Starting out

Today I made it official. I took my first flight lesson today. I started this earlier than I expected but I'm so glad I got to do it. I arranged the flight through Capitol Air Services at Tipton Airport (KFME). I had called a few weeks ago to get some information on lessons and Spoke to Glenn, a flight instructor, on the telephone. His voice and demeanor seemed to indicate that he might be the kind of instructor I was looking for. He offered to have me come down to the airport and take a "Discovery Flight." I called yesterday, when the weather was superb, and scheduled the flight for 1000Hrs. today. Today's weather was less than stellar but still okay for VFR (Visual Flight Rules). I met him in the office, he grabbed his paperwork, handed me a headset and said, "Let's go aviating."

I followed him onto the ramp and out to the flight line. We eventually got to our aircraft, a Cessna 172SP-- N5186R. 180h.p. fuel injected 4 seat high wing single engine. The wind was blowing a bit but at least it was down the runway. We did the preflight checks on the aircraft. Unlike a car where you just jump in and go, you need to examine the aircraft and make sure it's flight worthy. If you have a problem in the air you can't just pull over. He showed me how to check the control surfaces as we chit chatted about flying. I told him that I wanted to be prepared before I took lessons so that he wouldn't have to "spoon feed" me everything I needed to know. He seemed impressed by this especially since I told him how much reading I had been doing. Reading is cheap, flight lessons are expensive. After checking control surfaces and removing the tie downs we checked the fuel. The airplane takes 100LL (Low Lead) fuel. Aircraft fuel is color coded to indicate the grade. 100LL is light blue. The fuel tanks are inside of the wings and are gravity fed. Due to temperature and humidity changes water sometimes collects in the tanks. Water is heaver than AVGas and sinks to the bottom of the tanks. By taking samples from the bottom of the wings and the underside of the aircraft we can check for water in the fuel. After that we checked the Pitot tube and Static ports. These devices use air pressure to move the Airspeed Indicator, Altimeter, Vertical Speed Indicator, etc.

Once the preflight was done and Glenn said we were air worthy, we climbed on board.

Glenn escorted me to the LEFT seat, THE PILOT SEAT. I must say I was very anxious and nervous about now. The inside is the Cessna 172 was smaller than I thought. Picture it as a subcompact car with a four cylinder engine and wings. It only weighs 2000lbs, when loaded with 53 Gallons of fuel. The doors are less substantial that your car. They don't have to be strong, no one is going to crash into you. We adjusted our seats so I could get at the Rudder Pedals and started to hook up our headsets. It was all becoming real now. No turning back. Fasten seatbelts and close the cabin doors. Open the side windows and begin preparations for engine start up. Master Electrical and Alternator switches ON. Beacon Light ON. Throttle fully retarded. Mixture Control set to Full Rich. Switch on the Electric Fuel Pump and advance the throttle until the fuel flow indicator begins to move up. This moves fuel into the engine in preparation for start. Retard the Throttle and shut down the electric fuel pump. Glenn yelled, "Clear Prop!" out of the open window and told me to open the throttle about a quarter inch and turn the key from OFF to START. It's almost like starting your car. The engine was running and the "BIG FAN" in the front was turning. Turn on the Avionics Master Switch. Check the engine gauges for oil pressure and RPM.

Once that was all done Glenn made our radio call and we began our taxi. The nose wheel is controlled by the rudder pedals so you steer with your feet. The taxi way is marked with a yellow line. As I advanced the throttle and got us moving Glenn told me to stay on the yellow line for taxi. My taxi skills got only slightly better as we moved down the line. It was sort of a drunk zig zag rather than a straight line. We were headed for Runway 28. Just before the runway is the "run up area." Like I said before, if you have a problem in the air it's a bigger problem than car trouble. If the "Big Fan" stops turning you are going to have a problem. The run up is you last check of engine operations. As the name implies, you stop and stand on your brakes. Your brakes are on top of the Rudder Pedals. Then you run up the engine to about 1800 RPM. Each airplane engine cylinder has two spark plugs. Each spark plug is powered by a separate Magneto. We cycled our magnetos from both to left and then both to right to check for a slight reduction in RPM. We also switched on the Landing Lights to check for a deflection in the Ammeter. Another check of the gauges and then an idle check. Pulling the throttle full back to check our idle appeared to make the engine want to stop. Glenn commented that the idle was set too low and that he would have to get his mechanic to reset it. He assured me that we were still air worthy and now if was time to taxi onto the active runway. Glenn had told me earlier that the aircraft would practically fly itself off of the runway. It was however, the pilot's job to land it.

