Flight Training: Personal Stories

Flight Simulator Training

2009-10-21T14:02:00.006-04:00

In this particular flight school, they combined the Commercial flight training with the Instrument training. I was ready to begin instrument training. I did get some instrument training in spurts, just to become oriented with it and to know what to expect. Looking back, I think that Instrument flight is the funnest part of flying.

I began with a flight simulator, the AST-300 to be exact. I also had a new flight instructor. The old instructor was frustrated with his job and quit. The new guy was easy to get along with but not as aggressive as the old instructor. Sometimes aggressive is good, but you don't have to be an asshole. The first few hours in the flight simulator consisted of climbs, descents and basic A and B patterns. No seat of the pants flying, you become a component of the aircraft. After about ten hours of simulator time I was back in the airplane repeating A and B patterns. In the mean time I did a couple of solo cross country flights to keep up with my commercial training. I also had more wasted time waiting for my student loans to come in. It made it look like I was a slow learner. It's not your fault If the school doesn't allow you to fly until they get their money. I would fly every day if I could.

By this time I had a total of 161 hours. It's now May of 1992. I've been in flight school for almost two years now. I should have decided then to switch schools, but I was determined to finish what I started. We started integrating instrument training with commercial maneuvers. I had a tough time getting used to eights on pylons, like maintaining airspeed. I learned how to watch the wing tips to determine the airspeed. I eventually got it right, but it took some time. We were getting ready for some more night training to prepare for my night cross country. We flew about two hours of night maneuvers and practiced pilotage and dead reckoning for preparation for a VFR night cross country.

Commercial Flight Training Pitfalls

2009-01-05T15:09:00.004-05:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, I've been busy with other things.
So I'm training to be a commercial pilot now. Getting ready to be another Chesley Sullenberger. It's funny how most people relate the words commercial pilot with an airline pilot when it actually means that you can fly for hire just as a commercial truck driver can drive for hire.

This part of my flight training took a lot of hours and many months because of my slow learning, waiting for student loans, and the flight schools failure to provide me with training aircraft when scheduled. If I knew than what I know now, I would have pulled out of there and found a flight school closer to home, but that's all spilt milk now. Did I mention that I didn't start my commercial flight training until three months after I got my private? I had to wait for student loans to come in, meanwhile they did let me take ground courses.

The first forty hours of training was in the Cessna 152 practicing soft and short field take offs and landings, chandelles, lazy eights, stalls, slow flight and steep spirals. I don't think that they require steep spirals anymore but they are fun to do. A good way to lose altitude fast. I also did eights on a pylon and eights around a pylon and emergency procedures.
Then another month wait because of student loans. That is a total of four months waiting for paperwork to come in and was killing my retention. I'm telling you about these gaps in my flight training for a reason that I'll get into later on another post. Just keep this in mind.

Well it's now July of 91', almost a year since I started my flight training and I'm ready for my first phase test so that I can transition over to the Cessna 172. I passed, and began doing basic maneuvers in the 172. After my first two hours another gap. This time for over two months.

I'll try to post more often because I think that anyone contemplating attending a flight school should read my experiences and try to avoid the problems that I had, and it could save a lot of money just by knowing what pitfalls you might run into. For example, being enrolled in flight training and not training for two or three months because of student loans will cost you extra rent and take longer to get a flying job because it takes longer to complete the course and get certified.

Beginning Commerical Flight Training

2008-10-17T13:07:00.005-04:00

Well I got my private pilot license and I'm ready to start my commercial aviation flight training. I was hoping to start flying the Cessna 172 right away, but that will come later. My first flight lesson consisted of flying the 152 as usual and going through the same maneuvers that I was working on during my private training. In the first three hours, we reviewed radio communications, traffic patterns, soft and short field take offs and landings, and crosswind correction.
I had the same flight training instructor and he was becoming increasingly frustrated and moody, not particularly with me but with the rut that he was in because he felt like he should be moving on in his career and being a CFI was beneath him. He really had an attitude problem and I was getting ready to dump him. He would pay for that attitude later by walking off the job one day.
After the first three hours we went back out to the practice area to review slow flight, stalls and forced landings. I was then introduced to the Chandelle. After several demonstrations, the instructor let me give it a try as he walked me through. It was a disaster. I was totally uncoordinated and disoriented but worked things out later. I actually got pretty at it after a while.
In the mean time, I had to get a student loan which put me into Part 141 status. That means that I had to take ground courses from the school instead of learning at my discretion as I did before. My first class was "Aerodynamics", a fifty hour course that required three hours of classroom instruction per day. The class started at 5 AM because of the schedule of the instructor who happened to be the Chief Flight Instructor. Going to school at 5 AM wasn't fun especially during winter. I did enjoy the class and the instructor was very smart. I actually learned some Trigonometry which I wouldn't have dared try in high school. More on my next post.

