Lesson 4: It's been a long time coming

Thankfully this didn't happen to me. Picture taken from www.odt.co.nz.

I know, you're probably wondering where my posts about lessons 2 & 3 went. Fear not, I will get to them, right after I update you on my fourth lesson, which occurred this morning.

First thing I'll say about lesson four is that it was a long time coming. Three weeks in fact. With two cancellations the prior weeks, I was aching to get back into an airplane. Today's lesson was Climbs & Descents... with a few surprises thrown in for good measures.

I got to the airport about fifteen minutes early. I got a text from Eric (my instructor) to do the walk around by myself. So I grabbed an airplane from dispatch, and walked out to my airplane. It was the first time I did my walk-around unattended. A walk-around is done to inspect any inconsistencies with the airplane's outer shell, check fuel, oil, flight controls, wheels, etc. It felt good to take some responsibility for my own life for once and make sure the airplane was fit for flying.

I got to take off for my third time (I'll talk about the breaking of my take-off virginity in another post - Lesson 2). This take-off was interesting. During the take-off roll (accelerating down the runway), just before the take-off speed, I hear Eric yell "WOOOoooow". I wasn't sure what I did wrong, so I did my best to concentrate on getting the airplane off the ground. Turns out Eric's door opened again, and I guess he got a bit scared. So did I, but the airplane was finally off the ground, reaching to the heavens. Who needs doors in airplanes anyway?

The lesson itself consisted of learning descent and climbing maneuvers. The procedures can seem pretty complicated once it's all happening in the air. The pilot has to maintain heading, a specified speed, and an indicated pitch of an airplane, while descending or climbing. We practiced power-off descents, which basically means descending with the engine off. This is usually used in emergency landings, when the engine gives up on you. Last night I practiced descents and climbs on my flight simulator, and mid-flight the engine turned off on me for some reason. Thankfully this didn't happen accidentally today. However we practice emergency procedures such as power-off descents, stalls, spins, so that if an emergency does happen, I know how to land the plane safely on the ground.

We also practiced best rate climbs and best angle climbs. Basically they are climbs at two different air speeds, used in different scenarios. Best angle climbs would be used to climb when you have an obstacle you have to clear, such as a high-jump bar, for example, or a tower. As you can imagine, this climb is on a steeper angle, so the nose of the airplane is pitched up, and because it is, the airplane travels at a slower speed, which has to be maintained.

All in all, very fun. One thing I didn't mention is that Eric got me started on radio work for the first time. So I was communicating with the tower, requesting clearances to take off, land, etc. It being my first time, I had traffic control ask me to clarify a couple of things. I felt stupid that they didn't understand me. However, Eric told me that I was better than average for my first time. And as you probably know about me, mediocrity is good enough for me!

Ok, here's the kicker. The part I left out. If the picture didn't give you a clue, I got to land the airplane today. As we were on approach, Eric told me that he's going to see how close he can get me to land the airplane. Instructors can take control at any time if they feel the airplane or the passengers are in danger. So basically he can let me get real close to the runway, and if at the last moment he sees something is off, he can take control of the airplane and perform the corrections.

I was half expecting him to take control of the airplane at some point during our approach. As I lined up the airplane with the runway, I noticed another airplane taxiing onto the runway in order to take off. Then I see that same airplane brake at the center line of the runway - perhaps to do pre-takeoff checks? We were getting closer and closer to the runway, I still had control. I hear the tower in my headset say to the plane on the runway:

"Cessna xxx - take-off immediately".

What seemed like an eternity passes, we're getting closer to landing, and the dude still hasn't started rolling down the runway. I hear the tower in my headset again:

"Cessna xxx - commence take-off roll now!"

Another eternity seems to pass, we're maybe 400 ft from the runway (or so it seemed), and finally I see the airplane on the ground being to swerve a little to the right, and then finally it started rolling down the runway, making room for us to land. The tower finally calls us and says:

"Victor Uniform Hotel (which is the airplane registration code I was flying) - continue to land runway 15."

We're cleared to land, surprisingly I still have control of the airplane, now all I have to do is somehow get the airplane on the ground. The last part of the landing was admittedly a bit rough, but nothing crazy. Eric told me that he helped me pitch the nose upwards a bit because I didn't pitch it up enough right at the end. Having traffic on the runway while we were landing didn't help, as Eric couldn't guide me through the landing like he would have liked. So it's said and done, we both blamed the less than perfect landing on the traffic on the runway. That's a joke kids, never blame your flying abilities on someone or something else. Keeping the airplane and yourself safe at all times is the sole responsibility of the pilot at all times.

