As with many things in (my) life, my flying experiences are rarely planned. Why should today be any different? A brief phone call from our friend Roger (also a Flight Instructor) was all it took to get me out of the house and down to the airport. Accompanied by The Man o’ the House (my Flight Instructor) and The Bubblette, my daughter, we headed out the door.
Today’s lesson was to be from the right seat only – still a loggable event and still practical experience. Roger was kind enough to do the pre-flight inspection again and I learned that I didn’t know enough about the static air vents (what three systems depend on the static air vents?? Hmmm, let’s see, that would be your air speed indicator, your vertical speed indicator and your altimeter). Better start reading more…
After pre-flight, with The Man o’ the House and The Bubblette in the back, we began taxiing out of Banyan. Now, it also became apparent to me that I need more time on the radio! Hmmm…”Uhhhh, Executive Ground, uhhhhhhhhhh, November two-zero-six-Uniform, uhhhh…” Sheesh. As The Man o’ the House later explained, “Tell them who you are, what you are and what you want.” I will try to remember that next time.
When the traffic stopped, we taxied away from Banyan and headed out toward the runway. Don’t ask me which one because I haven’t quite figured out how to interpret the garble I hear from the tower. Count your lucky stars I am not in control of the aircraft. Taxiing was easy in the Cessna 206, I did manage to keep the aircraft on the yellow line (I get a gold star for this trick) and the run-up before take-off was informative.
Never cycle the propeller such that the something-or-other drops more than 75 something-or-others – obviously room for improvement. To borrow a line from Richard Bach,
“Now perched the Observer on my reserve harness.”
(Well, okay, I didn’t really have a reserve harness but…)
OBSERVER: Let’s see…unable to request clearance from tower, unaware of instrument names, probably unaware of function. Remembered that instrument did have units, though. Might pass a physics test based on cancelling out of units; should test this one more thoroughly.
Okay, time to take-off. Left hand on throttle, right hand on yoke, moving down the runway at increasing speed, nose seems to become lighter, gently pull back on yoke and…we’re airborne!! Then I hear Roger say, “Climb! I want to climb!”
OBSERVER: Difficulty keeping aircraft in center of runway, refuses to climb properly.
This day’s practice included Straight and Level flight (obviously my favorite), Left Turns, Right Turns, Left Ascending Turns, Right Ascending Turns, Left Descending Turns, and Right Descending Turns. Landings are still a bit of a problem. I cannot gauge my altitude and distance from the landing strip – I have no sense of this!
OBSERVER: Refuses to land aircraft. Not a candidate for Military Air Carrier manuevers.
