It was absolutely fantastic!
After the demo where I really didn't do much besides level flight and a few turns, today I basically controlled the plane the whole way. On takeoff, my instructor controlled the pedals. I pretty much handled everything from there. I brought the plane into the pattern, all the way to runway threshold where my instructor helped me touch down. During the flight, he had me perform various climbs and decents, adjusting throttle as necessary and using trim. Practiced some standard 30' turns, and then flew a couple of 360' turns left/right turning at 45' without losing altitude. Then he asked if I wanted to try a few stalls. I told him he was the boss and we did a few stalls. He first showed me how, and then I did a couple myself. No problem. We then did some slow flight using full flaps at ~45 knots. Amazing how stable the plane was. Did some turning and then another stall. He then said the plane was mine and to do whatever I want!
So we flew around and I practiced more of what I just learned, and finally headed back to the airport. The words fantastic and glorious raced through my mind the whole time. It was a perfect day, calm and clear almost 80'. I flew out of KHMT, Hemet, CA and we were basically practicing against the west side of a small mountain range with Palm Springs on the other side.
Shoot, I have get going but will post more tomorrow. One question, and I'll search first before posting a new thread. What ground school/test prep do you guys recommend? My instructor said I could use King or Gleim. I've heard some good things about Gleim (which is cheaper $199 for the kit) and haven't heard anything about King. I'm leaning towards Gleim of course, but would like to hear you experiences before I order.
Thanks guys! I am very excited to begin this new adventure. Actually, words can barely describe how I feel. I'm sure many of you know what I'm talking about.
Todd
I'm planning on flying twice a week, maybe three times every two weeks, which equates to ten hours/month. My goal is to take the checkride at ~30 hours, sometime in May. I see you have had some setbacks, but from everything I hear, it seems important to stay on some type of regular schedule or the training will just drag on, and end up costing a lot more than it should. In my eyes, that extra money will go to rentals after the checkride, and possibly ppl training in the (not too distant) future, if I decide to go that route.
