I2: The Return

I was really excited that I'd be flying with I2 again. During the discovery flight she seemed so calm, cool, collected, and in control. Her voice prompts were quiet and not obtrusive.

During the work day I couldn't stop thinking about the flight. At one point I logged into the online booking system just to make sure nothing had changed. Good thing because I was listed with I2 but without an aircraft! That was weird. After some investigation it looked as if CFIFA didn't have its maintenance from the day before completed, so now it was booked into the shop for the rest of the day. I'll admit it now - I totally freaked out! After a reassuring conversation with my friend (who I'll call IFR since he just got that rating) I put a call out to dispatch to find out what was up. Turns out the system automatically bumped me and the maintenance guys didn't think to check. As luck would have it there was another diamond available - CGFFC. Phew.

I showed up early enough to get all the pre flight items done. Journey Log, walk around (by myself), fuel, oil, and weight & balance. When I2 was ready to go we did a quick brief about what we'd be doing that day and headed for the aircraft. We went through the checklists together but she did pretty much everything. Once airborne she handed the controls to me and we headed for the practice area. Ghost Lake and the dam were instantly recognizable - as were the Petro Canada station, and Gas Plant. Still could not see those power lines.

Again - I'll admit that I was freaking out. I had a lot of trouble figuring out where everything was and my eyes and brain were totally overloaded. When I took control of the aircraft I had the full death grip going and it took me a long time to settle down. She handled the power and most of the radio work, I just worked the stick. Once I was finally settled down we worked on flying straight and level, turns, climbs, and descents. She kept reminding me to trim out the aircraft. Then when flying straight and level she would sometimes mess with the trim and make me react or correct. The flight was bumpy - really bumpy. Now remember that I have next to zero experience flying in a small plane - so perhaps really bumpy was actually light turbulence - I don't really know. It didn't bother me all that much until we started doing power off descents...

For this exercise I2 would pull the throttle back to idle and then tell me to hold the attitude until we hit a certain airspeed, then descend to X altitude. One of these times just as I was about to push down on the stick we got a big bump that threw us into a nose up attitude (a bit) as I was already pushing down we went what I can only describe as "weightless" for a brief second or two. I didn't feel so good a lot after this. Pretty much the entire remainder of the flight I felt as if I had been drinking the night before. Not quite ill enough to start telling the instructor to dawn a plastic body suit, but enough for me to start worrying what would happen if I started to feel worse.

As we headed back I2 had me maintain an altitude and follow highway 1A through Cochrane. We were setup for a 45 to join the final for runway 16 when we got changed from outer to inner tower's frequency. The first thing we heard when we checked in was the tower controller yelling at someone who was told to extend downwind but was instead turning base. It was at that point the tower controller said "here's why" and pointed us out as traffic. The response on the frequency after that was a different voice - obviously the instructor. I spotted the aircraft immediately as well as the three who were in the pattern behind him. We followed another aircraft in on final (though I lost the traffic after a while and couldn't even see him on the runway) and about a mile out I2 took control and set it down so gently you could barely tell we were on the ground.

My taxi skills are horrible. I was all over the taxiway. I had no clue how to work the throttles properly during taxi. If I drove like this in my car I'd get pulled over within seconds, and within moments I'd have been asked either to walk a straight line, touch my finger to my nose, or to blow into a small apparatus with an LED readout on it.

The debrief was very positive. I had excellent radio awareness, turned well, understood the use of trim, and my situational awareness improved with the flight. I had to think more about the relationship between power and attitude. I should read up on takeoff and landings as well. After the debrief I had a quick discussion with I2 about how to handle an instructor I might not be interested in working with due to Chemistry - and she told me it happens all the time and just to change the booking.

Three things I wanted to mention that stuck in my brain:

I2 asked a few times if I was "having fun". She's of the opinion that this entire learning experience should be fun for everyone, since we're doing something we love to do. Great attitude in my opinion.

I2 kept talking the entire flight about "the picture". She asked me to memorize what it looks like when in cruise, descent, and climb attitude so that I could simply look at the window at "the picture" and know that I'm doing it right.

So all in all, the flight was fun but I'm upset about two things. First of all, my performance wasn't all that great. I was also REALLY freaking out for much of the flight. The Diamond felt so foreign to me. I need to show up for my next flight and just sit in that cockpit for 20 minutes to familiarize myself with the location of everything.

Second - It's two hours later and I still don't feel good. My assumption was that it had something to do with not really eating much this day. I hope I feel better next flight.

Finally - I was unable to snap any photos while flying of the mountains on the western edge of the practice area - but they ARE there and they ARE spectacular.