Flight Training: My Private Practical Exam

2008-08-11T12:24:00.003-04:00

January 19th 1991, I was ready to take my private pilot license check ride. It's taken about five months and seventy three hours to get here. Not too bad. It would have taken years back home.
I had an early morning appointment with the chief flight instructor who was also an FAA examiner. I was a little nervous, but the examiner was a cool guy and had a way of making me feel comfortable. It was overcast that day but the ceiling was high and it wasn't raining. That was good because the sun wouldn't get in my eyes while doing maneuvers. My biggest weakness was still VOR tracking and interception so I was worried about that. The examiner had me plot a cross country flight to a destination that I wasn't familiar with, but I finished in short time.
We went to the plane without him looking over my cross country. He had me do a short field takeoff which I had no trouble with. He watched as I began flying to the destination airport. That's when he started looking at my flight log. After a while (when he could see that I was staying on course and timing and marking my checkpoints) he told me to fly to the practice area. We did the regular maneuvers, but I had a little trouble maintaining altitude while doing turns around a point. I asked if I could try again. He said fine, and I did a pretty good job this time.
We didn't do everything that was written in the standards which led me to believe that the examiners use their own discretion while conducting a check ride. He did have me calculate fuel burn and groundspeed which threw me off a bit. Trying to fly the plane and use a Manuel E6B was a little confusing but I pulled through. When it came time to do some VOR work, I had to do it twice but I pulled through. That was my biggest worry. We went back to the airport and did a soft field landing.
Time for the oral. I had my FAR/AIM in hand. He started looking at the trip that I plotted on the sectional along with my performance and weight and balance calculations and started asking questions. Most questions were about basic reading of the sectional. Then he started asking about FAR's. After that he threw me for a loop. He pointed to a spot on the sectional and asked, "What if you were flying at night and lost power here, where would you choose a landing spot? In a lighted area or a dark area"? I said a lighted area. Wrong! You would go to a dark area because there would be a less likelihood of power lines there. After explaining that and telling me where my weak points were he passed me. He said, "Congratulations, you're a private pilot now".
Time to start a new chapter in my aviation flight training. Training for my commercial.

Flight Training For The Practical Private Exam

2008-07-28T13:09:00.004-04:00

I finished all of my solo cross country flights required for the practical private flight exam on 11/30/90. I was well on my way to getting my private, but I still had some obstacles. Will I be able to finish in a timely manner by being able to fly every day? The flight school still had problems with providing aircraft as scheduled. There was also my problem with using the VOR. My flight instructor was becoming increasingly frustrated with me because of my slow comprehension. He was becoming a jerk in my eyes. I later learned that this could be taught in a short time by instructors that I met later.
After my last cross country we began working really hard at VOR tracking and VOR interception. We also polished up on stalls, slow flight, steep turns, and soft and short field take offs and landings. On 1/16 I flew my first dual night flight. I was only required three hours of dual and no solo time at night for my private. We flew a simulated cross country on my first night flight which meant that I plotted and planned out a flight but we didn't go all the way. I started out tracking the destination VOR and my instructor got us lost on the way, so I practiced diversion and lost procedures. That took 1.2 hours. The next night flight was the funnest. We had two hours to kill, so we flew to the practice area and practiced the normal maneuvers, only this time with an added bonus. My instructor asked me if I would like to practice spin recovery at night. I said sure, so we climbed to around 4000 feet AGL, stalled the plane and started spinning. He showed me step by step how to recover. We must have done five spins. What a ride. We finally did the required three hours of flight time and headed back to the airport. Next article: The private practical test.

