Slowly working on getting certified.
I'd just like to say that rush hour doesn't look quite the same at 3,500 feet.
Got two uncles you should talk to..........
congrats Larry..
Slowly working on getting certified.
I'd just like to say that rush hour doesn't look quite the same at 3,500 feet.
j/k, I know you must be VFR. I'd like to hear your take on that first flight experience. Great world up there, and pretty cool around this area in particular. Good luck in completing it...and then enjoying it. 
Slowly working on getting certified.
I'd just like to say that rush hour doesn't look quite the same at 3,500 feet.
Slowly working on getting certified.
I'd just like to say that rush hour doesn't look quite the same at 3,500 feet.
Keep your eyes on your instruments damnit, not the traffic below!
Been up about 7 times so far in the last year. The first time in a Cirrus Turbo which was way, way too much plane for me. The few minutes I got the controls, I made goony birds look elegant.
It stunned me just how overwhelming it all is at first. Level was easy enough but, I lost altitude like a brick without even realizing it until our ears were in a little discomfort. That, and I was mesmerized by the view, totally amazed by the view and instantly getting way behind the plane or totally amazed by the gauges inside, and rapidly getting behind the aircraft, squeezing the yolk in a death grip.
On the ground, taxiing, because I ride bikes, I wanted left pedal to be turn right and right pedal to be left. That and we have tractors where there are dual brakes where you brake right pedal, you go right, left is left. I am still not second nature on the ground which leads to some serious zig zagging and fun for the instructor landing and taking off.
I was totally blown away by the thrill and totally humbled by just how much there is that MUST be absolutely second nature to keep from killing yourself. I am a 'feel' person who pretty much takes to most things naturally and am a believer that a positive attitude helps an awful lot and flying appeals to me because, also appeals to me, because it demands that you think things through, have your #### together and keep it that way and not be relying on your charm, luck and a sunny day.
Flying can be awfully sedate when you are set at altitude, straight and level. Even course changes and minor altitude adjustments and minor trim adjustments are getting smooth. However, add in throttle changes, leaning or riching, trying to follow ATC/trainer conversations, all of a sudden, I start getting behind. Take offs and landings, man, things happen sooooooo fast and I get behind soooo quick. Blows my mind. If I had to talk to ATC while doing pretty much anything else it would sound like gibberish and I'd probably start drooling as the plane flipped over.
I did the approach yesterday, cross, down and final, pretty much on my own and actually felt like I was kinda flying. I was outside the plane AND aware of speed, descent rate and making throttle and attitude adjustments for real and not just staring at the gauges or mesmerized by the ground moving faster and faster. It was sloppy as hell but, it was actual flying this time which was kewl. I might have even be able to get us on the ground in one piece on my own but, I probably would have had to go around because I wanted to flair too soon which probably means I would have been in trouble running out of runway, and become committed to landing.
It's fun, challenging, exciting, a little boring at times, intriguing. Just good stuff.
Puts a water landing in the Hudson into perspective, doesn't it? When I see a bug smasher flying over the house, it always looks so calm, everything straight and level, looks easy and fun. I can do that...
To quote an old aviator saying "hours and hours of sheer boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror" about sums it up for me.
My first right seat flight was in a T-37 trainer, nice jet (the tweet, they called it for its deafening high-pitched sound). Most instructors back then didn't care to have been assigned to one, though. Most preferred screaming low and fast in a fighter over dealing with clueless students every day. Can't blame them.
So with barely enough understanding of why you talk to ground, why you talk to tower, center, etc., I'm sitting at the hammerhead waiting to takeoff on the Rozzy1 departure. "Runway heading to 2,000, left 180 turn" sounded simple enough. Not. I was so far behind that aircraft, I felt like I was still back in the briefing room.
As we're climbing through 1,500 feet, he's coaching me back to now---flying, asking "Okay...how are we doing on our departure?" I'm barely smart enough to analyze the departure instructions (when I'm looking at them), and barely smart enough to understanding how to read each instrument (when I'm looking at them), but at the same time? Airspeed, altitude, heading. Airspeed, altitude, heading. I discover we're now approaching 2,000', so I directed...."left turn to..." YANK! He pulled the yoke and banked right on the second before I could even finish. Not being prepared for the G's, I fell back into my seat hard. He did that on purpose, I thought
The rest of that long 1.3 hour flight was more and more of the same, I was totally humbled by it. Will I ever learn this? He assured me this was normal for a first flight.
Almost every pilot I know has a picture of themselves in/near their very first aircraft. I think a better, more accurate memory shot would be a zoom in of their facial expression in the hammerhead on their first flight. That's the memory that sticks out in my mind.
Good stuff!!!
Here's another one...
Now, I was never a pilot (even though I had to go through that T-37 training). I was a navigator. So I never had stick time after that.
We were flying across the Med, everything was quiet. My copilot buddy got out of his seat to go back to (what we called) the honeybucket to take a leak. So I sat in his seat for the more comfortable view it offered.
The pilot looks up and asks me if I ever flew a herk, to which my answer was no. So he took the autopilot off, and told me "you got it". He knew that I was smart enough on instruments, it was handling the aircraft that would be the challenge. I didn't let him down.
I stunk. Couldn't hold an altitude to save my life. Up 200', down 200', correcting left, correcting right. No wonder I was a navigator.
Loadmaster from the back end chimes in on the intercom (he was more than likely woken up by my turbulence) "Pilot, Load. WTH is going on up there?"
"Training in progress, Load. No worries, the nav has the airplane and I'm watching him."
"Not a problem for me, pilot. But the Copilot just peed all over himself back here from bouncing around!"
