First Flight Done!!

[tomtom_91]

Came back from my first flight yesterday! and it was amazing! here is what I wrote on my blog!

We went out and did a walk around of the aircraft, we looked at the flight controls this is all stuff which I knew about from stuff I had done with scouts. We then got into the aircraft! This was interesting I managed to find a comfortable position to fly in and it was time to do the checks. We primed the engine and set the mixture up, he then asked me to start the engine by turning the key around to start which engaged the starter and the aircraft sprung into life. We checked out the ATIS and called up for taxi "G-BYEA"- Taxi holding point A1 runway 21" he gave me permission to taxi the aircraft so I taxied the aircraft out onto A. We got to the engine run-up area where we did our power checks all went well! Taxied back onto A and continued around to A1, we got cleared for take off I lined the aircraft up on the runway and applied full power coming past 60 kts I pulled the yoke very slowly back and like magic! We lifted into the air climbing at about 600 feet per minute we flew in a straight line so we avoided Biggin Hill village, 2 miles later I got told by Bruno to start a left turn we flew out towards the Dartford Bridge then flew over the river and around the London City control zone - Was amazing! We then had a look at turning the aircraft and making the aircraft fly slow and fast clime and descend. By then it had been 45 minutes so we returned back to Biggin Hill making a left base for runway 21 Touched down and back to the club!

Next lesson - Wednesday 1300 Local

Tom
EDIT: Reg

[Dawdler]

First of many I assume - Congratulations!

[Chequeredflag]

Your first solo will be your next memorable day, followed by your QXC and the skills test.

Very best of luck

[NorthRider]

Congrats!
Nice to hear that the first flights are so special. Seeing the sutdents smile and being a part of theyr learning is what makes instruction so fun.

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Good luck, Tom, and happy landings. I envy you..

[Jofm5]

Congrats tomtom,

I know how you feel as I had my first lesson today (although was lucky enough to have 2hrs on thrusday with a fellow PPRune'r beforehand - a big thanks to Al).

Mine was from panshanger, only did the in-cockpit pre-flight (instructor had done the complete beforehand) mainly because we were parked next to the fuel pump and a helicopter was just departing there (backwards).

I taxied down to the end of 29, turned into the wind for the power checks and then under instruction (instructor doing radio) checked for traffic and joined the runway. The instructor did the rudder whilst I pulled back for takeoff, once airborne level out a little to gain power then climb (a short grass runway procedure apparently) immediately turning right for noise abatement.

We went through lessons 4-11, so climbing and descending, turning, affects of rudder when turning, compensation of aerolons when using rudder - climbing and descending turns etc. Then stalls, how to identify a stall, recovery from a stall and only to use the rudder in a stall to level the wings and not induce a spin.

Then at the end I flew to rejoin the circuit and get us down to the threshold (near enough for the instructor to finish the landing). Cut the power early to glide in from high as an area of trees at the start of 29.

Also we covered trimming the plane, as introduced by Al I did most of my flying with my left hand so the instructor seized upon that to get me using my right hand to change trim as we changed speeds.

One of the biggest things I got comfortable with was that when told to power back to a particular rpm to maintain a speed/level flight was to be told not to look at the dials to much (I was trying to be too precise with the rpm) and to get a feel for the plane and the rpm. Scan the dials now and then and if its not doing what you want adjust accordingly - so I confess to idling back a little too much but never felt told off just told to compensate and get used to the feeling. After that things felt easier and more natural - I felt free to play about with the throttle to get what I desired.

During the post flight my own personal criticism which the instructor agreed upon was that I compensated for my throttle changes too early - I need to get to feel what is happening and compensate accordingly - not anticipate an action before it has happened as they take time. Coupled with that I need to remember the actions of carb heat etc and the checklists of when to do whichever.

On the whole I am happy with how the flight went, I am particularly thankful to Al for spending the time with me Thursday as I went into my first lesson well prepared. I still need to work on my ground recognition skills etc but to be honest that is me not studying the charts well enough beforehand to know what landmarks to look out for - on that note I will try to get a flight plan in the pre-flight briefing for my next lesson and go over the chart with my instructor so I can figure out what waypoints I should expect and try pick those out as part of the lesson.

Like you tom, I am not leaving it too long to get rusty before my next lesson - Thursday 3pm is mine (could have gone earlier but weather looks dubious). My next lesson is to recover some of the points already covered and an introduction to circuits (he said if the crosswind is not like it was today - I may say lets try anyway as no point learning in fair weather all the time).

Feel free to pm me if you want chat about experiences/concerns - I would also recommend if you can try going up with a competent pilot and just watching (I plan to do more) as all experience counts even if you cant log it.

[Lightning6]

Good luck to the pair of you...Tom, Don't you mean right base for 21? Unless you had permission to join left base from the dead side.

Anyway well done, :ok:

[Rodent1982]

Nice one Tom!

As said already, next milestone is your Solo! Awesome experience.

[tomtom_91]

We must of deffonatly had permission to join from the left remember that very clearly! Did a circet yesterday with some one I help out with doing Air Scout stuff down at the aviation centre nr RAS (for those of you who know biggin)

Very exsited about Wednesday now!

Thanks all!

[airgirl]

Hi Tomtom,

very glad to hear that you enjoyed your first flight. What aircraft are you training on?? Was just a bit confused because BOTI is one of our PA28's but we do not have an instructor called Bruno!!

Good luck with your training, I am sure you are going to love doing it. Keep up the blogs on it, its always great to keep u p to date on how folks are doing.

All the best

[Rodent1982]

Bruno I think used to work with Classair, but moved sometime last year to Alouette.

Yeah didn't think they owned G-BOTI, that's Surrey & Kent I think. Do you mean G-BYEA?

[tomtom_91]

Have just changed... I think my brain was dead when writing the post! :mad:

G-BYEA - C172 :D

Tom