Hey Taxi!

Today's flight was a NO GO due to the gusty 20+ knot winds. We were able to get some work done inside of the hangar. We worked our way through a pre-flight discussion and I sat inside of the aircraft while we talked. Some questions came up that I'll have to research and get back to my instructor on. Since we were inside of the hangar area there was maintenance going on around us. This was a perfect time to look at the insides of the engine compartment. The staff mechanic showed my some extra stuff above and beyond what my instructor pointed out. I also took a good look at a Magneto. No, not the supervillian. A Magneto is a moving part that creates an electrical spark that fires the spark plugs. The Cessna 172 has redundant Magnetos on board. There are two spark plugs per cylinder. Each plug is controlled by a separate Magneto.

Once we had finished going over the preflight and the aircraft systems I was just about to leave when the mechanic asked my instructor to bring a plane near the hangar so he could work on it. My instructor asked if I wanted to taxi a plane. "Let's go," I said. We found the older model Cessna 172 Skyhawk II on the flight line and climbed on board. Once again I found myself in the left seat. This model didn't have fuel injection so we have to use the manual primer before engine start. One of the things that my instructor stressed was starting the engine at a low RPM. I managed to due that pretty well. Once the engine was up we checked the gauges and found engine operation to be normal. Now it was time to taxi again. My last go round left me feeling a little frustrated. My attempts to taxi on the center line turned into the occasional zig zag. I started to get a better feel for taxi. Since it was such a gusty day there area aileron and elevator techniques that are use to keep the airplane safe. The direction of the wind determines which way you should move the controls. The airplane isn't that heavy and a strong gust could get under the wings and flip you over. Of course the problem was I was concentrating so had on taxi that I forget to move the controls as we turned and the wind direction changed. The other problem I was faced with was that the control wheel in front of you DOES NOT steer the airplane on taxi. You steer with your feet and the rudder pedals. When I was reading about taxi I found that some students will turn the control wheel to try and turn the airplane. This is due to their driving experience. I thought to myself, that's stupid, I'll know better than that when the time comes. I found myself turning the control wheel instinctively while on taxi. So much for that theory.

I was starting to get the hand of the taxi. We then went onto the runway to do some practice. The drill was to parallel the center line to the left, then turn 45Degrees to the right and neutralize the controls. Once the center line was crossed turn 45Degrees left and neutralize the controls. Parallel the center line and then reverse the procedure so that you switch sides. Back and forth until you get to the end of the runway. Then we had to taxi off on the line and down to the other end. Trying to keep a center line can be difficult because you area no seated on the center line of the aircraft. When went down the taxi way again and stayed somewhat straight. We went back onto the runway for a different drill. This time my instructor took control of the throttle. My job was to keep us on the center line as he varied the power and our speed. I think I did okay. At least we stayed on the runway. Once we finished that it was time to taxi to the hangar and shutdown. It was not my finest moment but we made it over to the hangar and shut down. After some words of encouragement from my instructor we parted. Sunday is the next lesson. Let's hope the weather is good.