Well I had my first “Official” flight lesson today. The one back in April was what they call an “Adventure Flight”. Today’s lesson was the first “Official” one.
This lesson however started earlier with going over the lessons from the Sporty’s Pilot Training DVD Course. Sporty’s offers these online or via DVD. I had tested the online version and the connection even with a DSL account still was not fast enough for reliable use. So I went with the DVD course. The first lesson basically goes over the paperwork required on the aircraft as well as the local dispatch procedures. (How you get an airplane assigned to you). We went over the “GO/NO-GO” decision process. While this was just a “training hop”, we went through the process as if this was a point-to-point trip, with respect to the GO/NO-GO decision process. We next went over the procedures for filing a flight plan with Flight Service. Manassas is within the Washington DC Special Flight Rules Area and therefore you have to file a flight plan with Flight Service when flying out or into Manassas. This process has been made pretty easy with some prestored flight plans on file at Flight Service and all you have to do is modify the departure times, altitude..basically answer 3/4 questions and your done. These SFRA flight plans are automatically opened when your cleared for Takeoff and automatically closed when ATC clears you out of the SFRA airspace. We then went over the use of Checklists, aircraft servicing procedures, flight controls, instruments, emergency equipment,etc. We generally talked over the Pre-flight checklist before walking out to the airplane.
We then walked out to the airplane.
Cessna 172M
I went over the Preflight Checklist and then we climbed in. Continuing with the checklist, through startup and before taxi. We then taxi’d out to the end of the runway, did the runup’s, then called the tower for departure. The tower cleared for takeoff on One Six Right (Movie title)…we crossed 16L over to 16R, centered up on the runway then off we went.
Again the air was very “bumpy” and the bouncing around made me very nervous this flight. I had the Death Grip on the yoke. The Instructor, Roger Coughman, kept trying to talk me into easying my grib. Eventually I was able to fly with just the fingertips, but it was a struggle. I also had problems trimming up the aircraft but eventually got the hang of it. After about 40 minutes of climbing, decending, and generally just trying to maintain attitude, we headed back into Manassas. Roger handle the Radios today as I was busy enough just flying the aircraft. Manassas cleared us to land on 16L and I turned us onto final. Roger then took over as there was a pretty good crosswind. We landed and then I taxied back to East Ramp.
So another .9 hours flying …along with the Adventure flight that gives me 1.9 hours of flight time.
The game plan is to go over the first lesson objectives and then work my way through the 2 and 3 lesson on the DVD course. More to come.
Oh by the way, here’s a google earth picture of KHEF where I fly out of..
Manassas Regional Airport/Harry P. Davis Field
This is soooo cool. Who is the good looking guy in the picture?
Sorry – how do you access the “prestored flight plans on file at Flight Service”? I’ve been trying to get my brother to pick me up at Manassas, and he’s nervous about going into the SFR area.
The prestored flight plans are (as I understand it) for the training aircraft that are based in the sfra area. I believe the various flight schools arranged that with Flight service. I have to update the prestored info with the info about the current flight. so it’s pretty easy. Flying into Manassas is easy, you just need to take the sfra course provided by the FAA and file the flight plan. and NEVER squawk “1200″ in the SFRA.