. The first part is the written test. The written test gives 50 fill in questions. The questions are related to general aviation, FAA regulations and about the specific airport I’ll do my solo at, which in this case is my base airport of Republic. It took me about an hour and I did well, a 95%. The second part is the oral. During this part, the check airman, Bob in this case, asks me questions face to face in order to see how well I know what I’m doing without being able to look it up. Again this is about the airport, general aviation questions as well as specific questions about the plane I train in. This test was harder than the written, but again I passed. Lastly came the practical, the flight portion of the test.

It didn’t go well

First I filled out the pre-flight sheet and checked the airplane. Once that was done I told the check airman, the plane was ready. We walked across the ramp together and got in the plane. From that point on I blew it. It’s embarrassing to admit, but I suddenly forgot what to do. I looked down, got my checklist out and started going through the items. From when I started the plane and got to the end of the ramp where I was to call ground control, everything was normal. Then I called ground and fumbled the entire call. Later Bob would tell me he didn’t judge me too poorly for this, but it messed me up for the rest of what I had to do. Once ground told me I was clear to taxi, I started to roll and Bob pressed the brakes with his feet. I was about to cut off a plane which was to my right and waiting to taxi. I forgot to look right. The plane to the other’s right always has the right of way and I would have broken that rule if Bob didn’t stop me. After I finally got onto the taxi ways I thought I was going to be fine. I was wrong. Bob asked me when I was going to put the wind correction in with the ailerons, and why I was riding the brake pedals with my feet.

Once I made it to the run-up area, I started going through my checklist again. Once I felt I had sufficiently got the plane ready for takeoff, I taxied to the runway. Upon reaching the active runway, I called tower and asked for permission to takeoff, they granted and I rolled onto the runway. I guess I wasn’t rolling fast enough for Bob and he told me to hurry up.

I finally took off.

I was finally in the air, and was feeling good. I had messed up a few ground operations, but my flying had been good in the previous lessons with my instructor. The first thing I did wrong was I forgot the climb checklist. It’s supposed to be done at 1000 feet AGL, but I didn’t do it until about 3000 feet AGL. Bob commented on this while I was flying but it wasn’t anything major, so I headed towards the practice grounds.

My maneuvers were well below average. During slow flight I forgot to put flaps in until I almost stalled the plane, and I forced the pane into secondary stall while I was attempted to recover from the power off stall. My recovery from the power on stall was the only satisfactory maneuver I did the whole day. Perhaps the worst part of the flight was when I busted class C airspace. MacArthur Airport is a class C airport close to Republic, and its’ airspace go up to the edge of the training grounds. As I finished the engine failure procedure (which didn’t go well because I was attempting to simulate a landing on the beach and not a parking lot), I increased full power to go around and recover. However, I forgot about the Charlie airspace and flew right into it. The check airman grabbed the controls and flew away from the area. While he still had the controls, he asked why so much air was coming into the cockpit. I looked up and realized I never latched the door shut while back in the run-up area. It was closed and locked but not latched. This allowed excess air to enter the cabin.

At this point I knew I was going to have to retake the check ride. He told me, in a horribly grump voice, to take him back to the airport. I called the tower control and asked to land. I don’t know why, but I forgot to go through the pre-landing checklist. As I landed, he took controls away from me and taxied to the ramp where our airplanes are kept.

I knew it went really bad. When we got inside, after tying up the airplane, we went through what I did wrong. I don’t remember all of what he said because I was so mad at myself for messing up that horribly. However, I didn’t learn a lot from the flight. Make sure to always go through the checklists carefully, keep situational awareness and be confident. 

In the first stage of flight training, for the private pilot course, you learn only a handful of maneuvers. Flying an airplane isn’t very hard, or at least it was easier than I was expecting. The airplane I’m using now, the Piper Warrior, (go to the ‘Airplane’ section under ‘Base Airport’ to learn more about the Warrior), is very stale and beginner friendly plane. It’s a really great airplane to learn to fly in. Anyway, flying an airplane is fun; not only do you have to direct it left, or right, and accelerate or decelerate, you need to monitor altitude. With that in mind, I’ll go over the maneuvers I’ve learned so far.

The first maneuver I was taught was slow flight. Slow flight is important because it simulates the traffic pattern. At slower airspeeds, the airplane behaves differently. The control surfaces are less effective and the pilot needs to rely on the rudders to control where the airplane goes instead of the ailerons. The hardest thing about slow flight is that you’re only a split second away from a stall. When done properly, the entire maneuver should be conducted with the stall horn aloud. The stall horn is sounded when the airplane ‘senses’ a stall. What I mean is that on the leading edge of the left wing, there’s a little flap that will move around when not enough airflow is traveling over it. This occurs at slow speeds and a high angle of attack (AOA). With the stall horn on, and all the flaps put in, you need to be able to climb, descend, or turn the airplane. However, to ascend, you need to apply power since you can’t pull back on the controls. Dong so will increase the AOA and cause a stall. The same goes for descending, except reducing power. In slow flight, lowering the AOA will cause the plane to gain speed, and fly out of slow flight. Slow flight is definitely the trickiest maneuver for me in the first stage.