Flight Training For Cross Country

2008-07-17T13:06:00.004-04:00

My last article brought me up to my first dual cross country flight. Five days later I flew my second dual cross country, this time from Tulsa to Stillwater, a little bit of a shorter distance. On the way there my flight instructor taught me diversion and we rehashed some lost procedures. I was getting ready to fly my first solo cross country and was feeling pretty good about it. I needed to get it done as soon as possible. This flight school had a bad habit of cancelling scheduled flights because of maintenance problems with the aircraft, thus throwing off a students momentum to keep going and retain newly learned skills. I didn't want that to happen to me. Regardless of that, I still didn't get to fly my first solo cross country until six days after my last dual.
I was going to fly to MLC and back again, but this time I will be doing it alone. I was nervous as you might guess. I knew the route pretty well after flying there dual fifteen days earlier and basically knew that all I had to do was to follow highway 75 and it would take me straight there. I plotted out a course anyway because I wanted to, and mainly because I was required to anyway. I used different check points this time.
The flight went off without a hitch and it only took me .4 hours more time than my dual. I was pumped. My second cross country solo was the next day and I was on a roll. I did a repeat of my second dual going to SWO alone this time and it took .3 hours longer than with my instructor. I didn't fly again until November 6th, exactly two weeks after my second solo cross country.
These delays were getting tedious and I was beginning to complain. I admit that a lot of the time weather was a problem, this being Oklahoma. You just can't allow a student pilot to fly in certain conditions but I was also having aircraft taken away from me by students who were higher up the ladder and of course maintenance problems. On November 6th I flew a dual with my instructor. All we did was practice diversion.
One week later I flew my third solo cross country. I was to fly from Tulsa to Ponca City to Ardmore and back to Tulsa. Luckily I didn't lose any enthusiasm from the delays because that was the funnest time that I have had in a long time. I really enjoyed the trip from PNC to ADM. I got to see a lot of the state from the air. The whole trip took me 4.9 hours. On the way back from Ardmore to Tulsa, a thunderstorm started creeping up on me and I got really nervous. Nothing happened but it was a scary sight and I made it back without getting wet.
Well I got my cross countries out of the way with about forty hours of total time. I still needed to do some night flying and practice maneuvers to get ready for my private check ride.

Flight Training: Post Second First Solo

2008-07-10T09:22:00.005-04:00

If the title of this article is confusing, let me explain. I started my flight training some months earlier at a local FBO in a PA-28. I had already soloed several times before I joined a professional flight school and started flying a Cessna 152. My earlier training was so inadequate that I had to start over from stage one. I agreed and decided that I would have to chalk it up to experience. I was still spending my own cash so it was my loss.
I flew my latest solo on Sept. 10th 1990. I went up with my flight instructor the next day and practiced takeoffs and landings and flew another solo the following day, still staying in the traffic pattern. On Sept. 25th I soloed in the practice area and practiced S-turns, slow flight, turns around a point and stalls. I was ready for my dual cross-country.
Since I wasn't taking the flight schools private pilot ground course, I was learning how to read a sectional on my own. I had the weight and balance calculations down pretty good, as well as using the E6B and the other aircraft performance charts. I also got some one-on-one with my instructor. We were going to fly from Tulsa to Macalester Oklahoma. I plotted out the route the night before the trip on my sectional, marking out checkpoints along the way to save some time. I couldn't do anything else until the morning of the flight because I needed a weather report.
We took off from Tulsa that morning after about an hour of pre-flight preparation and filing a flight plan. I was learning pilotage and ded reckoning along the way. It was such a good feeling to reach a check point right on time as predicted. This was a fun flight. I was pumped up and really felt like I was learning something. On the trip back my instructor did something unexpected. He took the controls, had me put my head down and steered the plane off course. I took the controls back and had to remember the lost procedures that we practiced. I didn't do so well and was still having trouble using the VOR. He had to explain to me step by step how to get back on course which I managed to do eventually but burned up excess fuel in the process which forced me to have to recalculate the fuel and arrival time. I had a total of about thirty hours of flight time by now. My flight training was still on schedule.

