Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

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By jcal
#1858603
Only now getting around to write this, but since a month ago or so I've finally taken the plunge on the way to a PPL. :-D

It's been about 15 years since the idea of learning to fly came into my head, for some reason always seemed out of my reach. Maybe it was Covid, maybe an early mid-life crisis, but about 2 months ago I decided, **** it, excuse the French, let's do it!

I'm based in East London and was scouting around for a flight school when I found North Weald Flight Training, about 35 minute drive from where I live and work, and from a browse on here it seemed like a good choice! If anyone is flying with them or have in the past, let me know! I want that sweet insider gossip.

I booked a "Trial Lesson", found my way to the airfield, experienced driving into an active aerodrome for the first time (scary that!), met my pilot/instructor, and took off in a Cessna 152 Aerobat (he promised no aerobatics, thanks for that :puker:), and WOW.

Finally I was flying a plane I've flown so many times in simulators (I know, what a cliché). The experience was amazing. The physicality of it, the feeling of sitting in a tin can but actually nimble and so light is nothing that can be simulated. I was in love!

Queue 2 weeks later, and bam, Lesson 1.

Lesson 1

My instructor was the same as for my Trial flight, which I didn't expect but I was very happy. He seems like a great instructor and person.

We started off in the office with some overview of what we were about to do in the air. Instructor tells me he'll give me lots to do as he knows what I can do from the trial flight.. I'm keen, but slightly scared.

Once in the plane, another C152 Aerobat, my FI went through the pre-startup checklist with me from memory (he didn't have the physical checklist with him.. oops!), and let me do most of the steps.

My instructor let me on the controls as soon as the engine was on, while he managed the radio.

To my surprise I was told to line up on the runway and take off. I was not expecting that level of control at my first lesson! Honestly, I loved it.

I followed along as the instructor told me, was far too slow with the throttle (he kept telling me to go full throttle but I took my sweet time....), but otherwise took off reasonably well I think!

And then it was a whirlwind of exercises! My FI was not kidding when he said he was going to give me lots to do. We tried all different ways I can imagine you can manipulate the controls, going up, down, left, right, yaw, slips and even slow flight and flaps. At this point I was starting to feel a bit nauseous, I admit I hate roller coasters and get pretty nauseous in them, and this felt awfully familiar.

We were reaching the end of the lesson after many turns and dips and at this point, as much as I was loving the experience I was really getting nauseous. We were on our way back to the airfield, and I was still in control, my instructor telling me instructions on how you enter a circuit, what to say on radio and I'm sure other things I can't recall right now, when I had to tell him I was holding my lunch down by sheer force :oops:.

He quickly apologized for giving me so much and said we only needed to get back in the circuit and land. I reassured him I really appreciated the high pace, just needed to get a bit of breathing going if we didn't want my lunch on the floor of the Cessna.. :lol:

I was relieved to be on solid ground, but elated to have had a great first lesson.

On our way back to the school he told me I was doing fantastic and was absolutely confident I would do my PPL in the minimum hours. That was great to hear, although I'm in no rush and happy to take my time, it was great to hear at least lesson 1 went well!

Homework

- Recap Straight & Level and Stalls from Pooley's APM vol 1
- Skim through CAP 413 radiotelephony manual - heavy read but good to skim


My next Lesson is tomorrow morning. I can't wait.



PS. Wow.. I've written a bloody book. If you managed to read all the way I'm sorry.
tr7v8, T6Harvard, bladerunner911 and 4 others liked this
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By Rob P
#1858609
Welcome, and what a brilliant write up. I started on the same path in 1988 and with no social media could only bore my small circle of non-flying chums with my tales of derring-do and frustrations. They soon lost interest.

Here we are all riding along with you.

Rob P
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By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1858616
jcal wrote:And then it was a whirlwind of exercises! My FI was not kidding when he said he was going to give me lots to do.
...

Excellent write-up, and it sounds like you have a really enthusiastic instructor.

On our way back to the school he told me I was doing fantastic and was absolutely confident I would do my PPL in the minimum hours.

He's definitely enthusiastic!

Just one word of caution... don't beat yourself up if for some reason it doesn't go quite as smoothly as minimum hours would require.

