Introduction Flight #1

One of the most important aspects of your pilot training is researching schools and talking to prospective instructors. I began putting a list of schools together and started doing some reasearch on their web sites. I was fortunate enough to win a free introductory lesson with Empower Aviation when I filled out a sweepstakes card at their booth during the Cincinnati Travel Sport and Boat show in January 2009. On February 5th, 2009 I headed out to Butler County Regional airport (HAO) where I was met by Certified Flight Instructor Sean D. We sat in the office discussing my list of questions that I was going to ask instructors at each flight school. We went outside and after a cold pre-flight inspection of the Cessna 172 we were in and taxiing toward the runway with me in the left seat. Sean took off because the runway still had a few areas of snow on it, but I was able to follow along on the controls. We climbed to around 3000 feet and began to level off and look around. Sean talked me through making several turns at different bank angles to get the feel of the plane and through a couple climbs and descents where he had me listen to the different sounds that the plane makes. Is seems that you also use your ears to help you figure out what is happening when you are flying. After a quick 25 minutes or Sean pointed me back in the direction of the airport. I knew about where it was, but I could not see it at first. There was snow cover all over the ground it made it hard for me to pick out where the runway was. Sean made the radio calls as he directed me into the traffic pattern for landing. I flew the downwind leg and Sean added one notch of flaps, turned onto the base leg and Sean reduced the throttle and added another notch of flaps, then I turned towards the end of the runway on final were Sean worked the throttle to maintain our glide and added the last notch of flaps. The plane just sank right toward the end of the runway! The landing point stayed right in the same spot of the windshield as we descended closer and closer. When we were very near the end of the runway Sean reduced the throttle to idle and told me to just hold the controls where they were as we sank toward the runway. Finally Sean told me to start pulling back on the yoke to flare the airplane. I think he helped a bit on this because I was not sure how hard or quickly I should flare. We settled onto the runway and I was thrilled! Rolling down the runway as we slowed down was a great feeling. I did it! I just flew an airplane!
http://www.flyempower.com/index.php?page=Training

Initial Research

I began to research information about flight lessons late summer 2008. At that point I joined AOPA and EAA and started getting magazines from these organizations. I also did a lot of reading on the intranet site of both of these organizations. I began looking at the available flight schools in my area and began discussing the pros and cons of the sport pilot rating, the recreational pilot rating and the private pilot rating. I also got a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator FSX, and good yoke and rudder pedal system and the book “Microsoft Flight Simulator X for Pilots – Real World Training” by Jeff Van West and Kevin Lane-Cummings. This book will take you through many real world training simulations. I’ve found MS FSX to be a very good training aid for learning basic flight maneuvers, traffic pattern practice, navigation techniques, and have even planned and executed flights that I hope to someday take in a real plane. By the time I picked a couple options for schools that I wanted to visit I had accumulated many hours in the flight simulator. I also purchased a flight training starter package from Sporty’s that contained the Recreational Pilot video training program, a pilots logbook, several books including the FAA FAR/AIM 2009 manual, Airplane Flying Handbook, and a couple of FAA advisory circulars pertaining to Aviation weather all packed in a very nice leather flight bag. I feel that by the time I was ready to speak to prospective instructors and take some introductory flight lessons, I was a very knowledgeable consumer.

The Realization

I have recently had a complete paradigm shift in my thinking what I can do after I get a pilot certificate. This change came about after meeting a new production manager named Brian that was hired at the company I work at. His father was in the Army Air Corp in World War II and has been flying ever since so Brian was raised around aviation. When we met at work he told me that he had heard I was into aviation. I told him that I build and fly the little RC ones and had always thought about getting my pilots license, but didn’t want to just spend a ton of money on plane rentals afterwards. He quickly added “Why don’t you just build your OWN plane then?” I had never really considered building and flying my own plane. Isn’t that just a very few nutcases out in their garage banging some crate together and going out and killing themselves on the first attempt at a flight? I joined EAA and learned that it is not just a very few nut cases, but a whole lot of nut cases. I also learned that they are not just banging together a crate, but building high quality, high tech aircraft, some from scratch, some from proven, high accuracy kits. These guys were not going out and killing themselves on the first flight, but having FAA inspections, performing extensive flight testing, and getting planes certified then flying them just like any other general aviation airplane. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homebuilt_aircraft

I started working with Brian, who was building a plane for his father. The plane that we are building is a Zenith CH701 STOL. This is a fantastic, high quality kit by Chris Heintz.

I’m not sure what I’ll build or if I’ll try to buy a production aircraft at some time. Either way I figured it was time to pursue my dream of flying and start looking for a flight school.

The Beginning

The attraction to flying for me began when I was invited, with a group of other youths, for an informal flight training introduction that was hosted by an individual pilot. I was about 15 years old at the time. We were able to get a couple classroom sessions talking about flight dynamics and weather and I got to go out on a couple flying sessions. On one of the sessions, I sat in the right seat of a Cessna 182 and had the opportunity to take the controls for a short time. I loved the thrill and excitement of the flight, I still remember the tail number N2446G. The class ended abruptly when the pilot had a medical problem and the classes ended.
I didn’t do much else with aviation, but I was always on the fringes over the next couple decades. In High school I took another flight with a group from University of Cincinnati. I also began building a gyrocopter with information that I got from the Cincinnati Rotorcraft Club. I got the frame built and had my engine case, but I stopped when I got to the expensive parts (rotor head and blades and building the engine). In the late 80’s I took up radio control airplane building and flying and I also got hooked on skydiving! I met a lot of aviation buffs and pilots along the way, but I never took the step of starting my flying lessons. I realized early on that if I was ever going to learn to fly, I would want to have the money for the lessons saved up front and make a serious commitment to the training. Whenever I would start to consider it, I would just think of the expense of the training and say to myself, “then what will I do, go rent a plane every so often and get a $100 hamburger?

Getting Started

I have dreamed about getting my pilot's license for a long time, and I'm finally ready to get started. I have actually been actively working on this for a few months now, but I am now ready to start with my lessons. I'll detail my progress up to this point in the next few posts. Then as I go through my training, I'll update the blog for each lesson.