Since I had my first flight today I figured I would start a thread documenting all my flights, what we did, how long, what I learned. Today was my first time in a small plane, first time in anything smaller than a CRJ200 
The plane was a Cherokee 140 (PA-28-140) My instructor is calm and laid back, very young, but I have no problem with that, he seems to love flying, and being an instructor. He also flies skydivers.
We covered the typical stuff on a first flight, preflight checks, specific things to look for, you know, stuff that isn't mentioned in my Jeppeson textbook that I already read cover to cover, like the color of brake fluid (in this plane it's red, it'd hydraulic fluid, auto brake fluid is slightly amber), and pointing out things like how the fuel check ports are right above the tires, so when they leak, they leak on the tire making them very noticeable, stuff like that. He threw a lot of info and seemed relieved that I already had some basic knowledge.
He let me control the plane from the very beginning,from taxiing all the way to about 100' from landing. Once in the air we went over climbs, descents, shallow turns, and practiced how power and trim affect the plane. This is where I really learned something that I didn't know from the simulator, he showed me how to fly the plane with airspeed, and not rate of climb. While playing around with X-plane having only some book knowledge I was so focused on the VSI indicator I assumed this is how one flies a plane, but from the moment I took off he showed me different, basically climb at 90kts, not at a certain FPM. Another big thing I learned is how much the throttle affects climbs and descents, he showed me that once trimmed for a certain airspeed, a plane wants to fly at that airspeed. So we started at 120, throttle up it climbs, throttle down, it descends, easy! We tried it again at 90kts. Slow down, trim for level flight, add and subtract throttle. So I did taxiing at two airports, bunch of climbs and descents (stomach a little queasy) and takeoffs at two airports.
On the landings, they are also very different from the simulator, he uses no flaps and comes in faster, again the plane trimmed so it flies smoothly to the ground on it's own, then cuts the throttle right before touchdown, flares only a little and we settle smoothly to the ground.also very different, when I try that in X-plane the plane just goes right back in the air, then crashes, lol.
I'm rambling on but there was a lot to learn! Future posts will be shorter. I will close each one with the times and fuel, very exiting to have something in my logbook! Now that I'm an actual student pilot with a whopping 1.4 hours
Aircraft: 1972 Piper PA-28A-140 (160hp)
Route: BQR-GVQ-BQR
Total time with instructor: 2:50
Billed instructor time 2hrs
Hobbs time 1.4hrs
Tach time 1hr (I love tach time, happy the club charges this way)
Fuel used 8.4g 3g right, 5.4 left (estimated, the plane has tabs at the 18 gallon mark, we fill them back up to that)
The plane was a Cherokee 140 (PA-28-140) My instructor is calm and laid back, very young, but I have no problem with that, he seems to love flying, and being an instructor. He also flies skydivers. We covered the typical stuff on a first flight, preflight checks, specific things to look for, you know, stuff that isn't mentioned in my Jeppeson textbook that I already read cover to cover, like the color of brake fluid (in this plane it's red, it'd hydraulic fluid, auto brake fluid is slightly amber), and pointing out things like how the fuel check ports are right above the tires, so when they leak, they leak on the tire making them very noticeable, stuff like that. He threw a lot of info and seemed relieved that I already had some basic knowledge.
He let me control the plane from the very beginning,from taxiing all the way to about 100' from landing. Once in the air we went over climbs, descents, shallow turns, and practiced how power and trim affect the plane. This is where I really learned something that I didn't know from the simulator, he showed me how to fly the plane with airspeed, and not rate of climb. While playing around with X-plane having only some book knowledge I was so focused on the VSI indicator I assumed this is how one flies a plane, but from the moment I took off he showed me different, basically climb at 90kts, not at a certain FPM. Another big thing I learned is how much the throttle affects climbs and descents, he showed me that once trimmed for a certain airspeed, a plane wants to fly at that airspeed. So we started at 120, throttle up it climbs, throttle down, it descends, easy! We tried it again at 90kts. Slow down, trim for level flight, add and subtract throttle. So I did taxiing at two airports, bunch of climbs and descents (stomach a little queasy) and takeoffs at two airports.
On the landings, they are also very different from the simulator, he uses no flaps and comes in faster, again the plane trimmed so it flies smoothly to the ground on it's own, then cuts the throttle right before touchdown, flares only a little and we settle smoothly to the ground.also very different, when I try that in X-plane the plane just goes right back in the air, then crashes, lol.
I'm rambling on but there was a lot to learn! Future posts will be shorter. I will close each one with the times and fuel, very exiting to have something in my logbook! Now that I'm an actual student pilot with a whopping 1.4 hours
Aircraft: 1972 Piper PA-28A-140 (160hp)
Route: BQR-GVQ-BQR
Total time with instructor: 2:50
Billed instructor time 2hrs
Hobbs time 1.4hrs
Tach time 1hr (I love tach time, happy the club charges this way)
Fuel used 8.4g 3g right, 5.4 left (estimated, the plane has tabs at the 18 gallon mark, we fill them back up to that)
