I missed flying the previous week due to weather, so I was sure I was going to be rusty about some things with it being two weeks since my previous lesson. Still, I had done a fair bit of chair flying (sitting in a chair and pantomiming the motions while going through the procedures in my head) and after my previous “instrument flying” fiasco, I realized I was going about things completely wrong. That was a habit that had to change, and change quickly. I was ready to work on that. Preflight work was beginning to seem routine, which I think is a good thing. Routine enough, at least, to where I did everything even if I forgot a step and went back to it before checking against the checklist to make sure I had covered everything.
Seriously, I got tripped up by the safety briefing again—embarrassingly so because I had just gotten off of a commercial flight the previous day where I cheerfully ignored the safety briefing because I’d heard it a hundred times. So I punted on the safety briefings for the day, leaving them to my instructor so I could concentrate on flying the plane. I’ll get them another time. He now has them posted with my lesson plans, so I’ll have them to refer to before the next flight. Whether I remember them, well…
My instructor left me to do all the preflight work this time, which I’m getting more confident with. Repetition is a good thing. We pulled out onto the line, started up, and proceeded to the run-up area. Run-up is where you check to make sure things are working before taking off, get the latest weather info, and talk to ATC about what you would like to do. You double-check your breakers, set your gauges, check the left and right magnetos, alternator, and generally make sure all your needles are in the green where they belong. Make sure the flight controls are free and clear. After a pre-takeoff “what to do in the event of an aborted takeoff” briefing, we proceeded per ATC’s instructions to the runway.
Line up with the numbers, apply full throttle, right rudder only as needed to stay on centerline. Finally, I got it without much issue. Reach rotation speed, apply back pressure on the yoke, and let the airplane start to climb. Throttle is at full. Climb rate and airspeed is controlled by what? Pitch attitude. The higher the nose, the slower the airspeed. There’s a target airspeed you want to hit, in the case of the Cessna, around 75 knots give or take. DO NOT look at the VSI. Just don’t do it. Watch your horizon against your nose, and watch your airspeed. If the nose to horizon is consistent, your airspeed will be consistent. That's physics. Let that be your guide. Watch outside, watch outside, confirm with gauges. Watch outside, watch outside, confirm with gauges. This is starting to make sense.
Line up with the numbers, apply full throttle, right rudder only as needed to stay on centerline. Finally, I got it without much issue. Reach rotation speed, apply back pressure on the yoke, and let the airplane start to climb. Throttle is at full. Climb rate and airspeed is controlled by what? Pitch attitude. The higher the nose, the slower the airspeed. There’s a target airspeed you want to hit, in the case of the Cessna, around 75 knots give or take. DO NOT look at the VSI. Just don’t do it. Watch your horizon against your nose, and watch your airspeed. If the nose to horizon is consistent, your airspeed will be consistent. That's physics. Let that be your guide. Watch outside, watch outside, confirm with gauges. Watch outside, watch outside, confirm with gauges. This is starting to make sense.
Out comes a big sheet of paper. Apparently my instructor forgot his sticky notes, so he had to improvise. What for? Well, when learning to fly by instruments, you fly under a hood that prevents you from looking out the windows. When you have a nasty habit of flying by the instruments and not looking outside, you fix that by covering the instruments. No instruments forces you to look outside, to listen to the engine, and to feel what the plane is doing. Take the instruments away, and you’re 100% flying by visual cues. I spent the flight climbing, descending, and turning using the horizon and reference points in the airplane. I’d fly a bit, mess something up, and then my instructor would fly the same maneuver so I could see what it’s supposed to look like out the window. This is not something you can learn from a book or YouTube video. It’s something you have to see and feel from the controls in the air. It’s all based on where your eyes are in the plane and how you perceive things around you from that position. With that revised reference, it was easy to fix mistakes, and—hopefully—break bad habits. We landed with me feeling for the first time that I was actually in control of the airplane, acting ahead of it instead of playing catch-up. Next time? Hopefully that will continue.
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