I'm FLYING!!!

[corytx]

Finally, after 2 years of searching for a school I've started flying. It's so much fun, I can tell I'm going to enjoy working towards my career in aviation. After this mornings flight (great weather for Houston) I have a total of 5.8 hours. We have practiced power-on/off stalls, slow flight, s-turns, climbing turns, steep turns, flying a pattern, and emergency procedures. I'm doing a pretty good job of holding my altitude to within 50-100'. On my first day my instructor asked, "Do you play MS Flight-Sim alot?" because I was holding headings/altitude better than the standard for the lesson. The only thing that has really given me an adrenalin rush (more than just flying) has been power on stalls. It just doesn't feel right to me to have the nose so high and then have it fall away. The combination of the drop and the "fear" of going into a spin get's the heart pumping. I was able to get over the spin problem a little today when my instructor told me just what I would have to do to put the plane (C-152) into a spin. After that I did a better job of recovering. Well, I won't bore you anymore with my stories, just wanted to share my enthusiasm with everyone here.

 

[mainah]

Congrats man. Good to hear your enthusiasm. Keep it up and you'll have no problems. It's definitely worth it. As for the adrenaline rush, I still get that on every takeoff I do. Have fun and best of luck!

 

[Swass]

Have fun and fly as often as you can.

 

[bobbysamd]

Nose-high attitudes

Well, I won't bore you anymore with my stories, just wanted to share my enthusiasm with everyone here.

Don't worry about the nose-high attitude. After you've practiced a bunch more stalls and have learned that recoveries are easy, you'll be fine. Perhaps your instructor will demonstrate spins and their recoveries in your 152. Spins are fun and learning spin recoveries will give you a great deal of confidence.

Be sure to tell us about your solo. Have fun!

 

[JRSLim]

Awesome

Thats great!
The first time my Instructor demonstrated power ons, he didnt quite have it coordinated, and the plane fell sideways!
Everything they tell ya about instructing students is against doing that kind of thing on purpose, but he must have -- it really dropped - it was thrilling more than scary-- I wa s kind of timiid about stalls as you and most everyone is, but that helped me realise the envelope is abit bigger than I though. A little while later he did an incipient spin and I was grinning ear to ear.
Enjoy that stuff -- you'll miss it when your flying your cross countries over East Bumflip!!

My instructor was against any kind of sims, but I do think it helps in the aspect of familiarity with instruments.

 

[corytx]

Re: Awesome

Thats great!
The first time my Instructor demonstrated power ons, he didnt quite have it coordinated, and the plane fell sideways!
Everything they tell ya about instructing students is against doing that kind of thing on purpose, but he must have -- it really dropped - it was thrilling more than scary--

My instructor was against any kind of sims, but I do think it helps in the aspect of familiarity with instruments.

I also fell sideways. I had the nose pitched really high and I was holding alot of back pressure. The plane was taking, what seemed like, forever to stall. My arms started to get tired so I added some trim. As soon as I added trim the nose dropped hard and to the left. My instructor accidently said, "Left rudder, Left rudder". I knew it was suppose to be Right rudder, but I since she said left I pushed left just for half a second. As soon as I added left rudder the nose pushed towards the left even harder. It only took a few seconds to recover from the stall, but we had lost about 150-200' of altitude. As soon as I got the plane level my instructor told me she was sorry about saying left rudder, but she knew that I knew it was suppose to be right. My adrenaline was flowing after that stall. Looking back on it after 24hrs it was actually kind of fun, it's just not fun while it's happening for the first time.

 

[JRSLim]

Step on the sky

My private instructor taught me in these types of situations to 'step ion the sky' - press the rudder that is high. You don't have to think left, right - just step on the sky-- it has worked great for me.
He also had good luck with that mnemonic. Sometime in his early flying he was on short final and some unnanounced (at a controlled airport) guy in a OV-1 Mohawk came blasting in above him. Apparently the turbulence was enough to toss his Cessna into a strong right bank and towards the ramp. He stepped on the sky and avoided becoming part of the scenery.