Sunday, September 2, 2012
Flight Lessons, learning to land, yea not so much
I woke up today and knew right off what I wanted to do, so I made the call to the same place I had taken my last lesson from.
That took some convincing on my own part, lots of talking to myself as the plane had many problems before it even took off, and well lets face it, things like that are not what you really want to deal with in the air, I will reflect back on that gem of an experience in my next blog.
I made the call and the instructor was unsure who I was, he sounded a little groggy, hung over perhaps? I dono but I knew he was the only person I knew who was willing to take me up on a couple hours notice, yea, this is beginning to sound like something out of a movie, young novice wanting to learn to fly, goes to bar, finds old drunkard flight instructor and takes up his barely flyable plane.
Ok well not quit that bad but, well it does cross your mind during the conversation "how many hours you have again"
Me "well I dono I guess two in a plane" I still have no Idea why the count the helicopter, comparing the two is kind of like saying a wolf and a hours are similar since they are both land mammals.
"ok well we will work on turns" and then I just heard "blah blah blah" cause I did plenty of that last time, damn it and I mastered it, so lets move on.
I jumped on the motorbike and with a twist of the throttle and some kick ass lean angles going thru the canyon I was there, my first adrenaline rush fulfilled.
The day was windy and smokey, I probably could have picked a better day but what the hell, I was excited, my man genes kicked in and all I could think of was the bragging rights once I had finally got my pilots license and the fun I would have today.
We decided I would work on landings today since I just couldn't be bothered repeating and practicing what I had learned last time, I must learn to land I determined.
And off we went into the wild blue smokey yonder, off I go, into the sky "quit lolly gagging and pay attention" he snapped, ok yea well so much for day dreaming "turn here, throttle down, flaps down, nose down, NOT LIKE THAT YOU WILL DRIVE US INTO A WHOLE IN THE GROUND" yea ok that is helpful as If IM not nervous enough "keep the nose down when we are 50 feet from the runway then pull up"
R you serious? fifty feet from five thousand? wtf is wrong with this guy?
I pull up, "ok now count to ten give it some throttle" which I do and I am buzzing right along, waiting for the plane to magically lift off itself "pull up pull up your running out of runway" now this is not what I remember from last time when he said "they just kind of take off themselves" obviously not if I have to pull up before I start mowing the pasture.
"Hand on the throttle, quit taking it off" yea uhm ok "why are you looking at your gauags, quit looking at your wing" ok damn it, last time he said to look at the wing so I could figure the horizon "Quit pulling up so high or you cannot see the mountains"
Now this I do not understand, I dont need to see the goddamn ground in front of me I want to look into the sky as far as I am concerned as the mountains are miles upon miles away and there is no way in hell they will be a problem today.
So we circle back around with him barking orders, me lollygagging wondering what in the hell I was thinking, especially with the damn turbulence today, obviously I should have just rodeod at least then I only had to hold on for eight friggin seconds.
Now we are going nice and parallel and iM looking at the runway "Ok hold on, watch that passenger jet where it lands, we cannot land in the same spot or the turbulence will flip us over"
Ok now I am sure this was not the best thing I could think of doing for today being in a plane that can flip over in turbulence left from the previous flying elephant? this sucks!!!
So In I go lets see, throttle down, nose down, Rutter down, feel it, feel it, guide it to the runway, oh hell no, not with the invisible wind pushing me from side to side and him "Steer the damn thing it wont land itself" yea that is encouraging nothing like positive reinforcement.
I manage to scrape out a landing, I am at this point only happy we did not as he put it "dig a hole in the ground" but soon we are back up again, getting bucked around some more, with me having trouble with the throttle.
Yup that is right, the damn throttle kicked my ass, since I was a child every tractor and piece of equipment I have operated had a lever you PULLED for more throttle, nooo not on an airplane, the builders had to make a throttle you PUSHED like a friggin peddle instead, this would be my Achilles heal on this day.
Now I am ready to land again, but yet another passenger plane landed in front of me, are you friggin serious? the wind is still bucking us all over the place and every friggin time I land has to be behind a flying elephant?
But it went well, the next one was ok, and the last one was fine.
All in all I left a bit unsure on this, I am glad he was strict, it goes with my old theory while flying "there is no place to pull over up there" but after today I'm not so sure this is something for me.
I guess I would like to finish it out, get my license and at least have that notch in my belt for experience.
At some point i should take up something a little less dangerous, perhaps extreme origami?
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