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Rami's going airborne...

Neat!

The same aircraft I took my first lesson with, as shown in my avatar! But I was missing the stick, so I didn't enjoy the wheel and the throttle at the center of the instrument panel.......:wiggle:

Cheers!
KH :ernae:
 
Reply...

Good evening,

Here is my debriefing report...

Kevin, my instructor, said I was one of the most comfortable-looking trainees he's ever had, and that I really had a handle on the fundamentals of basic flight characteristics for a first-timer. I knew about where everything was on the instrument panel, using a bit of rudder to keep the plane level, and that I had very little trouble trimming the aircraft or maintaining level flight.

He even let me practice power-on and power-off stalls, as well as a spin during the ninety-minute flight.

On the climb-out from Plymouth, he was surprised when I stated that I was aiming for about a 600-700 ft/min climb rate...he said that most people usually try to keep it level or yank the stick back into their stomach. That feeling of the wheels leaving the ground was something so different that being a passenger on those big birds...and I couldn't help thinking that my dad would have really liked this.

I had only slight difficulty with coordinated turns...I knew what he meant when he told me to "step on the ball," without asking for clarification, and by the second or third run-through I was doing it almost on instinct. He was so impressed with my overall performance that he let me land without assistance on the first flight.

Weather conditions were almost ideal...sixty-five degrees, light high clouds, and a wind of about five knots.

The only downfall? The SanDisk card on my phone is malfunctioning, and so I couldn't take any pics. We flew from Plymouth down to the Cape Cod Canal, out over Cape Cod Bay, so I could follow the Cape all the way to Provincetown, and looking off the right wing, I could see Martha's Vineyard.

Aside from a little pre-takeoff jitters, I was exceedingly comfortable, far different than I thought I'd be.
 
Good for you Rami! You won't be sorry. I soloed in a Piper J-3 in 1965. And in all the planes I have flown since then, that one was the one I liked the best. I still look up when a piston engine plane flies over. I guess I always will, It's in our blood.
 
Hi Rami!
Great that you enjoyed your first flying lesson! Seems that all your time with flight simulators now also has a "practical" use.

As a flight instructor, I found that students who had some exposure to MS Flight Simulator generally had an essier time grasping the fundamentals than others. Still, a lot of practice in the real airplane is necessary to become a competent pilot.

Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress!

Wolfgang
 
My retirement plans include private pilot license. I have until July 2014 to do the Emory Riddle ground classes while still on AD.

I envy your endeavor Rami. I took about four lessons in a Cessna 150 back when I was in high school. College, the USMC, and college again took all of my time and finances. Then, as others have said here, marriage and children took up the rest. Still something I have not let go of as a dream yet to be fulfilled.

Enjoy brother!

Don't know if the newly reworked shoulder will handle the joystick, but maybe, if it will, I will fire up FS2004 and fly into virtual Plymouth, MA airport.......
 
skylane said:
Hi Rami!
Great that you enjoyed your first flying lesson! Seens that all your time with flight simulators now also has a "practical" use.
As a flight instructor, I found that students who had some exposure to MS Flight Simulator generally had an esier time grasping the fundamentals than others. Still, a lot of practise in the real airplane is necessary to become a competent pilot.
Good luck, and keep us posted on your progress!

Wolfgang
Click to expand...

Skylane,

In what area of Austria are you? I have been virtual flying from Stuttgart around the area here in FS2004. If my shoulder will handle it, perhaps I can fly to Austria a few times as part of my physical therapy exercises to loosen up the shoulder adhesions left over from surgery.
 
It sounds like you had fun and did extremely well. I'm proud of you Andrew, my friend.

That sounds like a very comprehensive first lesson, what with running through a couple stalls and especially the spin (unless it was inadvertant). That's more advanced stuff.

My experience always was the instructors religiously avoiding spins as; 1) most training aircraft aren't certified to perform them 2) it's hard on the gyro instruments unless they are capable of being caged first, and 3) most of the instructors I had - other than for aerobatics - didn't really know how to handle spins and were scared to let a student try one. You are fortunate in your choice of instructor.

