I showed up almost 2 hours prior to my flight. Aside from the excitement of flying, I wanted to be absolutely sure that I had enough time to do a proper walk around, log check, weight and balance, weather brief, and still leave time to actually sit in the cockpit for 15 minutes and familiarize myself.
I grabbed the full checklist for CFIFA and after the walk around was completed plopped myself into the cockpit. I went through all of the checklist 4-5 times. Making sure I understood how each of the flows went, where every single switch, knob, dial, and gauge was - and what everything actually did. The last thing in the world I wanted was to be overwhelmed by everything again today.
The flight today was with CFI and the weight and balance book listed him at 205 lbs. Add that to myself weighing in at 177 lbs plus 114 lbs of fuel (19 gallons) and the result is a gross weight and center of gravity that is literally closing in on the last 10% of the recommended flight envelope for the tiny DA20-C1. On the way out to the aircraft he quizzed me on the journey log, fuel, weight, oil, and weather. He seemed satisfied with all the answers he was provided.
I watched closely how he set up his headset, clipboard, and other gear before hopping into the aircraft. It was obvious from the previous flight that you must have a method for doing this otherwise you end up all twisted and turned. After climbing in I stowed my map, leather writing book, checklist, and clipboard to my left - sort of wedged between my body and the side of the cockpit. I took out the keys and put them on the seat between my legs. We closed the canopy immediately and I can't begin to tell you how cramped it was.
He had me run through he checklists myself and I asked a lot of questions. When we got to the part where we start the engines I flipped on the primer, stepped on the brakes, moved the throttle to full and counted to 10 (cold start) then back to about 1/4, opened the window and yelled "CLEAR" then went to turn the ignition and immediately noticed there wasn't anything to turn. "Oh shit the key!" I said. I reached between my legs but could not find it. I wiggled around, unable to feel them anywhere. We had to flip off the throttle and primer and I still couldn't find it. It was nowhere to be found. I had to flip off my seat belt, open the canopy, and stand up to find it (right under my butt). Then we started the whole thing over again. Note to self - don't put the keys in the seat!! As a side note - I later mentioned this to my friend "IFR" who told me his trick was to hang the key on the knob which sets the attitude indicator rather than sticking it into the ignition just as an extra precaution. I jotted that one down as another lesson learned.
I was all over the place on the way off to taxiway Alpha. The aircraft can run away from you pretty quickly if you aren't all over that throttle, and my inexperience led me to some serious over steering action. We did manage to make it to the end of the apron without damaging anything or anyone. I was excited when he asked me to make the call to ground. He told me exactly what to say but I decided I'd just say what worked for me. Luckily I recalled information Echo was current. "Ground, good morning - diamond Charlie Foxtrox India Foxtrot at the club with Echo for taxi to the active - destination practice area". "Diamond CFIF Springbank ground, Runway 16 taxi via Alpha cross runway 7/25. Squawk 1052 altimeter 2991". I saw CFI motioning to key his mike and really wanted to prove I could handle the radios so I beat him to it with a splendid and calm response "Taxi 16 via alpha, cross 25, squawk 1052 Foxtrot India Foxtrot". It did feel somewhat natural to say this after making thousands of transmissions on the Vatsim network. As I headed down the taxi way, I was literally all over the place. He showed me how to set my ailerons and elevator for a taxi with a quarter tailwind to which I replied "ya - dive away" which I had learned again from my friend "IFR".
As we pulled up to the runup area there were two skyhawks doing their checks and a biplane taking off (can't remember what type it was). I asked if he'd take control to pull up next to the others and he said "no way - you do it". With some guidance from him I managed to pull up nice and close to the highwing (we're a low wing) without damaging anything. We went through the checklists again when something very "funny" happened. One of the checks during this phase is the ammeter. I2 had flipped the lights all on and off while watching for fluctuations as the load increased. CFI told me he likes to flip the generator off and on. He showed me how he did it by flipping the left switch off and then back on again then asked me to do it. I flipped the generator off and on without any load issues. Then went to flip the right side off and on. Ooops - there's another good lesson. You can't flip the master off. As soon as the aircraft electrical systems starting powering down I flipped it back on again naturally. Whoops - another good lesson. That's bad because you can spike the radios. After a short delay to set the radios again on the GNS430 (it totally rebooted) we taxied out to runway 16.
CFI called tower and told him we needed a short delay. Tower told us to hold short for landing traffic that was just turning base. CFI acknowledged and I could immediately tell he was a bit frustrated. "I did say short delay didn't I?". I laughed and decided not to try and tell him how I perceived the event due to my "experience" as a virtual air traffic controller. We took the runway and he told me - "your control on takeoff. Go full throttle, keep it on the centerline and rotate at 55 knots. Will you need any rudder to keep it straight?". "Yes, I'll need some right rudder for sure". I advanced the throttles slowly... too slowly because he quickly told me "All the way - all the way". As soon as the engines spooled up we took off down the runway - immediately turning LEFT. "Right Rudder! Right Rudder!" he yelled at me. I applied some right rudder but it appeared to make no impact. "Right Rudder! Right Rudder!". OK - so I needed to go harder on it. I pushed pretty hard and naturally we were now zig zagging across the centerline to the right. I eased up and again we went left prompting him again to yell "Right Rudder! Right Rudder!" At about this time we were somewhat near the middle and he said "Ok rotate smoothly". I pulled back on the stick gently and nothing. I pulled a bit more and still nothing. CFI again prompted me "Pull back harder" so I yanked it back - the aircraft rotated and immediately took off into the sky. I continued the rotation until I couldn't see the runway, the horizon, or anything in fact except for the clouds in the sky. This didn't feel right so I eased the nose down again. CFI pulled back on the stick and said something about "Nose up attitude! More Nose up!" followed again by "Right Rudder! Right Rudder". Soon after he put up the flaps and told me to hold 75 knots. I'll admit I was somewhat lost wondering if I actually had just taken off and then realized that I had - and it sucked.