To recap, this was an excellent lesson. It seemed like a ton of information was thrown at me, and I felt like I mostly did a good job of following all the directions. It can seem overbearing at times, but I think focusing on the task at hand - that is, not worrying about what just happened or what might happen - really helps with completing and accomplishing your tasks and goals. And isn't that what life is all about.

Don't let the door hit you on the way up

I was supposed to have a lesson this morning. However, my instructor sent me a text message saying he was sick and that I'd have to reschedule. This is the second week in a row that I've had to reschedule. Learning to fly can be frustrating sometimes. I'm taking one lesson a week, which is all I can afford at the moment, and so if any little thing decides not to co-operate that day, be it the weather, a broken car (yes, that happened to me two weeks ago), or sickness, etc. then I don't fly that week. I'm going to try to catch up in the next couple of weeks, but un-matching schedules is also proving to be a problem between me and my instructor. It's mostly my fault though, since I only have two or three hours a day in the early morning that I can dedicate to flying, the rest of the day I'm working. That's not taking into account my instructor's students and his schedule.

So, while my plan was to write about today's lesson, I do have four prior lessons I need to catch you up on. I hope to do that in a couple of installments. I'm still getting used to this whole writing about myself thing. Oh who am I kidding, I love writing about myself. Anyway, if I don't stop blabbering we'll never get to the first lesson, so here we go.

Lesson 1: Don't let the door hit you on the way up

This lesson was a long time coming. I'm taking my flying lessons at a small airport just North of Toronto called Buttonville Airport (CYKZ). Buttonville, as some of you may know, houses Canada's biggest flying school, and is also one of the biggest in the world. In fact, because there are so many take-offs and landings at Buttonville, the airport actually made it to the top 10 list of Canada's busiest airports a couple of years ago.

The down side to Buttonville being a big school, is that for some reason, they took their sweet time with partnering me up with an instructor. To make a short story long, it took multiple phone calls and nagging on my end to finally get someone to teach me how to fly. Yes, sometimes it takes hard work to let someone take $250/hr from you. It all worked out in the end though, as I like my instructor and I feel we have suitable personalities for the student/teacher relationship we're embarking on, which is a very important factor to consider.

So it was finally time for my first lesson. I met my instructor - his name is John Travolta, but we'll call him Eric form here on. Eric and I went into a small room for a briefing. We discussed what we'll learn in the aircraft today. A big part of the briefing and pre-flight preparations is doing weight and balance calculations. The airplane we'll fly is a Cessna 150 - a very small airplane that can easily be stretched to it's weight limits when two people are in it, so it's important to make sure the weight load doesn't surpass the allowed maximums. Balance is a whole different story. It involves complex math, physics, biology, graphic design, and some politics to get the balance of an airplane right. So we won't go into that just yet.

After we made sure we're within the weight and balance limits of the airplane, and talk about what I'll learn, we went out to the airplane. Eric taught me the walk-around that must be preformed before every flight. The walk-around involves checking the fuel, making sure the surface skin of the airplane is smooth and void of any bumps or bruises, and making sure all the nails and the nuts & bolts of the airplane are tightened. It also involves some back-flips.

We then got into the cockpit and performed all the check-lists for starting the airplane and readying it for take-off. Eric told me he would let me take off if the wind wasn't too strong, however the wind quickly crushed that dream. Thought I did get to taxi (drive) the airplane to from the apron (parking spot) to the runway. Eric told me I did a good job. Apparently people have a really hard time with taxiing at the beginning as the power comes from a throttle lever and the turning mechanism comes from foot pedals.

I stated in a prior blog that I had concerns about flying due to what I learned in ground school prior to my first flying lesson - a million ways to crash an airplane and how not to do it. However, as we lined up with the runway center line and Eric pushed the throttle to full, those worries gave way to excitement and an adrenalin rush. I was back, baby. Back with a vegan!

As we took off, however, Eric's door popped open. Yes, you read that right. We took off with an open door. Such is the reality of flying an airplane made in and around 1975. Apparently it happens more often than you'd think. It's not dangerous per-say, just don't unbuckle your seat belt and jump out and you should be fine.

The first lesson consisted of me just getting familiar with the airplane's controls. I got to fly the airplane for about an hour. Basically the only time Eric took control of the airplane was for take off, landing, and to demonstrate exercises in the air.

I don't remember the particulars of the lesson in the air. It was mostly a blur. All I remember is the feeling of flying an airplane all on my own, and even that's hard to describe. Since my fingers are numb and it's late in the evening, I'll go ahead and describe the feeling as incredible.