Flight Training: A Real Program

2008-07-07T17:19:00.006-04:00

July 30th 1990. That was my first day of flight training at a real flight school. I was determined to get my private pilots certificate within five or six months and move on to my commercial certificate. Knowing that I had to start over (I had already soloed a few times) but this wasn't some FBO doing the training anymore. It was an accredited flight school with sixty or so flight instructors, about eighty aircraft and a syllabus to follow. The only thing that could slow me down was weather, availability of airplanes or just taking too long to learn. Oh, I forgot about internal politics and CYA at the flight school. I'll get into that later.
I was now flying a Cessna 152 instead of the Piper Cherokee so it took some getting used to in the transition. The first few flights were tougher than I had expected because the flight instructors standards were higher than the guys at the FBO. We practiced the standard basic maneuvers and stall recovery. We started getting into short and soft field take offs and landings which was something that the FBO never told me about. I also learned that there were different types of stalls. An approach to landing stall and an accelerated stall. All news to me. We really focused on slow flight and stall recovery more than anything else. I started learning crosswind correction. We would request a runway that had a crosswind, and shoot touch and goes.
I was flying almost every day now and felt like I was really moving along. Some days when I would show up for my flight, the plane that I was assigned would be down so I would have to hang around on a "standby" list to get a plane. More often then not, I would end up going home without flying that day. It started happening pretty often.
When we did start flying again at a steady pace we concentrated mostly on take offs and landings, slow flight and stalls. I was getting ready for my second "first solo".
On September 10th 1990, I flew my first solo in the Cessna 152. I had some good training and wasn't nearly as nervous as the last time. My skill level and confidence were building.

Flight Training Orientation At A Professional Flight School

2008-06-30T10:57:00.005-04:00

My last few posts told of my experiences with a local FBO and the beginning of my aviation flight training. Looking back, it was a waste of time and money. They brought me to my first solo flight and that was it. Not all FBO's were like this because I dealt with some very good ones later on. I have been out of aviation for a few years now so part 31 standards may have changed by now.
I signed up for a professional part 141 flight school in Tulsa OK., made the move from Fl. and was ready to start over. The first day was an orientation with about thirty other students. We took an SAT type of test which I did miserable at, were assigned flight instructors and bought books and aviation supplies, fuel testers, check lists, operators manuals and a manual E6B computer(do they make those anymore)?
They tried to tell me that I had to sign up for Private Pilot ground school which I had already completed in Florida. I showed them the sign off from the instructor and my grade from the FAA written exam. They said that if I was going to their flight school under part 141 and getting student loans that I was required to retake the private ground course. This of course was a crock. They were trying to squeeze money from the lenders. What they didn't know was that when I signed up, I made a large cash deposit to pay for my private training and had signed up under part 61 for this reason. I was spending my own money and wasn't subject to part 141 regulations. I didn't take their ground course.
I met my flight instructor. It was a relief to find out that he was around my age(I don't know why that made a difference, but it did). I started talking to him trying to get to know him but he seemed stiff, stoic an uninterested in being friends. He explained what we were going to do like he was reading it out of a manual. I later learned that he was just another disgruntled flight instructor who was bored and thought that his ship was overdue to come in. He eventually got friendlier as we got to know each other.
With everything straightened out now and not having to pay for another ground course, I was ready to start flying. But I had to start from scratch because of the lousy training that I got from the FBO in Florida. That was okay with me. I was ready for some real flight training.

