A friend of mine sent this to me the other day. He flew when he was in the Navy and thought I would enjoy this. I was a private pilot for a number of years while I was in the Army, and flew to meetings in other states in the little Cessna 172 as it was much easier, required less time, and was less of a hassle to do so. Besides, the government paid for it !! Is this a great country or what??
As I read this short article, I thought back to my time as a student pilot and recognized some of these traits in myself and other student pilots who would hang out in the pilot shack, extolling their daring and self-proclaimed feats of aerodynamic brilliance. I really wasn't as bad as our subject "student," as my absolute operational rules were: 1) Do not scare your passengers, and 2) the airplane needs to be returned in the same condition is was when you started. With that in mind, enjoy the article (Thanks, Keith).
A Flying students’ diary
Week 1
Monday: Rain
Tuesday: Rain
Wednesday: No rain; but no visibility either
Thursday: Take instructor to lunch. Discover I don’t know enough to take instructor to lunch.
Friday: Fly! Do first stall and second stall during same maneuver. Cover instructor with lunch.
Week 2
Monday: Learned not to scrape frost off Plexiglas with ice-scraper. Used big scratch as marker to set pitch.
Tuesday: Instructor wants me to stop calling throttle “THAT BIG KNOB THING.” Also hates when I call instruments “GADGETS”
Wednesday: Radios won’t pick up radio stations, so I turned them off. Instructor seems to think I missed something.
Thursday: Learned 10 degree bank is not a steep turn. Did stall again
today. Lost 2000 feet. Instructor said that was some kind of record — my
first compliment.
Friday: Did steep turn. Instructor said I was not ready for inverted flight yet.
Week 3
Monday: Instructor called in sick. New instructor told me to stop
calling her “BABE”. Did steep turns. She said I had to have permission
for inverted flight.
Tuesday: Instructor back. He told me to stop calling him “BABE”, too. He
got mad when I pulled power back on takeoff because the engine was to
loud.
Wednesday: Instructor said after the first 20 hours, most students have
established a learning curve. He said there is a slight bend in mine.
Aha–progress!
Thursday: Did stalls. Clean recovery. Instructor said I did good job.
Also did turns around a point. Instructor warned me never to pick
ex-fiancée’s house as point again.
Friday: Did circuit work. Instructor said that if downwind, base and final formed a triangle, I would be perfect. More praise!
Week 4
Monday: First landing at a controlled field. Did fine until I told the
captain in the 747 ahead of us on the taxiway to move his bird.
Instructor says we’ll have ground school all this week on radio
procedures.
Tuesday: Asked instructor if everyone in his family had turned grey at
such an early age. He smiled. We did takeoff stalls. He says I did just
fine but to wait until we reached altitude next time. Three-Niner Juliet
will be out of the shop in three days when the new strut and tire
arrive. Instructor says his back bothers him only a little.
Wednesday: Flew through clouds. I thought those radio towers were a lot lower. I’m sure my instructor is going grey.
Thursday: Left flaps down for entire flight. Instructor asked why. I
told him I wanted the extra lift as a safety margin. More ground school.
Friday: Asked instructor when I could solo. I have never seen anyone actually laugh until they cried before.
For those who have known the thrill of being a pilot in charge of an airplane that is capable of carrying one into the land of angels, this will hit home as funny, scary, unbelievable and amazing. We've all been there...and now we look back and remember those times.
When
once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your
eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always
long to return. (Leonardo Da Vinci)
Hooah
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