It does get into your blood. Once a pilot, always a pilot. Welcome to the fold. :salute:
 
Hello Devildog!
I live near Salzburg, and also spend a lot of time in Zell am See, a small town about 70km southwest of Salzburg. A rather nice area, I would say!
I hope you recover soon from your surgery!
 
skylane said:
Hello Devildog!
I live near Salzburg, and also spend a lot of time in Zell am See, a small town about 70km southwest of Salzburg. A rather nice area, I would say!
I hope you recover soon from your surgery!
Click to expand...


Ah, not that far from München! Perhaps when Rami gets here we will be able to take a weekend drive to Österreich......
 
I just "Google Earth"ed Zell Am See, Austria-WOW!

That is now one of our destinations while here in Europe! I could see a nice week of holiday there in the summer.

Are Americans accepted and okay there? What I mean is that if we are not well liked there, no matter how beautiful the area, it can be miserable to be someplace where the local residents do not want Americans. I have no desires to offend anyone. I know that we Americans have had some really rude, crude, and socially unacceptable people in Europe over the years that have offended a great number of people. The rest of us pay for that rudeness of the past, now.

Ich mag die Sprache meines Gastlandes zu sprechen. Für mich ist es unhöflich, nicht sprechen meines Gastgebers Sprache.
 
Reply...

Devildog and Skylane,

That sounds wonderful, I loved Austria when I was there in 2009. The student group which I helped to chaperone stayed in the former guest house of the Hapsburg Empire, right next to Schönbrunn Palace. One of my fondest memories of Austria was getting up before we had to wake up the students and taking walks, right at sunrise, around the empty palace gardens. I also visited Mauthausen, not terribly far from Salzburg, as I recall.
 
Great to see you enjoying it Rami. I always wondered if Flight simming helped in "the real world". I found riding motorbikes was a help.
Like Oglivie, my rated list is short
PA18-90 - to PPL and beyond - great little planes
PA28/140 - something more modern, with flaps, and radios that actually weren't about WW2 era. no stick though!
PA28 180 - ditto
C150 - doesn't everybody
C172 - the infamous (in NZ) C172, owned by a fiend of my fathers, that was used to flour bomb an international Rugby football match in 1981 - the Springbok - All Black test.
DH98 Moth Minor - belonged to a friend of mine, who, unfortunately died young - a pity, because we had a DH83 Fox Moth under rebuild. Now that would have been fun.....

Plus - I used to play fighter pilots in the 2 aircraft in my avatar, when they sat sad and lifeless in a local museum, after having been rescued from the scrapyard.....

Haven't flown for 15 yrs now...would love to recertify, but, old age and having had 1 heart attack, I guess that's it for me!

Rami, there are a series of Pilots instruction manuals, written by an ex RAAF pilot / instructor, Noel Kruse, which are excellent. 4 volumes, available as a free download - http://flybetter.com.au/. I think they'll be right up your alley.
 
Devildog,
No problems here, Americans are welcome in my country! Let me know, if you decide to visit!

Rami,
I know this park, of course, but I´ve never been there at sunrise. Must be nice to see it empty, most of the time it is crowded with visitors..
 
Andrew, Welcome to the air club!

I never did spins, other than revueing the operating procedure for spin recovery for the specific aircraft I was flying. I asked my instructor during my training if we could do some, but one week later when we went up we did not do any and I did not remind him (since it was not required and I had plenty of other required training to become efficient with).

The aircraft operating procedures/cabin placard needs to be referred to for spin certification and recovery technique for the specific aircraft type. If I recall for a C152 the rudder had to be held full left or right to keep the spin. Once the controls were neutral (with power at idle), the plane recovered from the spin by itself. Also, I have read that the 152 will usually go into a spiral after approximately one spin revolution. For some aircraft types, recovery from a spin required power at idle and full rudder opposite the direction of the spin. When rotation stopped, down elevator snapped the plane out of the stall. The C172 (depending on which model) can be spun in utility category (without rear seat passengers and baggage and, I think, half-full tanks).

On another note, recovering from spirals were a part of my pilot training (in the late 1970s), and my following bi-annuals with instructors. It was practiced under the hood (with instruments, no outside visual reference). This is sometimes called the 'dead man's spiral' and is what has been speculated to have caused the crash that killed John Kennedy Jr. and his passengers several years back.

More about spiral and recovery: http://www.mpaviation.com/lessn10.htm

Best Regards,
GM
 
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