Stay tuned for my next update about lesson 2 - "10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 - take-off... but only if the wind co-operates."

I took the leap

I did it. Literally.

This weekend I got the fortunate chance to go to a friend of a friend's cottage, about an hour and a half north of Toronto, in the Georgian Bay area. Now keep this between you and I, but I'm making a concerted effort to befriend more people with cottages. Or at least befriend more people who have friends who have cottages...

Anyway, this person who owns the cottage (we'll call him Michelle) is a real adrenalin junkie, and I was told beforehand that there will be some jumps involved. Historically, I haven't been known to ride the wild wind, live life on the edge, or whichever way you'd like to put it. I've always thought of myself as more of a grounded person who doesn't seek the kind of physical thrills that get your heart racing, your adrenalin pumping, and your loins tingling.

We started the day off with a boat ride. The boat ride took about three minutes, when we approached a cliff that looked to be about 25 feet up. As Michelle slowed the boat and docked it, he started explaining how to jump off the cliff. Now, I didn't plan on jumping the whole day, but as I found myself climbing up the cliff, a feeling of adventure overcame my senses. I had never jumped off a cliff into water before, but that day there was an urge to discover the unknown.

I took a lower, saner warm-up jump that was about twelve feet from the water. That took a bit of getting used to, but I did it, and it felt great. I found myself climbing the cliff once again, this time to the higher rock on the cliff that is about twenty feet up. I know what you're thinking,
"you're writing this blog about jumping from a twenty foot cliff? Is that even a cliff? Why are you toying with our emotions? My grandmother has jumped from higher places in her grave." etc. But let me tell you, the vantage point from twenty feet up is nothing to scoff at. Plus when you look straight down, the little bit of rock you have to jump over in order to reach the water may be insignificant in reality, but it toys with your emotions.

I let Michelle jump first. Michelle actually jumped from a higher spot, about thirty feet up, which involves climbing a tree, hanging down from it, and jumping into the water. But we're not going to talk about Michelle's heroics much because this is my blog. I was still not sure I was going to jump after his jump, but I was certainly pumping myself up. I felt that I really wanted to jump, but something was stopping me. I proceeded to let my friend jump before me, we'll call him Donna. Donna jumped from the twenty foot rock and landed safely and that seemed to ease my mind a bit.

I stood there for another minute, focusing, trying to let go of my fears. Michelle and Donna wanted to count me down, but Michelle counted down starting from 1 and I wasn't sure what number I was supposed to jump at, so I told them I'm not ready yet.

A minute later, something in my head seemed to let go. For some reason, I was ready for it. I was still hesitant, and felt like I needed an external "push", so I told them to give me a count down, this time starting from 5.

As Michelle and Donna were counting down, I felt doubt set in, but also anticipation. I felt like it was up to me whether I allow my fears to overcome me, or if I manage to overcome my fears, and experience a thrill I've never experienced before. As I heard the number 1 being shouted at me, it was almost automatic. I felt my legs push off the rock, and from there on, it was an incredible experience. The feeling of letting go, being airborne, the freedom from the doubt and fears and the built-up anticipation... the thought of having a Facebook profile picture of me jumping off a cliff, was almost overwhelming. Finally hitting the water was the most fulfilling moment I've had in a while.

You may ask what this has to do with flying an airplane. Well, it has nothing to do with flying an airplane. This story has everything to do with letting go of your doubts and fears, and doing something spectacular that you've never done before. I realized after my cliff jump that I went through the exact same mental process on that cliff as I did when I chose to take up flying. Although deciding to take flying lessons took more than a half a year for me to finally get going, it was the same procedures. The hesitations, the doubts, the anticipation. Having someone close to you cheering you on because they know it's the right thing for you, and that you won't feel complete if you won't at least give it a try. The feeling of taking off in a Cessna 150 (which I'll write about in a later post) is very much the same feeling I got from finally jumping off the cliff.

I know it may sound cliche, but if you're feeling held back, and there are things you feel you must experience, I encourage you to take the leap.

How do you fly this thing?

Ahh, good old ground school. My classes didn't differ much from the scene you see above. Well, we didn't get uniforms, and most people didn't have aviators on. The classroom was actually quite dark and dull, and the average age-range was more around 40 than 25. Come to think of it, the scene was really different from the picture above. However, I did insist that my classmates refer to me as Goose.