The stalls are important to learn because what you’re really practicing is stall recovery. The instructor needs to show you how to recover from a stall when one occurs. There are two common types of stalls, the power on stall and the power off stall. The power on stall simulates a stall if the pilot pulls up too much and too quickly during a takeoff. During a power on stall full power is applied at the rotation speed (rotation speed is the speed at which the plane can become and sustain lift) plus 5 knots. In essence, you’re simulating that you’re on the takeoff roll and rotating. Once you apply full power, you pull back on the controls (yoke) to simulate that you are taking off with too much AOA. The recovery for this is easy; you just lower the nose to regain smooth airflow over the wings.

The power off stall is a little more involved. It is my personal favorite maneuver so far because I find it fun. The stall is used to simulate that you took too much power out during a landing and have stalled the plane. To perform the maneuver, you establish a 3 degree descent to simulate an approach to landing. Then once at the ‘deck’ altitude (the altitude that is representative of the ground), or just above it, you take all the power out as to simulate that you’ve flared (a flare is the part of the landing which brings the nose up so the back wheels can touchdown first). As you do this, you increase back pressure on the yoke to simulate that you’re flaring too high. With no power and a high AOA, the airplane will stall. I like this maneuver because once it stalls, the nose drops dramatically towards the surface. The second this happens, you apply full power, step on the right rudder pedal to counteract the left turning tendency, and take out the first notch of flaps. It’s fun because you have to do a few things at once. The first time I did it correctly, I felt like I was Tom Cruise in top gun.

The last set of maneuvers in stage 1 of private pilot is ground reference maneuvers. The point of these is to practice flying with a reference point on the ground. There about 4 or 5 of them, but so far, I’ve only learned two. The first is turns around a point. The goal of this is to pick a point on the ground, and complete a circle around it while keeping a constant radius, as well as speed and altitude. The tricky part is playing the wind. If the wind is blowing hard form one direction, it’s going to blow you farther and faster when you’re in the downwind. This means you need to increase the angle of bank. While in the upwind, the angle of bank is shallower because you’re going against the wind. It only took me a few tries to get the hand of it, and of course the stronger the wind is, the harder the maneuver’s going to be.

The second ground reference maneuver I learned was S turns. This is done along a straight line, usually a road or straight beach. It is done at the same altitude and speed as the circle around a point. The difference is that once you make a half circle, you need to turn in the other direction and complete an S shape. It’s hard to picture it in your head if you’ve never done it before. The goal is to make the half circles the same distance away from the reference line. If you can be efficient with turns around a point, than the S turns become a lot easier.

The last maneuver, while not being a true maneuver, is landing. This is important because anyone can takeoff, landing is the tricky part. The first month that I did landings, my instructed never let go of the controls. He held on to them until I could prove that I was able to do them sufficiently without any help. The maneuver we do is called a touch and go. This means that I land, and once on the ground, I retract the flaps and apply full power and takeoff again without leaving the runway. After a month of doing about 5 touch and goes at the end of each flying lessons, I became comfortable and confident with my landings.

The maneuvers I’ve learned so far were challenging at first, but once I got the hang of them, they become fun and easy, almost boring. 

So I didn’t want to ignore the first month and a half or two months of my training. I wanted to explain a little about things I was worried about and how I felt after those first few flights. At the time I didn’t know it, but after a month or so, I realized that those first few flights, and the things I felt, were going to be some of the best experiences of my life; and it got better and more fun with every flight!

One of the first things I learned, but anticipated, was that flying takes dedication and perseverance. Learning to fly, learning and understanding regulations, deciphering weather information, and talking on the radio to ground or tower control is like learning a new language. There are terms and phrases that are only relevant to aviation. (Example: I always heard other pilots saying ‘wilco’ to the tower and ground control. This is a military term meaning ‘will comply’). Learning any of these things, as well as everything else in aviation can be challenging. But I feel that if you love aviation, like me, and are willing to put in the time, it’s not very hard at all.

In the first three weeks, I found myself being intimidated from things that I barely notice today (2 months into training). One of the most intimidating things for me was using the radio. During my first flight, my instructor did all the talking. However, on the second flight, I had to do it all. My instructor made me rehearse the radio calls with him before I pressed the button to talk on the frequency. It was still nerve racking knowing that anyone tuned into that frequency could hear what I was saying. What if I made mistake, or didn’t know what to say? One thing that my instructor told me, which was reassuring was that my base airport as over 300 students pilots. The tower and ground controls are use to people saying the wrong thing and messing up. It’s easy to be intimidated by the radio, but you’ll get use to it very quickly.

Another thing that I was uneasy about was finding my way and knowing where I was going, both in the air and on the ground. Navigation, as I learned a month into my training, is a section learned in ground school. The training grounds around my base airport are close enough that with 30 seconds of leaving the grounds, you can make out the airport on a clear day. Again, my instructor helped me a lot with where to go, what altitudes to be at and what speed I need to fly at. Every once and a while today he’ll still correct me for things I’m doing wrong.

The first few flights were some of my favorite lessons. Taking off for the first time felt amazing. It was a moment I had been anticipating since I was 12 years old. However, the first time I was at the controls and I had to do the takeoff was unforgettable.