Craig Arcuri's Record of his first flight with Fred Clegg<<Back to Expertise | Contact Fred for flight instruction>> June 6, 2002
Thursday Noon – Meeting with my San Jose Instructor June 11,
2002 Tuesday 5:30pm - Flight #3: My first flight at RHV with Fred RHV is a very busy general aviation airport, and I was surprised at the very large numbers of small airplanes parked in the various tie down areas. We, mostly me, completed the pre-flight then used the tow bar to pull the airplane out of its very tight spot and away from the underground gas tanks. Fred taxied us past the tight confines, and past the fuel truck, and then I took over and taxied us up to run-up area. Fred took over and made a tight turn such that we were tucked neatly into the corner of the run-up area thus keeping us well out of the way of everybody else. We did the pre-take off checks, and then he told me to taxi to the hold short line. I did, he contacted ATC to get clearance and then had me taxi out on to the runway. Then, very big surprise for the day, he told me to take off. Uhhhhh, does he realize that this is the 3rd time I have been in an airplane!?! I experience fright for the first time in my short flying career. He senses my trepidation, or perhaps I made some audible noise, so he tells me, smoothly but quickly apply full throttle, keep us down the center line, then at 60mph gently pull the yoke back. He says all this like I am actually paying attention. At the moment I am starting to sweat considering the possibility of taking off myself. He tells me not to worry, he will be on the controls ready to take over if necessary and tells me again to go. So, I go. Mistake number one: I was real slow on the throttle. Not a biggie, but next time I need to remember just to smoothly push it all the way in. So, down the runway we go. I am keeping us more or less straight. Or is he? I am not really sure – there is so much going on. I get a moment to look at the airspeed indicator, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 ahhhhhhh I pull back a little, and holy shit, we leave the ground. I am instantly amazed that it all seems to be working pretty well. We are flying mostly straight, climbing well and I notice am sweating profusely! RHV has parallel runways, so it is important to stay in line with the runway. I can feel us slipping a bit, and Fred confirms this but not to worry about it, he will compensate. I am so fully occupied at the moment that I am relieved when Fred tells me just to concentrate on flying the plane. He tells me to make a right turn, then another right in a bit and we are now heading out the practice area over lake xxx. After what seems like an eternity, I relax a little and ask him, did I do all that? He says yes. Like a little kid, I laugh out loud. I am completely overwhelmed with a sense of accomplishment. We get out to the practice area, and work on shallow turns, steep turns, 360 turns. We do a lot of work on coordinated turns and Fred does some examples. I try, but can’t keep the nose on a point while turning. In fact, now that I think about it, I need to study this because I don’t really understand how that would be possible, or what he was trying to accomplish. The step turns we do are pretty cool. The feeling in the seat of your pants as you pull the g’s is pretty cool. Fred tells me that he wants us to work on 60-degree turns maintaining altitude. His reasoning is that if I can get used to doing that, then the step turn portion of the FAA check ride will be a piece of cake as those steep turns are less than 60-degrees. Makes sense to me. We do a few stalls, and again he expects me to do it. He tells me what to do, and then we do it. First one, I was lost. The second and third I feel much better about. I do not have a hard time resisting the natural reaction to use ailerons when one wing or the other finally drops. I do note that you need to basically use FULL opposite rudder, and right away. We do a few more stalls then head back to the airport. I fly us most of the way back, and we head straight in towards the runway. As we get closer, with Fred takes over and explains what we are going to do to land the airplane. I start getting the sinking feeling that he is going to have me do this, I make my mind up that I will tell him that I do not feel comfortable doing that. I am relieved when he tells me to put my hands on the controls and feel what he does. Key word there being HE. We make a very smooth landing, and he gets us off the runway. We taxi to the parking area, I do all this myself, and am staring to feel good about it. We shut down the airplane and use the tow bar to back it in it’s tight space then I tied it down. We went inside and did a pile of paper work related to joining the flying club (Squadron 2) and then planned our next flight for 5:30pm Wednesday the 19th. I felt pretty good about today. I actually think that one or two more times and I will feel comfortable taking off under good conditions, and turning etc. I still need lots of practice with Pitch-power-trim. Actually, that brings up a good point. I noticed that today, Fred didn’t really harp on Pitch-power-trim at all. Perhaps he expects that I already have it down, or just doesn’t focus on it as much as Shahnu. Either way, this is an example of the differences between two instructors. Not really a problem, just different. In the case of the Pitch-power-trim, I know this will become easier as I get more experienced. Also, since I will be flying with Carl in the 182 on the weekends, this is a great example of something I can practice on. Another question that has been nagging me for a while… Is Shahnu going to tell me what and when I should be reading for the ‘ground’ school, or am I supposed to be doing that on my own? Air time
= 1.0 hours <<Back to Expertise |
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