The purposes of ground school is to teach you the theories behind all aspects of and around aviation. We learned about a wide range of topics - mechanics, physics of flight, human factors, meteorology, navigation, air law, radios & communications, etc. I won't bore you with the details, but I'll tell you that I did enjoy ground school. If history taught me anything, it's that I'm not good at theory and studying of any kind. But I found myself picking up reading material almost any chance I had. I guess being interested in what I study is key for me.

The one negative thing I'll say about ground school is that for me, since I didn't begin taking flying lessons at the time I attended ground school (which one can do if one chooses to do so), every lesson seemed to boil down to one bottom line: the many ways in which a pilot can crash an airplane, and how to avoid this from happening.

In fact, that message was pounded home so much that by the time I took my first real flying lesson a couple of months after ground school, I'll admit that I was weary and a bit anxious of getting into the airplane. However, I trusted that as soon as the airplane would take off and we would be air-born, that all my worries would fade, and I would focus at the task at hand and enjoy my time in the air. Thankfully that's what transpired, and aside from taking off with a faulty, unlatched, opened door on my instructor's side, everything went smoothly. Eeeek. More on that in my next post.

Before School Came the Real Test

When I was 16 years old my father's friend invited me to go flying with him in his Cessna 150 - like the one pictured to the left.

I was quite involved in my Microsoft Flight Simulator at the time, again wondering how this cyber-airplane can remain in thin air inside a computer. I was gaining quite an interest in aviation then, and was excited at the opportunity to go flying. Like many people, I didn't realize at the time how small a Cessna 150 really is. Picture the interior of your average automobile cut in about half, and you've got the cockpit of a 150.

Needless to say, you can feel everything the heavens have to offer in the 150 like you felt the road in a cheap and dirty Horsey Horseless (look that up). I'll be honest with you, I don't remember much of that flight. I remember there was a rush, I remember that during take-off something wasn't working quite right, and Mr. Pilot had to turn what I thought was the ignition switch to the what I thought was the on-off, on-off positions a few times. I remember having a bird's-eye view of the city, and I think that's what stuck with me most.

Fast forward ten years to January 2010. My interest in aviation has peaked to levels that were starting to concern me, my girlfriend thought I had objectophilia, and I was on the brink of pursuing a career in aviation. I decided it was time to go up in a Cessna 150 again to see how I really felt about it. Would it be the same rush I felt as when I was 16, or would it be the rush of soiling my pants that I'd experience? It was the real test that every aspiring pilot needs to go through, to see if they even like flying.

I'm sure the pilot that took me up was thankful that it wasn't the latter rush. The flight was incredible. I got to fly the airplane for about twenty minutes. Up, down, all around. I got to do some steep turns, which are 45 degree angle turns. That's relatively steep turns. In fact, the load factor (or G-force as some know it), is 1.4x. That is, you feel 1.4 times as heavy as you would on the ground, which was a whole different rush within itself. All in all it was an eye-opening experience. I was hooked.

From there on I applied to ground school, of which you need to complete 45 hours as part of your Private Pilot License. I'll tell you a little bit about ground school in another post.

As a side note, if you have any interest at all in experiencing what it's like to fly in a small Cessna 150, every small airport usually has what's called an introduction flight. For around $85 (Canadian) you can feel what it's like to fly an airplane.

Preface

My name is Lavi, but from here on, I shall be known as... well, lets leave it at Lavi. I can't think of anything exciting at the moment. I thought I'd write a log on the internet. From here on, we shall call this log a blog.

I recently started learning to fly, in hopes of one day getting my commercial pilot license. I have always been passionate about flying. When I was about five years of age, my grandparents bought my older brother a Boeing 747 replica toy. I remember it made engine noise when you pressed the one button on top. I quickly stole this toy from my brother, and for years wondered how this peace of plastic flew through thin air, within the death grip of my hand.

Sorry, I digress. I thought I would write a blog about my experiences of learning how to fly. Now, I know this had been done before, maybe hundreds of thousands of millions of times. But I hope that my unique writing style and my off-beat sense of humour (or lack thereof) will keep you interested. If all else fails. I hope this blog will keep me interested.

You see, flying - to me - does not involve much creativity, and I think writing this blog will inject the creativity that my artistic soul often craves. I'm joking, I don't have a soul. I sold it in order to pay for my flying lessons. They are very expensive.

Please join me on an adventure of a lifetime (at least it is for me, I don't know about you). A new and exciting personal path that evokes feelings and emotions that often confuse me. Alas, I intend to spill these emotions onto these cyber-pages, thereby providing the world wide web with more drivel.

I hope you enjoy!