Back in the day, I too found the early exercises very easy - aircraft handling came quite naturally to me initially and my instructor was very complimentary and said I'd do it easily in the minimum hours (which was 40 in those days).

Then learning to land proved a bit tricky, and then just when I'd got the hang of that, I went into serious overload with navigation, and everything went backwards for a few weeks.

I felt like a complete failure for a while, and also a disappointment to my instructor - the fact that he said I'd easily do it in minimum hours became a massive pressure which in itself slowed me down.

So take it as it comes, and don't give yourself more pressure than the flying does.

Keep the write-ups coming!
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By bladerunner911
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1858619
Thanks for sharing your experiences and we look forward to hearing more!
I threw up on my trial flight so I'm impressed you were able to keep your lunch down long enough to land :-)
Weather does indeed suck as Scott has already mentioned - my last two weekends have been cancelled.
Enjoy every minute, we only get to do this once!
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By T6Harvard
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1858627
The secret to getting flyable weather is to book the same days that I do :mrgreen:

I was told to book 2 lessons per week because then I'd get 1 if I was lucky. Well after 24 lessons I've only lost 3 to the weather.
Consequently I am way over budget for the 3 months since we could start back in mid April!
But I wouldn't have it any other way and if I have to miss a week due to something ridiculous like a visit to family I really miss it.

Tomorrow looks like it'll be a bit bouncy.....
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By NDB_hold
#1858636
For the nausea: extra strong mints. Eat one as soon as it hits. Worked for me - my first lesson was very similar to yours and I threw up after my first 3 lessons before my instructor recommended the mints.
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By jcal
#1858645
Nero wrote:Welcome to the student club! You'll love it, but you'll grow to hate the weather even more than you might do now :)

Thanks! :cheers: Had one booking cancelled due to weather so I've had a taste. Finally some nice days coming up though so going to make the most of it!

T6Harvard wrote:The queasiness will go

That's what I've been told! I'm making sure I have a good breakfast and get proper rest before the lesson tomorrow, I hear that helps..

Rob P wrote:I started on the same path in 1988 and with no social media could only bore my small circle of non-flying chums with my tales of derring-do and frustrations. They soon lost interest.

Amazing! I have only just started and I think I've already exhausted the patience of all my collegues listening to me drone on about my flights :lol:. Well, glad to have you guys around at least!

TopCat wrote:He's definitely enthusiastic!

Just one word of caution... don't beat yourself up if for some reason it doesn't go quite as smoothly as minimum hours would require.

Back in the day, I too found the early exercises very easy - aircraft handling came quite naturally to me initially and my instructor was very complimentary and said I'd do it easily in the minimum hours (which was 40 in those days).

Then learning to land proved a bit tricky, and then just when I'd got the hang of that, I went into serious overload with navigation, and everything went backwards for a few weeks.

I felt like a complete failure for a while, and also a disappointment to my instructor - the fact that he said I'd easily do it in minimum hours became a massive pressure which in itself slowed me down.

So take it as it comes, and don't give yourself more pressure than the flying does.

He's a great guy :), unfortunately I don't think I'll have the chance to fly with him for much more as he was only helping the school out temporarily, so I will have to switch to a different one in a couple of lessons.

Good advice on taking it easy! I told him I was in no rush, and I rather enjoy the ride. It's good to hear the encouragement, but I'll make sure to let them know not to pressure me into doing things quicker than I think I can handle it. I'm a slow but thorough learner, I like to really understand things before I move on.

bladerunner911 wrote:Thanks for sharing your experiences and we look forward to hearing more!
I threw up on my trial flight so I'm impressed you were able to keep your lunch down long enough to land

Thanks for reading! I'm so sorry to hear you threw up, makes me feel slightly better that I'm not the only one :shock:.

T6Harvard wrote:The secret to getting flyable weather is to book the same days that I do :mrgreen:

I was told to book 2 lessons per week because then I'd get 1 if I was lucky. Well after 24 lessons I've only lost 3 to the weather.

Share some of that luck! Let me know you're schedule, I'll put my bookings in :lol:

I'm also booking 2 lessons per week from this week on, although now weather is suddenly stunning for the next fortnight so I guess I'm flying twice as much as I expected!

NDB_hold wrote:For the nausea: extra strong mints. Eat one as soon as it hits. Worked for me - my first lesson was very similar to yours and I threw up after my first 3 lessons before my instructor recommended the mints.