New Flight Training Instructor

2008-06-24T00:31:00.005-04:00

Time for a new flight instructor. My old one left to go fly a Lear Jet. I was taking flying lessons from a local FBO and must admit that I was pretty naive about flight training curriculum and didn't even know that there was a syllabus to be followed. Evidently, neither did any of my first two flight instructors because I got milked by these guys. This was in the late 80's and I sure hope things have changed by now.
I had barely passed my private written exam with a 73%, but it was a passing grade so that was behind me. I now had to concentrate on my flying which I wasn't doing so good at. For one thing, my first flight instructor never sat me down to show me how to read a sectional chart. He never taught me pilotage and ded-reckoning, lost procedures or how to use the VOR. All we ever did was practice basic maneuvers. I blame myself for not finding out what their training requirements and obligations were and I should have done my own homework. I didn't even have a FAR/AIM because I didn't know that it existed.
I came in to meet my new flight instructor. He was a young kid right out of flight school. He looked at my log book and said, "So you're ready for you're cross country". I couldn't believe it. He was ready to sign me off on a cross country without ever flying with me or making sure that I could use a sectional. I had to say "Back up dude, I don't know what you're talking about". I'm not crazy and I know my limitations. I was in no way ready to fly a solo cross country, and besides, I believe that I would be required to fly a dual cross country with a flight instructor first.
I started flying with this guy anyway and really didn't get much further. We usually went to the practice area and practiced basic maneuvers, fly back to the airport and do some touch and go's. I didn't know it but my money was going down the pot. I wasn't getting anywhere.
I still wanted to learn to fly and in the mean time was getting "Student Pilot" magazine and was checking out professional flight schools from around the country that advertised. I was ready to change professions from sales rep to pilot but had to figure out which school to choose. I got brochures from everywhere. I was making good money and could afford the change for a while but knew that I would have to find a job if I moved away to go to flight school. One school actually called me up and after several phone calls talked me into signing up. They were located in Tulsa Oklahoma.
I went to the FBO for my last training flight. My new flight instructor was gone and they assigned me another one. This guy was different. He was young but very professional and no nonsense. From the time that we walked to the ramp for pre flight to the time that we landed he was on top of me. It seemed that everything that I had previously learned was wrong. Yes, I got milked by the first two flight instructors and that never happened again. I made sure of that.
After landing, this guy sat me down and explained things to me. Things that these first two guys should have done all along. We went into the bookstore and he started throwing books at me including FAR/AIM. "Read this..Read this..etc." I left with $100 worth of reading material, closed my account and didn't go back. I was due to start flight training at a professional flight school in three months.

Flight Training Post Solo

2008-06-20T08:51:00.005-04:00

Well I flew my first solo during my aviation flight training so now I could tell my friends that I flew the plane by myself even though I only stayed in the traffic pattern and did three take offs and landings and lost my shirt tail.
I was still going to ground school at night getting ready for the private written exam. My flight instructor failed to give me practical instruction in using navigation equipment so I was totally lost when it came to VOR and NDB. It was like learning Greek. The weight and balance questions were tough but I eventually came around and didn't have much of a problem. Same thing with weather, but I was a weather buff anyway. The easiest part for me were the FAR's and most anything that didn't require calculation and interpolation. The ground instructor was a really nice guy. He was a retired Navy jet pilot who flew all of his waking hours when he wasn't teaching ground school. You could tell because he smelled like a goat. It was summer and he would drive straight from the airport to the community college to teach ground school. He even took me for a spin in a Piper Cub once.
My post solo flight came around and I was required to fly to the practice area about twenty miles from the airport and practice maneuvers. This time I was scared. A lot more than on my first solo. I took off from the field and got about three quarters of the way to the practice area and chickened out. I started flying around in circles to kill time because my flight instructor was back at the airport waiting for me and he knew how long it should take.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean to slam the flight instructor but knowing what I do now, he could have spent more time showing me the correct way to do basic flight maneuvers and using the VOR. All I knew how to really do was take off, climb, fly straight and level, descend and stall recovery which at that time I was afraid to try alone so I didn't do it. I flew around in circles until enough time elapsed that I could head back to the airport.
This was late spring and early summer and I was scared to death of getting caught in the rain. If I saw a cloud anywhere, I ran. I got back in the traffic pattern and was cleared to land. Everything went fine until I hit the runway. I failed to center the plane on the center line and I got caught in a crosswind. I was never taught crosswind correction and the plane blew off of the runway. I was in the grass. One thing that I could do right was work those rudder pedals, and my feet were moving trying to avoid hitting the runway lights. I was zig-zagging all over the grass. Luckily I didn't hit anything when I came to a stop in the grass next to the runway. Ground control asked if I was alright and instructed me to get back on the runway and go to the ramp. They didn't say anything else. I thought that I would have to file an incident report but I never heard back from them, so I nervously taxied back. I'm sure they got a good laugh out of it since no harm was done. I got back and didn't bother to tell the flight instructor about it. Screw him. He should have taught me how to land in a crosswind.
My next few solos went a little better and I was building some confidence. I even started doing stall recoveries alone. I also took my written exam. In those days you had to go to a scheduled exam day at the airport and wait six weeks for your results. My flight instructor left to fly a Lear Jet so I had to find a new one. Will tell you about that in my next post of Aviation Flight Training/ Personal Stories. Wilbe

