Sitting in the left seat for the first time was both very exciting and very comforting. Yesterday the weather at AWO was outstandingly beautiful and my instructor, although much younger than me, was relaxed and confident.
We walked around the airplane and he quizzed me about what I already knew – he complimented me for the knowledge I had while filling in what I lacked. The routine was familiar and encouraging.
“How much flying will I be doing?”
“Pretty much as much as you feel comfortable with -if you’re in trouble I’ll take the controls.”
Once in he showed me how to start the plane, push in the throttle a little and taxi using the peddles – he didn’t flinch when I nearly drove us into the grass. I got us to the run up spot and he went through the routine and announced we were ready. I told him I felt it would be best if he did the take off.
He held the yoke to the right during take off. He told me that was to offset the effects of the cross wind coming from the west. I was glad he did the take off.
Once we were in the air for a minute however he suggested I take the controls and climb to 2500’. He showed me how to use the trim tab. It suddenly all made sense – unlike in flight sim where there is no feed back.
Once at 2,500’ he had me practice straight and level flight for a while and congratulated me for doing well at it. He showed what would happen if we were out of trim and I felt the difference in the pressure on the control surfaces. It was a startling effect when he rolled the control and the out of trim plane suddenly pitched up. I pushed the yoke in gently and re-trimmed.
“Okay, why don’t you turn to the right?”
I gave him a look and pointed out that I felt the mountains were a little close.
“You have plenty of room. Don’t worry.”
I made a pretty nicely coordinated turn and was again congratulated.
All too soon my time was up and he told me to pull out the throttle to 2000 rpms so we could start to descend. It was the first time the sound of the engine slowing down did not bother me – my hand was on the throttle this time.
He reminded me again, “Pitch, power, trim.” As we got to our desired level of 1200’ in preparation to enter the landing pattern.
I followed I-90 below and the plane in front of me in the pattern.
“I think we’re gaining on that plane,” I said.
“I’ll take over for now, I think we need to do some slow flying.”
Immediately he pulled up the angle of attack, put up some flaps and the plane slowed down – the stall siren also went off.
“Isn’t that the stall siren?” I asked.
“Don’t worry; I’ve done plenty of slow flying.”
Once near the landing strip he explained the geometry of the view and the red and white lights and how they should line up.
He made a perfect landing.
Janice and Larry were waiting for me cheering me on.
I’m going again on Wednesday!
Elisabeth Bee 
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