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Flying Lesson 4
Lesson 4 happened to fall on a beautiful July afternoon. Mid 80's, moderate humidity, and sunny skies. My last lesson left me with a bit of air-sickness so I was hoping I wouldn't experience any issues today. As luck would have it, there was no air-sickness or anything remotely close. I went throught the pre-flight mostly by myself. My instructor stood by to answer my questions. And it was a good thing he was there because I did have quite a few questions. Overall I was pretty proud of myself. And I could tell you from personal experience, you feel a whole-lot safer and more comfortable inside of an aircraft on which you've performed your own pre-flight inspection. I have never felt totally uneasy or uncomfortable flying commercially but now that I have been up in the air in a smaller aircraft that I have checked out myself, I feel as though there is a difference in the comfort level. I visually inspected the rutter, flaps, checked the oil, tires and brakes, hinges and cotter pins, performed a fuel test to check for water, checked cables, made sure vents and lights were working, and a few other items.
This preflight, as basic as some of these items may seem, gives you a good feeling once you've done your final walk-around. With the preflight out of the way, we moved to the pre-start checklist which was inside the plane in the pocket on the pilot side of the cockpit. I wish I could remember the steps I took during this part of the pre-flight but it's still a bit confusing to me. When the checklist is in my hand, and the instructor ois on my right, things are a lot easier. After all pre-flight tests and checks were completed we prepared for takeoff. This is my favorite part at this point. He made the call over the radio, we paused, then entered the runway. I have to admit, the Cessna makes me feel so comfortable, I should have done this a long time ago.
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Down the runway we went on our way to a takeoff with me at the controls and the flight instructor's guidance. The flight itself consisted of a number of 45 degree angle turns of 360 degrees. No dizziness, no air-sick feeling, all was well again. I performed quite a few of these turns, some were pretty bad, and some actually worked out pretty well. We also did more slow speed flying which I did not do so well with the navigation. The plane flies very sloppy when you travel slowly. To begin the slow flying we put to flaps up 10% and lowered the throttle. This took our airspeed way down to a point where we were just about to stall the plane. When flying this slow, the rutter offers more control than the yoke when it comes to steering the plane. As I said, I need practice and some patience when performing this type of maneuver. We also did some low speed stalls which were pretty dramatic when compared to the stalls from last week.
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Once back on the ground I bought my pilot's kit from the pilot shop and my instructor explained the contents. It looks like I've got some reading to do and some studying as well. I like a challenge and I'm looking forward to any new information I can gather when it comes to flying. I also had to turn over my birth certificate at this point for documentation purposes. I was, of course more than willing and happy to do so.
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