Wings on High.

First Flight

Fantastic day. Woke up feeling excellent. Did some errands, the sun was shining, put the sunroof back as my wife and I were driving around, went to the library for some research stuff for her, went for a nice lunch at an indian place we’d never been, then I said “Hey, want to go to the airport and watch the planes?” I was thinking I’d go and prod the flight school into letting me meet an instructor, maybe check out one of the planes, get a bit of a fix, then watch some planes take off and land, call it a day. Except, as we’re on our way, my wife says “Hey, if we can get it scheduled, I think you should take your first flight.” An excellent idea, and I love that she thought of it…

So I called the flight school, asked if I (as a potential student) could swing by, check things out, meet an instructor, etc. It was a beautiful day, and the guy I talked to said he’d probably have trouble finding an instructor, but he could show us around. So we turned up, and sure enough, he showed us the sims, the DA-40, and a DA-42 Twinstar (awesome!). We opened up the cockpits, poked around, saw inside their Cessna, watched an Airlift NW heli take off (I’ve never seen a vertical takeoff from only a few hundred feet), and talked turkey about joining up. I asked if he could get somebody for an intro flight, and he said he’d make some phone calls, see what he could do.

We went to the terminal at BFI to watch the Kenmore Air planes come in and out (my wife was doing some homework, and I was reading the latest flight magazine I picked up). It was a bit like watching Wings reruns, a small local airline flying Cessna Caravans. Kind of neat. Well, after an hour we hopped back to the school to give them a hard time about finding someone. After calling the list of flight instructors, he found someone who could take us for a flight! Not bad for two hours notice.

We went through the briefing, went over where we’d like to fly, talked about procedures, the airplane we’d be flying (a DA-40XL w/ the G1000), and then went out for the preflight. The Shorty’s videos I’d been watching really paid off, because the CFI let me go through the checklist with him, and I knew what the hell we were going over (I was more astounded than anyone else). There were several more complicated things he handled, but I took the fuel samples, handled the electricals (with instruction of course), went through the physical checks of the wings, control surfaces, fuselage, etc. We started up the engine (my wife in the back seat, the CFI let me sit front-left, and he sat on the right), tested the magnetos, went through instrument briefings, and called for permission to taxi. He made the initial request to ground, but when we got to the runway and were holding short for the final preflight check, I asked if I could make the call to request takeoff. He gave it to me, but I botched it up. I’ve practiced on VATSIM, but I couldn’t get the words out fast enough, and I forgot (twice) to announce our departure route. My CFI was very forgiving though.

I handled the throttle and the rudder while we went out to the runway, and got it lined up for takeoff. Got clearance, and then I took the controls for takeoff! I was absolutely not expecting this. Throttled up, rotated, and pulled the plane up. I knew I wasn’t keeping it straight, I could see us skidding a bit, and there were a few bumps (even for a clear day, though he’d warned us about this), but it hit me as we were passing 500ft that I was flying the freaking airplane (I even said this over the intercom, as I could barely believe it). The CFI kept his hands nearby, as I was grateful for, but he let was letting me fly. We came left from the takeoff heading, and went out over the lake, flew over Redmond, and then headed back out over Lake Washington and flew over Puget Sound into the practice area.

After a few minutes of experiencing holding the controls, I kept checking to see how I was doing. The weather gave us a pretty rough ride, more so than I’d expect for a sunny calm-winds day, but he said I was doing pretty well. He turned on the autopilot for us to see how I compared, and it was able to hold the plane very smoothly. He demonstrated a couple of turns and climbs with the AP, to show how smooth it flew. Then we went back to manual, and started into some maneuvers. I practiced some steep turns, climbs, and general control maneuvers. Keep in mind I’ve only flown MS Flight Sim (or other not-so-realistic combat games), but I was astounded at how little one needed to work the controls to get a response. The gentlest pressure saw a 5 degree change in pitch. A slight left pressure had us banking at 10deg before I knew it. Once I saw the turn coordinator on the PFD, I started working on rudder/stick integration, which was a trip as I’d only ever used joysticks at home. A little latter, he showed us how some Zero-G maneuvers feel – nothing big, just a couple 10degrees climbs and dives, but pretty great stuff. I checked with him a little further into the flight to see how I was doing. He said I was holding it together pretty well, but it was obvious I’d spent time flying simulators, as I was gripping the stick really tight, and was spending too much time on the instruments for VFR. It didn’t help that I had a hard time peering over the dash. Holy hell those things are high. The sim model isn’t exaggerating – sitting back in your seat, you really can’t see over the top, let alone hold the centerline for taxi. I was surprised.

After flying over the sound for a bit more, we started to head back towards downtown Seattle, and he called for landing clearance. I followed the landing directions, and began to get us lined up for approach. My CFI handled the controls a bit more, managing the throttle, keeping us more on the path, but I kept my hands on the stick, and felt the approach. He had us into a perfect gentle landing. I was really suprised how high and steep the approach was. Had he not been on the controls, I would have had us coming in much more shallow from further out. Definitely something I’ll have to work on. He let me ask ground for taxi back to the flight school, we parked, and put away the plane. Then I walked away with a list of maneuvers for the DA-20 (the sim model I have for FS2004), and my first flight log entry.

I was beyond giddy. I was so excited about what I’d just done. My wife was so thrilled too. She’d been up in a small plane before, but I never had, let alone taken the controls of a plane. I loved the feeling, and my wife said she was impressed at how smooth I handled it. She’s excited about getting her PPL too now, which I think is great. I love the idea of flying around together, and I’m so glad she was there with me for this. We went out to celebrate at a pub she’d just found, and had a couple Guinness’, played some darts, and now we’re watching the X-Files. Definitely a day for the record books, but we’ll take a camera next time.

Stuff to work on: Landings, gentle maneuvering, steep banks, VFR flying techniques (judging the pitch/attitude from the wing levels against the horizon), and radio calls.  But hey, I have a list now.