Lesson 1, 1.6hrs

I meet Ed in the parking lot of Classic Helicopters at Boeing Field and we begin our lesson immediatly with a description of the security procedures at the field. Next time we'll meet inside the gate at our plane. I need to get an airport badge, but to do that I need to join the club. The club is Alternate Air and most of my dealings with it will be via email to a guy named Brad, or via the dropbox located at the tiedown spot. I need to remember to stock up on checks, since that's how I'll be paying for all this.

Our plane is a 1967 C150. There's another C150 owned by the club parked next to us and it has better radios, but is reserved by someone else. There's also a C172. C150s are the same as C152s only older; Cessna changed the name to 152 around 1978. These are small 2 person craft, but Ed says that in one way, at least, they're easier to get into than the larger 172 because of the amount of legroom by the door is greater.

Ed walks me through the preflight, which is documented in a nice little set of laminated and ring-bound papers he's made up for me. I remember the basics of the preflight from my lessons years ago; essentially we are making an orderly inspection of the visible parts of the plane. We also check the fuel for water contamination. 100LL fuel is colored blue, and water will be clear and settle to the bottom of the test tube. Ed demonstrates by pouring in some water so I can see first hand what I'm on the lookout for. It's pretty apparent but I'm glad for the demonstration.

We decide that I'm going to do the radio calls, or at least the planned ones. I'm concerned about there being too much going on, but figure it's better to start off immediately not depending on Ed for anything that I can most likely handle. He'll take over if I mess up. One of the reasons I wanted to train out of Boeing Field is so that I can become confidently proficient at controlled aiports. I dont want to have any lingering fears about operating out of what will likely be my home base when I'm certified.

Of course I have trouble with the first radio call - I have to write down the sequence in order to remember it, but pretty much get it right. I need to remember there's no "A", just "Alpha". I'll make this mistake more than once this flight. I think the thing I'm most worried about with radio calls is recognizing when the Tower is calling me with instructions. During the flight that happens once or twice and Ed responds for me.

My taxi-ing sucks. I'm all over the place but mainly not on the yellow centerline. I need to focus on this more next time.

Takeoff too - a lot is going on and I'm doing all the work zig-zagging down the runway while Ed's knuckles turn white. I'm sure the guys in the tower are chuckling. Once in the air Ed keeps telling me to maintain 75 knots for climb, but I'm floating all around that number. He keeps telling me "more right rudder". This is to counteract the torque affect of the prop during a climb. Every time I apply rudder it seems to turn me too much. So perhaps more even rudder and a bit of opposite aileron to counter the turn...?

I'm watching the instruments too much. Ed wants me to look out the windscreen more and develop a feel for what climbout "looks like" or straight and level "looks like" or a 20 degree turn "looks like".

We head out to Bremerton which is one of the practice areas for students like me. We try some turns which at first I do timidly but then seem to get pretty well. 30 degrees is just fine. 5 to 10 degrees is pretty darn shallow.

Now we try some stalls. We have a hard time stalling which I dont really understand since given the heat it should be easy. I get the concept of what to do: apply power, nose down just enough to let the plane recover and begin climbing again. But putting it together is hard and I'm not doing it well yet.

We decide to fly some touch and gos. Ooops, we almost enter the pattern in the wrong direction. But once we get going it's fun, practicing turns, takeoffs, and landings. I have a lot of practice to do. My first two landings are pretty good, but the third has me veering off the runway and Ed has to kick the rudder to straighten us out.

Headed back to BFE Ed describes the landmarks to shoot for and the procedures for entering the pattern: Call the tower near Blake and let them know we're approaching. Head for the West Seattle resivoir, staying North or South depending on the runway / direction that's in use. Notify the Tower when we reach the resivoir. Then, for North landing on 31L, it's a quick sequence to turn downwind then base and final. I overbank my base turn and Ed takes over to get us on track.

31L is a big runway. Even so, it's good form not to zig zag all over it.

Taxiing in to park I lose too much momentum. I need to practice slowing down and bringing the plane in to the tiedown area nice and smoothly.

To kill the engine, 1000RPM then lean the fuel out all the way.

Ed advises that I should call my wife and let her know we've landed.

Our debrief takes a while but Ed keeps on providing valuable information that I hope is sticking with me. I feel overloaded but excited that I'm back in the game. My mind is already starting to think about the things I want to focus on for next time.

We plan our next lesson to be Saturday at 11.