My First Flight, Training that is.

I started my real world flight training today. I cannot imagine how long I have been waiting for this day and the days to follow, for I cannot remember at what age I first looked skyward. I see my self quite fortunate that my current situation allows me the opportunity to receive my pilots license. I am going to keep a log of my experiences on this blog and will try to keep as current as I can. I am quite sure the rest of my post will not be nearly this long, as this was my first flight.

Introductions
The weather was incredible in San Luis Obispo for today flight. The weather was warm, the wind low, and the sky's clear except for the haze generated by the fires in Northern California. I met my flight instructor at Pig's Can Fly Aviation and we started my training. After a few introductions, we went over the flight plan for the day. The flight was very basic and would only consist of straight and level flight, climbs and descents, and normal rate turns. The physics of flight were briefly reviewed, and my experience as a aerospace student and flight sim hobbyist shined greatly in this knowledge; however, during this briefing, by instructor gave one word of caution about my flight sim experience. Resist the urge to look at the instruments. VFR flying is all about looking out the windows, feeling the plane in the seat of you pants, and listening to the sounds an airplane makes. While my sim can create the allusion of some of these senses, it really is a completely different experience, as I learned fly the SNJ-5.

The Plane
My level of excitement rose as we walked up to the Cessna 172N. It didn't matter that the aircraft clearly showed its age. This would be the very plane that I would get my license in. The preflight revealed its experience. The seams of the door stuck out a bit. The flight control surfaces were slightly warped from overzealous preflight inspections. The leather seats were dry and cracked.

Away we go
With the preflight done, and the engine started, we taxied out to the end of the runway and performed the engine runup. With everything satisfactory and permission from the tower, it was time to take flight. The takeoff from runway 29 went smoothly and we departed out to the west aiming our small aircraft for the large, but hidden rock(At this point I fully realized how smokey the air was) that defined Morro Bay. This would be the flight training area for the day.

The instructor had me practice climbs, leveling off, descents and leveling off again. Shallow turns were made back and forth across the bay, as I practiced maintaining level flight in turns and keeping the plane level. Proporly trimming the aircraft was greatly stressed because once it was done, the plane just flew itself. Before I knew it, the hour whizzed by and we needed to return to land. I made the approach into the airport, but because it was just the first flight, the landing was left completely up to my instructor while I observed. Landing was uneventful and I help secure the aircraft back on the ramp.

Total flight time logged: 1 Hour

And so concluded my first instructed flight. Many thanks to my flight instructor, and I can't wait for my next lesson this weekend.