PPL Lesson 1

So after an hour in the air with H, Steve and Matt we had taxied back and parked up for a quick swap. Well, I say quick, there was lots of moaning and groaning coming from me trying to get out. Sat now in the pilot seat (left) I figured this was going to be dead easy seeing what Steve had done, I chose the flight out past Haxey VRP and a suggestion of a fly over the Humber bridge sounded awesome.... at least at the moment it did.

Matt handed me the checklists and asked if it was definitely something I was going to learn. "Oh Yes, no doubt" I replied, "Ok in which case you can do all the checks before we set off first and taxi out". Awesome I thought to myself and started running through checks, nearly missing a few on the way in excitement and soon Matt had started the aircraft. I have to admit at this point that I couldn't start the engine for love nor money and Matt helped out. So taxiing out to the runway we had our first hiccup, we had instructions to taxi out, only to be faced with a citation jet coming into where we were about to leave and where we were going was another aircraft. The power checks were then done in the tightest of spaces and god only knows how Matt got the plane to turn in that tight circle! Anyhow, we are now sat ready with clearance to take off, at this point I was cool steering it and was quite relaxed until I heard "Well, you need to learn everything so you take off and climb to 2000ft." What happened next was a bit of a blur, power on to full, compensate for the P-effect with rudder and pull back at 65 knotts and climb to 2000ft. Or that's at least what should happen. What really happened was power on, massive pull to the left, I don't press hard enough and all of a sudden we are heading off at an angle down the runway, 65knotts, pull up, turbulence.... wings wobbly and my arse going ten to the dozen. Wanting to in-still confidence I attempted to remain silent!

Then we climbed and hit cloud, and more cloud, and more..... In fact after calling for clearance up to 5000ft to get above the clouds and a good five minutes Matt took the decision to turn around, hand over and let me do some IFR, about the only thing FSX was good for! That was the steadiest I flew all the time and in zero visibility. Thank god I don't get to do that in a normal lesson. We soon popped out of the clouds and went through inputs and effects. Stalling with Flaps, putting the aircraft into a spiral descent using input and recovering and then finally trimming. Which after heading nose down to mother earth was a pleasant activity! Although Steve loved the whole spinning thing.... (adrenaline junkie)

After an hour of roaming around trying to get bearings and trimming the aircraft we three kinda figured Matt would be landing it..... how wrong. I was instructed to get into pattern, turn final, apply flaps, turn base (arse going ten to the dozen by this point) and "just aim to be central to the runway and touch down there" says and points Matt. Easier said than done when I have a vice like grip and the slightest breeze seemed like a tornado, still with a couple of adjustments from Matt we were over the runway, power off, flare..... touchdown.

Not the smoothest but HOW AWESOME! I took off, flew and landed all in one lesson. I'm hooked.

Booked in a couple of weeks, although offers of taking H and Steve up as passengers were quickly declined ( I don't blame them haha).