Flight Lesson #2

I got into the FBO about one hour before my flight to watch some flight videos and to watch some planes take off. I did see an interesting thing happen during this. There was one plane coming in for a landing and at the same time a small BJ taxied and took off. At that time I didn't think nothing of it but come to find out the pilot of the BJ didn't say anything on the radio and cut off the small plane coming in for a landing. When the pilot of the small plane came into the FBO he was pissed off and was raising some hell. I really don't blame. This come to show you how it is important to use your radio all the time especially at a non-towered airport.

Back to the flight lesson of the day. Today involved a quick ground lesson just talking more about attitude and understand the diamonds. We headed out and went of the checklists in detailed again just so I can get use to doing them and make it more natural to do. After we did the checklist we went over the GPS unit in the plane and Jim explain that when ever you fly you need to fly somewhere and not get up in the sky and fly around. So we set in coords to go to an airstrip near by. I taxied some more again and still was all over the place. I guess practice makes perfect. Jim had me taxi to the end of the runway and I added full power and we zipped down the runway. With a lot of help from Jim we got airborne and we followed the flight path we had setup. Jim had me work on more of the 4 basic maneuvers and more trimming. He pushed the envelope a little and had me work on ascending/descending while turning which were fun and challenging. He said that I show the working of a great pilot which made me feel good.

We headed back to the airport and Jim took over the controls and did another beautiful landing. I can't wait to do those myself. I did some more taxing and we ended the day with a short postflight discussing and was told that we will be doing slow flight and dutch rolls for the next lesson. Sounds like fun, can't wait.

I need to work on paying to attitude more outside of the plane then inside and work on taxing.

Flight Time
Dual: 0.9
PIC: 0.0
Total: 0.9

Flight Lesson #1

Today I finally met my flight instructor Jim. We went over all the first day boring paper work stuff and talked a little bit about aerodynamics and the four forces that act upon a plane. You know lift, weight, drag, and thrust. We also talked about attitude and how you use that to fly the plane. We went over the instruments and all the nobs and doodads. We finally brought out the checklist and talked about the flow we do when we use it and how to properly use it.We then headed out and I was greeted to the Diamond DA-20, 484MA, one of the two diamonds that I will be doing my flight training in.

We did our pre-flight inspection of the plane which took some time because Jim was pointing out a lot of things to look for during the inspection. Once we got into the plane Jim showed me how he does the check-list and how he flows around the instrument panel. Then he handed me the check-list and told me to call off each step and to point to it in the cockpit. This was a good learning experience because it shows me how to go through the check-list quickly but safely. He then had me do some taxing which I have to tell you is very hard if you never done it before. I was all over the place riding the brakes and had to keep revving up the engine to get moving again. We finally made it to the end of the taxiway where we went over more of the checklist. There is a lot of checklist to do but let me tell you how safe it makes flying.

Jim took over the controls and did a nice take off and headed to an alt of about 3,000 feet. I was handed the controls to work the 4 basic maneuvers. I was lucky enough during my Discovery flight to have worked on them so for the most part this part of the flight was easy. It was when we added trim into the picture that caused me to get full of myself and was messing up to the point Jim was yelling at me to watch my attitude. Part of this was because I was looking at the trim indicator to see if it was moving instead of outside the windows. All and all it was a great flight lesson and after about 1 hour we headed back and Jim took over and told me to watch how he does the traffic pattern and to see when he makes the radio calls.

We come in for the approach and make a nice landing and we go over the post-flight checklist and talk about what we will go over during the next flight lesson which is in 2 weeks which gives me long enough time do some reading. Some of the things I need to work on is looking more outside and paying attention to my attitude and also need to work on taxing.

Flight Time
Dual: 0.7
PIC: 0.0
Total: 0.7

Application and second flight schedule.

Quick post today. I sent in my finance application so I can pay for this adventure of mine. I been told they have a quick turn around so I should hear from them on Monday, Tuesday the latest. I also signed up for my second flying lesson which is going to be on Friday the 13th. I was told that it will be mostly ground school with maybe some flying time. It all depends on the weather. I was assign a CFI name Jim who is retired from the Airline industry with 25k+ hours under his built with about 400 hours of dual time. I am anxious to meet him and see what he can teach me. My next post should be that Friday night. See everybody then.

An interesting meeting!

I meet with the Chief Flight Instructor of DAS, dominion Aviation Services, and we went into detail about what is expected of me during my flight training and what to expect of my instructor. I am hoping to start flying lessons soon so I can be done before I leave. I have changed from once a week to twice a week so I don't forget things and also to get more flying in. After looking over the cost of doing this I am going to stick to the diamonds because first they have a great safety record and second they are cheaper to fly.