First Solo Flight

2008-06-17T07:37:00.004-04:00

Once I got the medical mess straightened out I was ready for my first solo flight. I had already transitioned from the Skipper to a Piper Cherokee aircraft in my flight training. I was enrolled in a ground school at the local community college and was beating my brains out trying to figure out weight and balance calculations, ADF tracking, VOR's etc. I had about fifteen hours of flight time in. It would have been sooner if I had taken care of the medical first.
That morning started early because I wanted to get it done before I had to go to work. I put on an old collared shirt with a shirt tail. It was tradition back then for the flight instructor to cut off your shirt tail after your first solo to keep as a memento. It is a symbolic ritual meaning that you lost your tail feathers. I think.
I got to the airport and we did everything as usual. He watched in silence as I did the pre-flight run-up etc. We were on our way. We did a few touch and go's, and I knew that it was time. Before the last landing, my flight instructor radioed the tower that a flight student was going to fly his first solo and asked for permission to be dropped off around mid-runway at the taxi-way intersection. They approved and after the last landing he got out. No last words or anything. I was on my own.
It is a funny feeling of no turning back when the wheels leave the ground, especially when taking off from mid-runway (It was a 5000 ft. runway).
I did three touch and go's perfectly. I wish I could have done that every time, but I'll save that story for the next post. After my third landing, the controller congratulated me and reminded me to pick up my flight instructor before I taxi back.
When we got back to the FBO, he got the scissors out and promptly cut my shirt tail off. I still have the rest of the shirt hanging in my closet some Twenty years later. The ink has faded off from where I wrote the date. I was his last student before he started flying Lear Jets.
In my next post, I will talk about my other solo flights and some of the problems that I had during my flight training. Wilbe

Beginning Flight Training

2008-06-12T13:17:00.007-04:00

After my first flight with a flight training instructor where I got to handle the controls somewhat, I decided that I wanted to learn how to fly. I was making decent money on my job and could afford the lessons, so I signed up and paid some cash in advance. I was going to fly one hour a week. Thinking back, I realize that I should have flown at least three hours a week for retention.
The first few lessons were typical basic maneuvers and a lot of touch and go's. I don't really think that my instructor had my best interest at heart . It seemed that he was only trying to get me to that first solo, and didn't concentrate much on my precession with basic maneuvers. Many flight training instructors are like that, especially the younger ones. They have bigger and better things on their minds personally and are only climbing the ladder to a better job. This one in particular was hoping to start flying corporate soon and already had a Learjet rating.
After about nine hours I was getting ready to solo but I had one problem. I had not yet taken a physical and gotten a medical certificate. I was on blood pressure medication at the time and was taking another medication for gout. I went to the flight surgeon for the physical and passed. He couldn't issue me a certificate on the spot because the medications had to be okay-ed by the FAA in Oklahoma City. First delay. So I kept practicing touch and go's and some maneuvers.
During this time I made the mistake of telling my drinking buddies that I was waiting for word about my medication from the FAA. One of these guys happened to work for the FAA at a flight service station. They soon devised an elaborate hoax behind my back. I got a letter from the FAA that stated that they needed to do more research on one of the medications that I was taking and that my urine sample showed a large amount of alcohol in my system. I was pissed. I didn't have any sort of alcohol the whole week of my physical and I knew that something was wrong. I told my "friends" about it and they laughed there asses off. Then they told me. The guy who worked for the FAA got an FAA letterhead and together they devised the letter as a joke. I was relieved and laughed along but it was a dirty joke and I will never forget it.
I finally got the real FAA letter, but the news wasn't much better. Because of the blood pressure medication, I was required to take a blood test, a stress test and an EKG. Another delay. I made an appointment with the flight surgeon and passed with flying colors but I still had to wait for the FAA to send me my medical certificate. I finally got it and was ready to solo.
This may be a lesson to others. Get your medical first before you consider spending money on flying lessons. It will save a lot of time and frustration. I will talk about my first solo in my next post of Aviation Flight Training Personal Stories. Wilbe

