"The Day" had finally arrived.
I was excited the moment I woke up at 620AM after being jumped on by my 3 year old son. A few hours later the boy, the wife, and I jumped in the Jeep and headed down Springbank road, past the multimillion dollar homes for the airport. The wife had mentioned a few times earlier in the week that I didn't seem excited but it was obvious this was no longer the case. In fact I was so excited that while scanning the skies for air traffic and gauging the clouds and visibility, I nearly missed the brake lights of a stopped SUV while I was cruising along at 100 km/h. Thankfully the wife didn't miss it.
We arrived at the airport and headed into the Calgary Flying Club. Pretty basic looking place, lots of ads for people selling aviation related stuff or shares in co-owned general aviation aircraft. Walked up to the desk and told the receptionist I was here for my intro flight at 11. A few moments later the flight instructor (who I'll call "I2") came out. We did some quick chit chat and I asked the questions my brother told me to ask. How long have you been an instructor, why are you an instructor, what level of instructor are you, etc. Turns out I2 is a Class 1 instructor (the highest rating) and has been teaching for 5 years. I2 pointed out on the apron at a white Skyhawk with maroon stripes and said "we're taking that aircraft, I'll be back in a moment".
A few minutes later I2 handed me a headset, explained how it works, and we headed off. I2 towed the aircraft from its tie down spot onto the ramp, did a quick pre-flight check, and we hopped into the aircraft. Now things were getting exciting.
The cockpit was small. Very small. I had to push the seat completely forward and rotate the back up in order to be perfectly comfortable with the yoke position, seeing over the glare shield and having my feet on the rudder pedals. After plugging in the headsets, doing up the seat belt, and a safety briefing, I started some familiarization. Chronometer, suction, rpm, magnetos, attitude, bank, altimeter, gyro, VOR receiver, ADF, vertical speed. OK this all looks familiar. Then the radio stack - Bendix King Nav/Com digital readout with a standby frequency, a Garmin something or other (never figured out where it was slaved), and analog ADF and transponder. Flaps handle was some dinky little lever and not quite what I expected. The fuel selector on the floor was not what I expected and the controls for the throttle, mixture, and Carb heat were cool with their little tension rings.
We tuned to the ATIS and picked up information Delta. Landing and departing runway 34, winds 300 at niner, altimeter two niner eight eight, I was so excited that I forgot to note the temperature and dewpoint. I think the temp was about 29-30C and the dew point around 15. We looked around that all was clear and fired up the engine. Man was it ever LOUD! We taxied over to the edge of the apron and called the tower. "Tower, Cessna Zulu Hotel November at the flying club for departure to Bragg Creek". "Hotel November taxi to runway 34 via Alpha, squawk 0720 report holding short". This was getting surreal. On Alpha I2 asked if I wanted to try and keep it on the line, "sure", the rudder pedals were about 1000 times stiffer than the CH Pedals on my yoke, but I found that it didn't take much to affect direction. We got to the holding point and taxied off to the side to complete our checklist and run up. I tried to keep up with I2 but only remember I2 checking that the single magnets didn't drop the RPMs more than 125, checking we didn't stall the engine at idle, and pulling the carb heat. Finally I2 stood on the brakes and revved her up to 1700 RPM or so.
After that we called the tower and got our takeoff clearance at the same time another plane was on base turning final. It was awesome to hear the tower give them the call that we were departing traffic and even cooler to even see the traffic. I2 took position and floored the engine. The noise and vibrations were overwhelming, I knew at that point I had to turn my headset up a bit. At about 55 knots I2 gently pulled back on the yoke and we left mother earth. We made a turn to the left and departed the pattern on a downwind 45 towards the PetroCanada station on highway 1/22. At this point I2 asked if I wanted to fly. "Yes" I responded a bit nervously. I moved to grab the yoke and I2said "left hand only and be gentle". Of course I remember this from my 6000 hours flying with my CH Yoke at home and gave a nice soft grip. The I2's grip was relaxed and said two of my favorite words "Your Control". I responded quickly with "My Control" and history was made.
