VNugget
suck squeeze bang blow
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2002
- Posts
- 809
Well after waiting for a long time, I finally got to take my first real lesson (the first one was with a different school, in a 152, and the CFI woulnd't utter a word -- I was basically along for the ride and pretty much paid for the hour in my logbook 
)
It was in a Citabria 7ECA with 100-something hours since restoration, and HOT **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**, what a sweet plane! I'd take this thing over the 152 any day of the week... real control stick and real left-hand thottle: ALLRIGHT! (although the clumsy single-rod rudder pedals and heelbrakes combo was a drag)
As far as the actual flight... it started off with simple turns in all kinds of attitudes to familiarize me with coordination - there were some quirks I couldn't hammer out -- such as suddenly yawing 5-10 degress at the end of some rollouts. Defintely harder than the 152, but all the more fun.
After that, I asked the CFI to let me do some stalls and spins.. and surprisingly enough, he DID! I stalled once, and SPUN TWICE (As in performed 2 fully-developed spin maneuvers with several turns each)! HOLY ADRENALINE RUSH BATMAN, THIS IS THE MOST FUN I'VE EVER HAD WITH MY CLOTHES ON OR OFF!!! Roller coasters need not apply.
Next came some steep turns (in which I kept altitude surrisingly poorly ... I stayed within 50 ft. in the 152) before we headed home.
He let me take the plane all the way down to touchdown without officially taking the controls, but I'm sure he helped out. Oh yeah, and he did a forwardslip with a pretty big "whoa" factor about 1/4-1/2 mile out.
This was at Amelia Reid Aviation at RHV.
The only things that really bothered me were the rudder pedals and brakes, and the lack of VSI.
)It was in a Citabria 7ECA with 100-something hours since restoration, and HOT **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED**, what a sweet plane! I'd take this thing over the 152 any day of the week... real control stick and real left-hand thottle: ALLRIGHT! (although the clumsy single-rod rudder pedals and heelbrakes combo was a drag)
As far as the actual flight... it started off with simple turns in all kinds of attitudes to familiarize me with coordination - there were some quirks I couldn't hammer out -- such as suddenly yawing 5-10 degress at the end of some rollouts. Defintely harder than the 152, but all the more fun.
After that, I asked the CFI to let me do some stalls and spins.. and surprisingly enough, he DID! I stalled once, and SPUN TWICE (As in performed 2 fully-developed spin maneuvers with several turns each)
! HOLY ADRENALINE RUSH BATMAN, THIS IS THE MOST FUN I'VE EVER HAD WITH MY CLOTHES ON OR OFF!!! Roller coasters need not apply.Next came some steep turns (in which I kept altitude surrisingly poorly ... I stayed within 50 ft. in the 152) before we headed home.
He let me take the plane all the way down to touchdown without officially taking the controls, but I'm sure he helped out. Oh yeah, and he did a forwardslip with a pretty big "whoa" factor about 1/4-1/2 mile out.
This was at Amelia Reid Aviation at RHV.
The only things that really bothered me were the rudder pedals and brakes, and the lack of VSI.
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