My first landings!

Friday February 3rd!  Just to start off with, today was absolutely amazing! 

Just as any session starts we checked the weather online and received a weather briefing over the phone.  We reviewed some material he wanted me to check out from last Friday.  Let's talk about the weather very quickly.  The skies were clear, we had 7miles of visibility and there was almost no wind.  Just about a perfect day.

Since the winds were calm the tower had us taxi out on the Bravo and Alpha taxiways to Runway 4.  Today was the first time I taxied from start to finish!  I know that might not seem like much, but to me it was great!  We held short of runway 4 and did our preflight checks.  Once we were ready we radioed the tower and he cleared us for take off.  I taxied onto Runway 4 and double checked the compass and off we went!  We flew out to our practice area and practiced a few maneuvers.  We did "steep turns" at a 45 degree bank, slow flight, stalls and ground referencing maneuvers.  We did two ground ref. maneuvers today.  The first was flying a 360 degree circle around an object on the ground while maintaining the same distance all the way around.  Which means correcting for wind.  The other was doing "S" turns on a road.  That one is where you fly perpendicular to a road or straight line on the ground and turn 180 degrees and fly back the other way over the road.  Then turn and fly back.  All while maintaining the same distance on either side of the road.

Then it was time to come back.  Before we took off however, we discussed that I would get to do my first landing.  Which I was absolutely ecstatic about.  He did the first landing and walked me through all the procedures.  The second time around was all me...until we were on base about to go to final approach.  Another aircraft, a Cessna 210, called in for a full stop landing.  Mike took over and got us down and down and took off again.  After that touch and go the it was all me...For REAL!  The first landing was incredible!  Just past the numbers and right in the middle of the runway!  The second was almost as good but just to the left of the center line!  This is awesome!  I have 4 hours of flight time and I'm getting to do landings already!

Then we taxied up to parking and tied the airplane down!  I couldn't be more happy!  We talked for a bit and Mike said I'd be soloing in the next few lessons, after I get my 3rd Class medical of course.  All that was left was to settle the bill.  Oh what a rush!

4.1 Hours in and a life time to learn! :D

Aviation Resources
Private Pilots Resource Page
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association