First Flight, First Post

So yesterday, after many years of procrastination, I took my first flight lesson. It is something I have wanted to do my entire life. I've always had a big fascination with planes, especially historic WWI & WWII fighters and the like. I've been to airshows and air museums, I love movies and videos games that involve air combat and even built scale models for a while. But now, I'm doing it for realz.

Sunday morning: excitement turns to frustration as the instructor calls me 15 minutes before scheduled flight time to say the weather is too bad for an introductory flight and we postponed the lesson 24 hours.

Theresa fuels our Cessna 150

The next morning I arrived at historic Pearson Field Airport, the longest continuously operating airfield in the US, to take my lesson. My instructor, Theresa Nelson, pulled our Cessna 150, up to the fuel pumps outside the office and I walked on out to get in. The cockpit looked SO small. A C150 is a tiny little aircraft. After fueling, we pushed it back outside the safety circle around the fuel pumps...the plane is really light too. I was starting to get nervous. I was expecting the aircraft to be a little more, well...substantial.

The tiny looking cockpit

I got my headset on and Theresa fired up the engine. We went through the engine pre-flight and started taxiing to the runway. Theresa surprised me by letting me taxi for a short distance, steering with the rudder/brake pedals.

We stopped at the hold-line and checked to make sure no one was on final approach. Then we were in position on the centerline, applying full throttle...the C150 is light and starts lifting at 45 mph...and in no time at all we're airborne. We turned around downtown Vancouver and Theresa flew us right over my house...I was so excited I forgot to snap a photo. You see, I live around six blocks from Pearson Field and one of the approaches takes small aircraft over my house all day long...it's parallel to the airfield and is the point where pilots cut throttle and begin to apply flaps, starting their slow turning descent towards the runway.

Flying over Clark College

We then turned NW towards Vancouver Lake and Sacappoose beyond. Theresa let me take the yoke and start piloting the aircraft all by my lonesome. She showed me how to trim the aircraft so it would fly level when you let go of the yoke. I then climbed to 1,500 feet, leveled out, trimmed the aircraft and flew along for a while. As we were getting ready to turn around, Theresa started showing me how to make neater turns using the rudder. I then turned us back towards Vancouver Lake and the airfield and began descending to1,000 feet. After passing over the lake, Theresa took the controls and we got ready to start our approach. Now I could finally take a moment to a snap a photo.

We came in for a smooth landing and taxied over to where the planes are parked next to the hangers. Theresa  demonstrated how to tie the knots on the tie-down ropes. Remember, the C150 starts flying at 45 mph, so a strong gust could flip all the planes on the tarmac if they weren't tied down. There is also a pin-lock on the yoke to keep the ailerons from flapping in the wind.

My Pilot's Logbook

Theresa filled out the first entry in my new Pilot Logbook ($13.49) and explained my next steps. So from here on out, it's mostly all about the flying. Each lesson currently costs around $180 (cost goes up a bit as the planes get bigger) and will  result in approximately one and a half hours of logged flight time. Today's intro flight was $65 and lasted just over a half hour. It takes around 12 to 15 hours to be ready to solo. I start the six-week ground school in January at a cost of $520 for course, books and materials. The total cost to get to get the minimum hours required by the FAA (40) for a pilot's license is $5,335. Actual estimated cost is $8,500, more if you take a long time learning stuff. I hope to get a few more flights in before the weather turns too ugly and then will resume flying in the spring after completing ground school.

Update: Next flight scheduled for 8:30am this coming Thursday...I think I got the bug!

Hours of flight logged this lesson: 0.6 Dual Received (DR)
Cost of this flight lesson and logbook: $79.60