Sport Pilot Talk

Atrosa wrote:Cfi will have to land it.

Not a big deal. CFI usually lands on first lesson.

Wish me luck.

No, I wish you fun!

Have fun today Tony........I mean as much fun as one can have in a 172.
Let us know how it went when you get back.

First I need to thank everone on this forum. When i met with my CFI he thought i was a plant. He asked me if i really have never flown a plane. When we met i told him I've been studying for the written and where there are holes I'd pose questions out to forums. And that i listen to every podcast i can about flying on my ride into work. Before our first lesson i read much of the POH. I also called 1800wxbrief. (Area icing and low ceiling scrubbed yeaterdays flight) i had printed runway charts of every airport within 20 miles. I also had ready my best guesses as to takeoff decision distances, where to land straight ahead and when we could make "the turn" if something goes wrong.

My cfi said this prep will shave hours off of the typical 70 hours it usually take to get the ppl. This knowledge i have gained is due in large part because of this forum and SCfliers. New England winter flying can be frustrating but when I'm finally up there i will tip my wings to you guys. (No more than 5 degrees, after of course proper clearing turns).

Thank you all.

I logged my first hour. It was surreal. I started taxiing practicing spent about 5 minutes getting a feel for the plane on the ground. Then i was able to do the takeoff. My centerline sucked once we rotated because i was so excited about flying and watching speed i sort of forgot to maintain centerline above the runway. My CFI didn't say a thing but i noticed and said "sorry forgot to maintain centerline down the runway" he said no big deal on your first takeoff. Im getting a "more right rudder" tattoo.

I was able to practice turns. Decents. Climbs. And turning climbs and decents. We departed a ctaf but immediately got flight following. Of corse the was someone in a cherokee who wasn't so atc gave us a heads up. We ending up climbing to 5000 to avoid. He was closer then i would have liked. We even got a traffic alert from the panel. The unknown target never got flight following and was not on the radio.

I was able to enter the pattern turn base and final and the CFI took over about 400 agl. Which I'm happy for because at 200 agl a hawk decided to see how close he could get to our right wing.... It was about 20 feet away..

I have to say this is one of lifes defining moments. I'm grateful for being able to do this.

Up there I remembered paul saying.... Have fun... To Paul.. Mission accomplished.

ShawnM wrote:Have fun today Tony........I mean as much fun as one can have in a 172.
Let us know how it went when you get back.

I'm afraid on pilots of america to say the 172 is ugly... But here i can get away with it. It was intuitive to fly. It sort of seemed to have slow response times but so do I so i guess it is the perfect trainer for a reason.

Thank you for sharing. Sounds like you had an amazing experience!

I've been training for my ppl in a cessna 172 and things are going great. I was scheduling 2 to 3 days a week and BAM Covid 19 is putting a screeching halt to my training. Both me and my CFI are willing to go up there but my 8 year old son's school is cancelled probably for the rest of the school year. So my lunch break training has been put on hold.