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.