Lesson 2 - Slow Flight

It’s the Easter long weekend and I had two flights booked as well as a lot of other things planned, but I end up getting sick and spend most of the weekend at home. Monday I’m feeling okay, so I’m sure to make it down to the airport as to not make the long weekend a total waste. The school's schedule was booked solid, so I wouldn’t have much flex room for the flight. As my instructor debriefs his previous student I go ahead and start calculating the weights for the craft and get the ATIS (weather). We quickly cover what we’ll be doing today and head out to the plane. Twenty minutes to do an inspection and we’re ready to go.

Now I’ve been reading up on the radio protocols and I’ve even been doing a bit of practice at home on Microsoft Flight Simulator, but working the radios is the part I’ve been most anxious about. Today I'm to call for taxi clearance. I go over it with my instructor three times before trying to make the call; all the while the engine is burning my money. I push the button and call “Cessna one-five-two golf charlie lima echo on apron requesting taxi for east-bound departure.” I’m too amazed that I didn’t forget a word or stutter to bother listening to the reply, but I'm given a thumbs up and we start rolling. I request to take off and we’re up.

We head over to a practice area near a valley in the mountains, north of Pitt Meadows. It’s a beautiful view down the valley and there are all types of weather around us. Where we are is mostly clear, but to the east, above Mission, there’s a big, black wall of storm clouds trying to suck us in with their convection. To the north, clinging to the mountains are white puffy clouds gently sprinkling snow. To the west is the city, covered in the usual ugly overcast and smog. We practice slow flight as well as some climbing and descending turns. Advanced stuff considering I’m only on my second lesson. We do a touch and go at Pitt Meadows Airport then head home. I do one last call to report our position to CZBB and we complete another awkward crosswind landing on runway 07. We debrief and my instructor tells me that I have good airplane control, but that’s the easy part. I need to start ground school soon and need to get my medical. I also made note to myself to work on my radio and landing skills more. Not to mention get a headset that actually fits me.

Boundary Bay at the end of my flight

Lesson 1 - Climbs & Descents

I had my first lesson booked for eleven o’ clock but as I bussed down to the airport the sky was dark and wet. I had to fill out some forms, so I thought at least the trip wasn’t going to be a complete waste. When I got to the airport the rain had stopped and the clouds seemed ever so slightly lighter. Maybe there was hope. I filled out the forms and met up with my instructor a bit early. We did a long briefing about climbs and airspace then went to check the weather. As we sat on the computer my would-be instructor for my familiarization flight asked if he could take up my current instructor's next student since he likes to meet all of the students at the school. I believe he's the head instructor. It was agreed and we spent the next block of time going over the weather charts in detail and talked about the aircraft documentation. It was now about one-thirty and the sky was a couple notches clearer, but still quite spotty. It was suggested that it might be nice enough to go up after lunch -not to mention I was starving- so I grabbed a club sandwich at the Skyhawk Café in the airport.

After lunch I'm told that since the weather was so bad in the morning the rest of my instructor's students had cancelled their bookings. We spent the next hour going over things like the pre-flight inspection and then I spent some time alone in the cockpit memorizing checklists. Finally, at about three o’ clock, we went up. We practiced turns near Mission and did a touch-and-go at Abbotsford International. I earned another 1.2 hours for my logbook but compared to the rest of the day I felt like we were in the air for less than five minutes. My instructor apologized for delaying the flight for so long but I was glad that I could spend the day at the airport learning about my new passion; flying.

Familiarization Flight

Josh and I went down to Boundary Bay Airport as we had familiarization flights booked for 1:00. When we checked in we found my instructor had the day off so we both went with Josh’s instructor to calculate our loads for our flights while the front desk worked out the scheduling. We soon found that Josh was just a bit too big for the 152 (two seat Cessna) so we upgraded him to the 172 (four seat Cessna). Since we now had a bigger plane, we decided to all go together. We're shown how to do the preflight inspection but it goes a little slow as Josh and I ask about the workings of every part of the plane. It doesn’t bother our instructor though, and he’s glad that we’re asking a lot of questions.

Josh is the first to fly. We took off from Boundary Bay (CZBB), did a touch-and-go (a maneuver where as soon as you land you take off again) at Pitt Meadows (CYPK) and then landed there. We used the washrooms there and then I got in the left seat (where the pilot in command (PIC) normally sits) and took off. I did a touch-and-go (T&G) at CYPK then slowly flew back to CZBB. We requested to land on runway 07 because it's closer to the apron, but it was a harsh crosswind. Our instructor had been letting us handle most of the T&Gs and landings so far but this time he was operating the controls firmly as he crabbed his way down correcting just above the threshold. Josh and I bought logbooks and I was signed me on my first 0.6 hours of flight time.