Day 4
Arrived at airport at 0700 to start planning for today’s flight. As part of the enrolment we discussed, that the transition to a commercial pilot is a thing you can take at your own pace. It was suggested that you take as much of the captaincy as you are ready for. I decided to try and get everything ready for when the instructor arrived. In order to collect the keys for an aircraft at Fort Pierce you need to complete a release form. The form necessitates working out pressure and density altitudes, take off and landing distances and mass and balance considerations. I know this is something that we are supposed to do before every flight, but I think as a private pilot when you fly the same aircraft all the time, from the same airport you become complacent about doing these things. It took a good 30 minutes to remember how to calculate the altitudes etc, but was very satisfying when the plan was completed. I was about to submit the plan when the ATIS changed. I now had to carry out all the calculations again. Keys in hand I pre-flighted the aircraft and received my briefing for the first flight. The wind today was much nicer 040/6. We carried out a takeoff and departed to the south east. The lesson included climbing and descending at different rates and speeds. We also carried out engine failure after take-off drills and had an interesting insight into why you should always check that the mixture is rich before commencing a descent. This was basically the first lesson completed, and we returned to make a landing on 09. We got to about 300ft when air traffic changed us to land on 32, it appears that they were carrying out training and really didn’t know what was going on. There were several aircraft on finals to both runways but somehow the instructor seemed to work through the confusion and get us down on 32. He later told me that in the two years that he has been there, this was the first time he had ever seen the tower so out of shape. We had noted a few problems with the aircraft and so sent it to maintenance. We collected the keys to another 172 and briefed for the next flight. This was to be circuits at Vero Beach. It was decided to use Vero because they have a 04/22 runway and have much less traffic than Fort Pierce. This I like, you seem to be able to go to any airport without paying any landing fees etc, imagine doing that in the UK. We carried out 6 circuits in all including Flapless, Glide, and Short field approaches. Then it was back to Fort Pierce to do 2 more circuits with a nice crosswind for good measure. I was happy with the way the two flights went and the instructor seemed quite happy too. He did pick me up on a couple of slack checks, but I’m sure with a little more attention to detail I’ll get the hang of it. Tomorrow we are going to do 1.4 hours under the hood and start the navigation training.