captbrando’s log

Today was pretty fun! The ground school covered the basics of the airplane and the instruments. Learned a few cool tricks, like if your static system gets clogged (powers your Airspeed, Altitude, and Vertical Speed Indicator [VSI]), and you know the clog is PAST the Pitot tube, you can break the VSI to get your Airspeed and hopefully Altitude back. That re-creates your static system.

Then it was out to the plane! A quick pre-flight and off I go. N5915A was built in 1956, before bells & whistles were invented. Some of the instrumentation does not work, but the important stuff does. It’s VFR anyway.

I learned today that the owner of Northwest Regional (15F) decreed that there shall be no more Touch & Go maneuvers at the field, so we have to fly over to Justin’s Propwash Airport (16X) which might just be one of the coolest named airports around. I did several Touch & Gos, and one wave-off landing because I was too high in the pattern.

So far, my biggest challenge has been maintaining instruments while flying. I’m using the trim more and that is helping me maintain attitude and altitude. I had a couple of rougher landings today, but nothing worse than some of the carrier style landings that the pilots over at AMR have been doing. You know, the ones where the pilots don’t even open the flight deck door to say “Seeya!” on the way out?

I’m working on my float while landing. I had an instructor tell me several years ago NOT to float. Just put the bird on the ground. This one is encouraging float. I still hear that other instructor in my head.

Off to study and prepare for tomorrow!

I’m going to try and blog after every lesson for those of you interested in my quest to become a private pilot. I had my first lesson today!

First lesson was pretty much an intro as you would expect. We went over the forty (or so) pounds of books and material that I will be reviewing. After that, we went and did the checklists for starting up. My chariot is quite the beast. She’s a 1950’s Cessna 172, and half of the instruments don’t work. VFR only. Tis OK, but will upgrade to the IFR 172 eventually.

I did two landings today. One touch and go, and one full stop since I had a little too much float. Getting the feel of the plane will take time, but I’m going to fly as much as I can.

Got my renters insurance today as well as my FAA physical. I am waiting on some paperwork for that (can’t believe they did not fax it yet) and I’ll be golden.

I’ll keep you updated! Tomorrow I fly at 7a!

I am such a softie. I’m leaving the neighborhood today and as I am pulling up to Firewheel, I see a turtle crossing the street. This turtle was smart enough to cross AT THE CROSSWALK; which I applauded. Then it dawned on me that “La fútbol mamá” (the Soccer Mom) would never stop her Yukon and would just smash the tiny speed bump.

So I shut the car down, put on the flashers, got out and walked into the street (fully planning on stopping traffic on the two lanes coming my way) to pick up the turtle and move it into the grass on our side. As I put down the turtle, a lady pulled up behind the Jeep and had this look of horror on her face. I’m not sure if it was because I was making her late (honestly, if you are just leaving the house at 8:30, you are going to be late to work anyway), or because she wanted to have him for dinner.