I knew that in a Skyhawk you climb at a set power rating with a specific target speed but could not for the life of me remember what it was. Trying to sound cool I said "80 knots to 5500 right?" and I2 responded with a correction in the speed which I can't recall. It was at this point that I realized three things: First of all, I had not looked down at my gauges once, I was staring out the window (this is a good thing). Second, when I did scan down to the instruments to see where my speed and altitude were at, I experienced some cockpit disorientation. Third - I was flying!
As we neared Highway One I remembered all the reading I did about traffic scanning. Highway one is a major transition point for low level VFR headed from the mountains into Calgary. Somehow I managed to keep the aircraft pointed in the same direction, maintain constant climb speed attitude, and scan for aircraft. I couldn't believe I was doing it. Then the winds kicked in. The aircraft started getting punted all over the place. Up, Down, Side, Yaw, it was very weird - nothing at all like the turbulence I've experienced on commercial aircraft. It took a little getting used to it and just focusing on keeping the attitude and wings straight. I noted the altitude and started to level off around 5500. We switched over to an advisory frequency at that point.
Once we reached Bragg Creek we did a number of different moves. Simple uncoordinated turns, climbs, descents, coordinated turns, a lower power "dive" and a no power stall. I felt like I had pretty good control of the aircraft. I was able to stay away from the "death grip" on the yoke and use my finger muscles for the slight corrections required. I was shocked to find that I was able to turn into a nice bank and apply the correct back pressure to keep the altitude. After a while I grew more comfy at a quick glance down to check my VSI, altitude, and bank indicator.
Again I couldn't believe how easily I was able to roll into a turn so well and hold it properly. It was amazing how EASILY the aircraft went into the roll, even to the extent that I found I needed a bit of opposite direction aileron to keep the bank from turning into a steep one. The pedals were very weird for me. The CH Pedals fit your foot perfectly and with minimal heel pressure you can slide the rudder back and forth. I had to slide my feet down and use the balls of my feet to deflect the rudder in the real aircraft. It took more pressure than I imagined, but I guess that's what you expect when you are ACTUALLY deflecting a rudder with forces acting against it. It was shocking how much a bit of rudder affected the turn. Shocking indeed.
Eventually it was time to head back. We checked in with the outer tower over Bragg Creek and were told to make a straight in for runway 34 "not above 5500, you will be #2". We were radar identified and eventually given a heading of 060 which I turned to right away and managed to roll out right on her. I2 asked me if I knew where the airport was. I pointed to my 9 and said "over there?". "nope - there" and pointed to our 11. After a few seconds I spotted it. We were on a 45 to enter a straight in. As we got closer and the runway started getting clearer and clearer (and bigger and bigger) I was feeling proud that I managed to stay at 5500 and 060 just by looking out the window. Tower now cleared us for the straight in (or something like that) and told us we were #1. I asked if we wanted me on more of a "base" angle and I2 said no this is fine. I turned us to final and had us lined up perfectly down the middle when I2 started to let the power down and told me to hold an easy attitude to lose altitude.
I noticed the PAPI and saw we had 4 white. I asked if I2 was going to power down and the reply was that we had to keep our speed up. So I held the attitude and quickly got 1 red light. It was then that I noticed we were getting blown to the right a bit and remembered the winds were from our 10 o'clock. I pointed the aircraft to the left slightly and adjusted it until we had the perfect "crab" going. Once we hit 2 red and 2 white on the approach path I was quite proud of myself and held it all the way in until I2 took over about 30 seconds from the runway. I2 cut the power pretty high, administered some wing down into the wind and a bit of rudder to compensate for the crosswind. The stall horn went off about 2 feet above the runway and I2 kicked the rudder out to the right at the last second to put us down on the center line as smooth as any landing I've ever experienced.
We got a late all from the tower to exit right on runway 7/25 (thanks guys) so I had a chance to experience hard braking. After completing another quick checklist we got instructions from ground to taxi to our ramp via A and before i knew it we were shutting the Skyhawk down.
I climbed out of the aircraft and looked for the wife and the boy who were waving to me from the restaurant patio above the apron. The boy ran up and gave me a hug saying "Daddy fly airplane!" followed by an attempt to walk onto the ramp while saying "Me fly airplane like daddy too!". I'll be totally honest - nothing would be cooler than the boy digging airplanes as much as I do. After a quick debrief and a noted .7 hours in my log book - we headed out of there.
On the way home all I could think about was "How long until next time?"