Onto Runway 28 we went. I tried to line up with the center line as instructed and advanced the throttle to full power. We were headed down the runway as I attempted to keep us on the center line. Glenn announced, "Airspeed alive" as we continued to accelerate. In only a short amount of time we were climbing off of the ground. I don't remember adding any elevator back pressure, we just seemed to lift off. As we began our climb out Glenn coached me on the proper pitch attitude. When you first take off the aircraft is moving at a slow speed. It's important not to pitch your nose up too far or you will exceed the wings ability to create lift. When that happens the nose pitches down and you begin to descend. You can imagine what happens if you are close to the ground. We began a "smooth?" climb out as Glenn coached me along. Except for an occasional tug on the controls by Glenn I was flying the plane. That scared me...a lot.

Climb out continued and I remembered two things. One was that it was important to try and keep the airplane on the extended center line of the runway during climb out.

(Here comes the science. Skip this section unless you are really interested.)
The other was that in this configuration, slow speed, high power and high pitch, I would need right rudder pedal pressure to counteract four forces that act on the aircraft. There is a left turning tendency in this configuration for four reasons. First is propeller torque. The propeller turns clockwise creating torque counter-clockwise pushing the airplane to the left. Second, since the propeller is turning, it acts like a gyroscope. Force applied to a gyroscope is transferred 90 degrees to the side, in this case the left. Third, the propeller slipstream rotates around the aircraft like a corkscrew and strikes the top left side of the Vertical Stabilizer, that's the tail, pushing the airplane to the left. And finally, fourth, something called P-Factor, short for Propeller Factor. Since the airplane is pitched up and the prop is turning clockwise, it takes a bigger "bite" of the air on the right side of the plane, pulling it to the left.

(Class Dismissed.)

I knew from looking at the sectional chart that in addition to being in the Washington DC ADIZ, (Air Defense Identification Zone), we were also close to the Class Bravo Airspace of BWI airport. We were only about 7nm away and if we climbed above 1500 ft. MSL we would be encroaching on the airspace. We had reached about 1400ft. when Glenn told me that we were too close to the Class B and needed to descend. He wanted me to maintain 1300ft. Okay, easier said than done. We ambled somewhere between 1300 and 1100ft. I was trying to get used to the "bumps in the road" without over controlled the airplane but trying to maintain altitude. Just as I tried to concentrate on that and began to sweat a little, Glenn cheerfully says to me, "Let's try some turns." Turns? I'm still trying to control the pitch and roll, look at the horizon, remember to scan for traffic, and check the instruments. Now he wants me to turn?

I timidly banked the aircraft as Glenn asked me to head toward a tower off to our left. I tried to remember to increase back elevator pressure to make up for the loss of vertical lift. In addition, I tried to make the turn as "coordinated" as I could. This involves combined use of the Ailerons and Rudder to get the airplane to turn correctly. My turn was sloppy but our heading changed. We made some more turns as I tried to keep our altitude constant. After a while he asked me to make a right turn to heading 270. Once again I made a shallow bank to the right and started the turn. Glenn said that I could make a standard rate turn whenever I felt like it. (A standard turn would take the aircraft 2 minutes to turn 360 degrees.) He was making a little joke at my expense because of my shallow turns. I increased the bank angle while once again attempted to hold altitude. It actually work out pretty well. I was able to get the Turn Coordinator onto the Standard Turn and the ball centered. I'm sure my altitude suffered a bit but I was then able to make a roll out at almost exactly 270 degrees. That felt really good. Still scary, but good.

All too soon it was time to turn back to the field. Glenn guided me on the proper heading and made the radio calls. We entered the traffic pattern and things began to happen quickly. I thought that at this point Glenn would say, "OK, my aircraft," and take the controls away from me. I soon realized that I was going to handle the turns and descent down to the runway. Glenn said that he would help me with the throttle on the descent. We turned to final as I tried to keep us aligned with the center of the runway. We were still descending as we reduced power and Glenn extended the flaps. We seemed to have a good steady sink rate toward our touchdown point. I was still waiting for Glenn to take the controls. Other than an occasional tug it appeared as if I was flying the airplane. Glenn added some power as we began to get to the point of flare. Flare is when you add elevator back pressure just before you touch down to slow your descent and speed and let the airplane gently settle onto the runway. I began my flare and Glenn didn't say a word. I'm not sure if I timed it right or not. I felt the plane settle onto the runway and then...bounce...up. We were in the air again. Not very high of course but you really only want to land once. Glenn let out a "Whoa." and helped me settle the plane.

Now it was back to steering with my feet again. Just like a car, the faster it moves the less steering input you need to give to make a turn. Glenn had to stab at the right rudder pedal because I seemed to be headed off the left side of the runway. Once we were headed straight again Glenn added some brakes and we taxied off of the active runway. My head was spinning. I was very excited even though there were times when I felt like I was getting "Fright Instruction." I guess the secret is having the confidence in your instructor to know that whatever crazy thing you manage to do to the aircraft, he can get you out of it.

Once we got the airplane back to the ramp we reversed our start up procedure and shut down. Switches off, key out, and control locks in. We got out and spoke for a while. I got the tour of their offices and then the big moment.
My First Flight Log Entry.
Local Flight, Single Engine Land, Dual Instruction: .5 Hours.