I guess I'm not the only one! Great advice on the mints, I was going to bring gum, but knowing gum gets stale and tasteless so quickly maybe mints is a better idea! Also considering sick bags :roll:
By jcal
#1858938
Rob P wrote:https://generalaviationnews.com/2021/01 ... me-better/


Ah, I'm glad someone had the awful experience of using a normal sick bag so I don't have to :lol:. Any idea if there's a UK or EU shop that stock these? Hopefully I wont need them!

Lesson 2

Yesterday morning. Weather was much better than last time. Wind from the North.

We're out in G-SMOL G-SMON (Thanks @tcc1000!) , another Aerobat, different than last time, but maybe the same as I flew in my Trial Flight? I can't remember, but I'm trying to record which aircraft I fly each time from now on! Probably good to get to know each one's specific feel and kinks.

First time doing checklists properly, skipped the external checks since it was already done earlier, but we went through inside and startup checklists together. It takes a while to go through each step but already starting to feel like routine, which is good I think?

And then starting the engine up.. Oh boy. Instructor handled that one, but he sure struggled, the engine just wouldn't stay on. Soon enough the entire apron was watching us and my instructor was visible embarrassed, I felt so bad for him. He had to eventually ask someone for help and they told him we probably over-primed it.

We waited 5 minutes and tried again, eventually it finally came on! I'm keen to learn a bit more why this happens, need to read up on how the engine on these things work.

I taxied out to runway and again instructor told me take off. Felt a bit shakier than last time, wasn't holding as straight on the runway as I'd liked and took a bit longer to get off the ground but overall I'm satisfied.

The exercises in the air were much less stomach-churning which I appreciated. Headset or radio was rubbish, not sure which, but I struggled to hear my instructor, had to tell him to speak up!

We recapped a few motions of controls, went more into flaps and started doing more straight and level exercises, more of that to come.

The remainder of the lesson was relatively uneventful, a fair amount of traffic in the area and passed another student straight on what seemed like only a few hundred feet away, but my instructor seemed unfazed :shock:.

Very happy I didn't feel nearly as nauseous as last time! @NDB_hold, I brought mints! Didn't get a chance to have them as I was busy flying the plane :lol: but I was happy to have them with me!

I think I'm starting to feel a bit the pressure of learning. Instructor is throwing so much at me I'm still trying to digest things I've learned before we move on, but I'll make sure to ask to recap things I'm not confident with.

Oh, and I think I need to prepare myself to do my first radio call.. My instructor already asked me if I wanted to make the first call to taxi, but I'm not sure I'm ready yet :pale:.

Flying again tomorrow already, I think I may be addicted.
Last edited by jcal on Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:56 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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By Rob P
#1858946
jcal wrote:My instructor already asked me if I wanted to make the first call to taxi, but I'm not sure I'm ready yet :pale:.


Yes you are.

"North Weald Radio, Golf Sierra Mike Oscar Lima for radio check and airfield information"

There you go. Simples.

But mentally prepare to respond to him after he gives you the information, with his broadcast strength, reading back to him the runway in use and the pressure which he will have given you.

"Fives also. Zero Two in use, QNH 10XX"

Rob P
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By editmonkey
#1858957
Great stuff, it's bloody good fun isn't it?! The first few lessons are total overload, there are so many new things to be doing simultaneously, and there's no muscle memory yet. I found the brain overflows quite rapidly and often feels like it's shutting down altogether. It passes quickly - like the sickness - and then there will be more new things to overload the brain. :lol:

There's a space in my logbook for recording airfields and aeroplanes, do you have one yet?

Also a good bit of advice I got was to get the pilot's guide to the aircraft, a good investment of about 7 quid, and it really helps to understand the kinks and the quirks of different models etc. We have two trainers at the school, same model, same engine, but each has a different cockpit layout and performs differently. They really do have 'personalities' (I imagine the personality of the engineer who originally configured them, like the one who designed a stall warner on a high wing that requires mouth suction to test :lol: ).

Radio is fairly daunting - I think you know everyone is listening. I go through a wee script with my FI before my ground calls (which is ridiculous because they are usually blind as the radio is mostly unmanned!).

Good luck tomorrow, looks like a nice sunny one! :thumright:
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