Day 1

Ok.....wow so much I want to say, but I don't think I can keep up with all the thoughts running through my head right now. First thing's first I guess. One word to describe it all......overwhelming - in a good way though! There was so much going on and trying to keep up with it all was a bit tricky. After the hour drive to Norwood, I walked in to meet with my new instructor Josh Gaskell. We sat at one of the desks and talked for a few minutes so I could explain to him about my background, and couple hours of actual flight time combined with numerous hours of flight simulator time. I guess all that flight simulator time really does pay off. All the skills are the same, but the actual application of them in a real world environment is just a little different - haha- to say the least.

We walked over to our plane, a Cessna 172R. I didn't bring my camera with me today, but I will bring it with me tomorrow to take some pictures of the plane and me in action. I asked Josh if he was photogenic....he chuckled. Today we flew for about an hour, we ran through the normal preflight checklist, which includes various items such as looking over the entire skin of the aircraft for any imperfections, checking the hinges on the ailerons, rudder, and elevator to make sure there's full movement and not nuts or bolts missing; Checking the fuel, and checking to make sure the lights are working and functional. Then we started up the plane, much like you would start up a car as it is fuel injected too. The only exception is that it burns approximately 10 gallons of fuel per hour! Then we taxied over to the hold short line at the end of runway 35. We went through the normal checklist procedures for run-up prior to take off, which is to make sure everything is in normal working order. We pulled onto the runway after receiving our departure clearance from the control tower, and took off. We made a turn to the Southwest so that Josh could show me the practice areas that I will be using to practice my skills. This area to the Southwest is about 10 miles outside the airport. We had to stay below 2500 feet in elevation as at 2500 feet and above is part of the Logan Airport Airspace. We didn't want to piss anyone off up there so we made sure to stay below that elevation. We went out, and judging from my controls of the airplane, Josh decided to throw some more advanced maneuvers at me instead of just the basics. So we did some ascending turns and descending turns. It's definitely going to take some practice to get those maneuvers down and coordinated. I have to work on making my scan of the instruments more effective so I can spend more time just flying the plane. I'm finding myself already overthinking things. I'll just have to keep reminding myself to just fly the plane. Oh yea, the Southwest practice is area is next to one of New England's famous landmarks. It is literally right next to Gillette Stadium!! I'll try to get some shots of it in my travels. The other area is over Brockton/Plymouth. So after a tour of the two practice areas and a few tries at practicing the skills, we flew back up to Norwood, a straight shot into the airport from about 10 miles out. We flew in using the localizer, which in layman terms is more or less a radio navigation system that takes you straight to the middle of the airport on the runway heading. This is often used in instrument training, so if we can solidifythis skill too I will be leaps and bounds ahead when I get to it in my instrument training. We came in and landed, one of the most near perfect landings you could have, so soft and smooth. We pulled off the runway and I taxied the plane myself back down the taxiway to the hold short line at the end of the runway. We did the run-up again and got clearance from the tower to fly the pattern. We took off as before, except this time made a right turn to a heading of 080 degrees to start the crosswind portion of the traffic pattern until we reached 1100 feet. We then turned to a heading of 170 degrees and headed downwind parallel to the runway. Half was down the downwind leg we reduced engine rpm to start slowing to 85knots and added 1 notch of flaps. We turned another 90 degrees to 260 degrees. Slowed to 75 knots and added another notch of flaps and in the process of the descent. Leading the turn from base to final, slowed to 65 knots, and added the last 10degrees of flaps and now on a heading of 350 degrees. We just made a full circle and came in for the final landing. We taxied over to the parking area after the landing and went in to talk for a few minutes. We discussed his thoughts of my skills, and where we would move onto tomorrow. Tomorrow we will be covering slow flight, power on stalls, and power off stalls.

Time to do some review, flight sim time at OWD (Norwood Airport), more reading.

More exciting times to come! Stay tuned!