Flight Training: First Flight

2008-06-11T00:21:00.003-04:00

I got interested in aviation at around age thirty, a little older than most flight training students that I know. I had a friend who was an A&P mechanic who had access to private planes that belonged to people that he had done work for. He asked me if I would like to go flying with another friend and him one Saturday morning. He was going to fly a Helio Currier and told me what a nice plane it was but I didn't know how nice of a plane that it was until later. I will always remember that flight because it was the first time that I had ever been in a general aviation aircraft. That was where it all started for me. We flew over the ocean, we flew inland and even landed on a grass strip in the country.
A few months later, I was hanging out in a restaurant bar with a friend who worked for the FAA at a flight service station. He told me that he had a private pilots license and occasionally rented airplanes. That was it. I thought that if he could it then I could do it.
The next day I called a local FBO and arranged to take a cheap introductory flight.
I showed up at the airport at noon that Saturday and met the flight instructor. He asked me if I had eaten lunch yet. He must have had a bad experience with a new student once. I told him that I did and not to worry, I wouldn't throw up on him.
The first airplane that I ever flew myself or at least had the controls of for awhile was a two seat Beechcraft Skipper. My flight instructor said that it was a kite so I got the idea that he wanted me to fly a larger more expensive plane but I decided to stay with the Skipper for awhile. He showed me how to do a pre-flight inspection, and I got in on the left side which I didn't expect. He explained the radios to me as he radioed ground control after we started the engine and were ready to taxi. As we were going down the taxi-way he showed me how to steer with the rudder pedals and use the brakes. We did our run up and were clear for departure.
The flight instructor preferred to do the take off himself but I lightly held my yoke and watched how he worked the throttle. We were off.
My first flight only lasted an hour but I had the controls most of the time. He handed me the yoke almost immediately after take off but he worked the throttle the whole time. We went to the practice area and he showed me a stall, a simulated engine failure, and we did a few steep turns. I got a little spatial disorientation on the steep turn and he had to take the controls. That's typical on the first flight and it didn't bother me. I did manage to hold my lunch down the whole time.
We got back to the airport and I bought a log book. I was ready to become a flight student.

This is the first in a series of stories of my flight training experiences. I stayed at this FBO until I flew my first solo. From there I moved away and attended a Part 141 school in another state up until I got my commercial certificate. The stories will become more interesting I promise, as I had a few calamities along the way during my flight training. Wilbe

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2008-06-10T12:44:00.005-04:00

Updated April 2009
This website/blog uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads when visiting this site. These third parties may collect and use information (but not your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, you can visit Google's Advertising and Privacy page.

If you wish to opt out of Advertising companies tracking and tailoring advertisements to your surfing patterns you may do so at Network Advertising Initiative.

Google uses the Doubleclick DART cookie to serve ads across it's Adsense network and you can get further information regarding the DART cookie at Doubleclick as well as opt out options at Google's Privacy Center

I respect your privacy and I am committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at this site aviationflighttrainingpersonalstories.blogspot.com. The following discloses how I gather and disseminate information for this Blog.

RSS Feeds

If a user wishes to subscribe to my RSS Feeds (powered by Feedburner), I ask for contact information such as name and email address. Users may opt-out of these communications at any time. Your personal information will never be sold or given to a third party. (You will never be spammed by me - ever)

Log Files and Stats

Like most blogging platforms I use log files, in this case Statcounter. This stores information such as internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring, exit and visited pages, platform used, date/time stamp, track user’s movement in the whole, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Cookies

A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. This blog doesn't use cookies. However, some of my business partners use cookies on this site (for example - advertisers). I can't access or control these cookies once the advertisers have set them.

Links

This Blog contains links to other sites. Please be aware that I am not responsible for the privacy practices of these other sites. I suggest my users to be aware of this when they leave this blog and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Blog.

Advertisers

I use outside ad companies to display ads on this blog. These ads may contain cookies and are collected by the advertising companies and I do not have access to this information. I work with the following advertising companies: Google Adsense. Please check the advertisers websites for respective privacy policies.

Contact Information

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Ben Willis at bwillismusic@gmail.com