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Originally Posted by fnaqzna
I expect it'll be a month or so before I'm alone in an airplane. I think I understand the base leg to approach, but we'll see when I get my shot at it. Still working on turns, climbs, and descents, but today I he had me flying mostly by the instruments.
Oh... here's one more, a Cherokee... I think.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotdoubledot/2411970876/" title="Cherokee by .: sandman, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2335/2411970876_60e538b47c.jpg" width="500" height="316" alt="Cherokee" /></a> |
So do you guys call the pattern first, second and third base? Not sure I heard or read that anywhere else. But I took lessons at Kelso Field, about 50 due north of PDX. Students would squawk out "I've got third base" or "I'm taking first base."
My main instructor was a guy named Carl. My absolute first lesson we talked about exactly what we we're going to do for about 15-20 mins. Went out to the plane, did our walk around and checked for oil, water in the fuel etc... Hopped in and taxied out to the end of the runway, stopped, turned into the wind, rev'ed up the engine to burn the carbon off the plugs for a bit and headed on to the runway. I heard him say something on the radio, I couldn't tell you what, then he said "well step on the top of the rudders and push the the throttle open a bit." When the RPM got up he said "alright, let off the brakes and focus on the end of the runway." I did to, never took my eyes off the end of the runway. Moments later in the headset I hear "And rotate. Umm, rotate... ah, ya got pull back on the yoke a little. So I pulled back a little and the plane smoothly left the ground. I looked down at the altimeter and saw we were at 5 maybe 6 hundred feet. I looked over at Carl and he was sitting calmly with his arms folded. I thought "Holy crap! I'm flying this plane!"
One of the best days I ever had. To say the least I was hooked.