CFI didn't seem the least bit perturbed. He asked me to trim out and pointed to traffic at our 2 O'clock which I had not even thought about looking for. A second later the tower pointed out the traffic to us and I quickly keyed the mike and replied "Got the traffic at 2 oclock high, foxtrot india foxtrot". ATC asked us to follow wide behind him and turn on course "not above 6500" to which I replied "Follow behind the traffic and on course at or below six point five, fox india fox". The radio work still flabbergasted me. I probably need to drop the American "at or above/below" and use the Canadian phraseology - but that will be really tough for me to do after 10 years (and thousands of hours) of virtual ATC/flying with FAA phraseology.
Once on course I settled in quickly. I was relaxed within minutes, setting the trim as required and started using flexes in my finger muscles to make adjustments to the aircraft rather than the last flight's fist and arm motion. Once at the practice area we did a lot of exercises with straight and level, turns, climbs, and descents. He was constantly asking me to take my hands off the controls to show how well I trimmed, and also asked me constantly where we would land if glided from our present position. I have not read anything about gliding but do remember something about seeing stuff in the middle of your windshield is good - top is bad, bottom you will overfly - so I went with that.
After a while he added in throttle control to my duties and I found it VERY difficult to mess with the throttle. Since it was completely new it required a lot of my attention. We moved from that into turning climbs, turning descents, descents at specific speeds, and turning descents at specific speeds. I think I did pretty well at controlling the speeds, but I did NOT do a good job of holding my altitude while turning. CFI spent a lot of time simply tapping his finger on the altimeter without saying anything. This was surely something I was going to have to work on. At some point towards the end of the lesson it started to get pretty bumpy and I again performed a move that left us in a negative g force situation. I immediately felt ill again and told CFI who blasted the air vent on me and said we'd head back.
He made the radio calls on the way back and I was able to spot all of the traffic. We were given an eastern heading and told to follow traffic at our 2 that was on base. I turned us final nicely and of course lost all site of the traffic. CFI set the flaps, power, and asked me to maintain a descent at 60 knots. I held it perfectly while keeping us aligned with the runway. He ran through the landing checklist while I focused on the descent speed. Again he asked "if we keep descending at this speed where will we land?". "Middle of the runway I replied". "Ok let's hold it and see". I held it all the way in and as we crossed over the threshold he told me "I'll help you out a little with the rudder and throttle on the landing". What? I'm landing? Umm.. Ok I've done this thousands of times in the simulator so let's not think to much and just do. As we got a few feet from the runway he cut the power and asked me to pull the nose up a bit. I gently raised the nose and we touched down literally smooth as glass! Though I was quite pleased with myself the euphoria was quickly interrupted by him again loudly saying "Right Rudder! Right Rudder!". We exited the runway, taxied past the hold short line and came to a stop for the checklist.
It was then that it really hit me. I landed the plane! I landed the plane! Oh my god I landed the plane! I was on cloud nine! CFI asked me to call ground for taxi and I felt so cool as I started my transmission "Ground, CFIF on Delta for ..." this is when my excitement overcame me and my voice cracked like the adolescent kid from The Simpson's. "tHe fLyiNg clUB". Ground must have laughed at that point - keyed his mike and said "FIF taxi to the club via Alpha". I composed myself and keyed the mike for my response "Foxtrot iNDiA foxTrot". Same thing again. CFI chuckled and I said "sorry - I'm a bit excited". He didn't seem to mind.
After shutting down on the apron he explained to me how I need to tow the aircraft back into its parking position. This was fairly simple to do but I learned two lessons. First - if you don't pay attention while doing this the wingspan can easily hit the fence (it didn't but I had about 8 inches of clearance and didn't notice until I was 8 inches from it). Second - you need to center it relative to the tie downs or you are going to be retying a bunch of knots!
On the way back to the office I replayed the flight and thought about what I did right and wrong. I really needed to get better with the throttle, I really needed to pay more attention to my attitude while turning so that I didn't deviate from my altitude, and I really needed to have a smoother transition from level flight to descent.
My head was spinning a bit for a few hours after the flight. I started to wonder if perhaps I suffered from some sort of inner ear imbalance that could cause vertigo due to turbulence, altitude changes, or pressure. Looking this stuff up on the Internet only made me worry more. I have a flight booked for tomorrow morning and I'm scared as hell that either I'll have some sort of airsickness or that some medical condition will cause me to fail my medical (which is in fact scheduled for next week).
Only time will tell.
Did I mention I landed an airplane?
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