It was on a light, flawlessly-blue, September 29, 1995 day that I pulled into the fashionable State College of New York-School of Know-how at Farmingdale Aviation Middle on Lengthy Island’s Route 110, experiencing a level of trepidation, that I started my Non-public Pilot Flight Coaching Program. That it technically constituted a “class” required for my Affiliate in Utilized Science Diploma in Aerospace Know-how, shared with others I knew from the primary campus amenities about two miles away, considerably prolonged the realm of experiential schooling past what might have been thought-about “routine.” That I had already had a decade-and-a-half worldwide airline profession at JFK Worldwide Airport actually certified it as a life-consistent theme. Nonetheless, I used to be about to imagine the pilot’s seat this time.
Greeted by my Licensed Flight Teacher (CFI), I used to be instructed to take the apocopate Pilot Working Handbook (POH) from the Aviation Middle and deposit it into the respective plane on the ramp. My preliminary and introductory lesson could be in a Cessna C-172 Skyhawk, registered N73334, a high-wing, four-seat, normal aviation airplane powered by a single 160-hp, dual-bladed Avco Lycoming O-320-H2AD piston engine. Its design and efficiency parameters have been many: its most helpful load was 910 kilos; its most take off weight was 2,300 kilos; its gas capability was 43 gallons; its most velocity was 125 knots; its sea stage fee of climb was 770 fpm; and its service ceiling was 14,200 ft.
Guidelines in hand, I made a clockwise pre-flight inspection, from propeller to flight surfaces to sumping the gas to confirm its readability, earlier than assuming the left seat and shoulder- and seatbelt-harnessing myself in it.
“Prop clear!” I yelled to alert anybody in its neighborhood of its imminent begin, ensuing within the engine’s grunting and grounding into slipstream-generating, elevator-bathing life. The plane felt alive and I used to be answerable for it.
Requesting taxi clearance from the Aviation Middle on the Republic Airport Floor frequency, I launched the toe brakes with out pushing the facility lever additional in and the rotating propeller naturally pulled the plane into motion alongside the ramp at a brisk stroll’s tempo.
Temptation to steer with the yoke needed to be resisted: it solely deflected the ailerons for in-flight banking and did nothing on the bottom. Rudder pedal actions ensured the nostril wheel’s path.
Nudging onto the run-up pad close to Runway 1’s threshold, I carried out a full flight check-from brakes to magnetos to freedom of flight floor motion to adjustment of the altimeter’s present barometric pressure–and then switched to the Republic Tower frequency, inching on to the runway and receiving take off clearance.
Full engine energy deafened the cockpit, despatched a torrent of air over its aerodynamic surfaces, and propelled the high-wing plane into acceleration. Virtually immeasurable rudder pedal pressures enabled me to maintain the nostril wheel on the middle line, whereas the wheel itself, starting to leap off the bottom, was the Cessna’s sign that it had gained sufficient velocity to give up to flight.
A delicate pull of the yoke and a proper rudder pedal despair to counteract the propeller’s torque, launched it from its gravity constraints a number of thousand ft earlier than the runway’s finish, as I “rode the ball,” making an attempt to maintain it centered.
Blind to process, I banked to the appropriate, upon which my flight teacher suggested, “Preserve runway heading till you clear it.”
The bottom receded and the sky’s blue purity turned the brand new dimension of flight.
Climbing to 2,200 ft and decreasing energy to stage off, I crossed Lengthy Island to the Northport Stacks, as my teacher demonstrated banks and descents. The one-hour introductory flight handed quickly.
Re-approaching Republic Airport, I radioed, “Republic tower, that is Cessna 73334, inbound for touchdown.”
Clearance was given to “proceed.”
Unable, in my novice state, to really execute the touchdown, I used to be nonetheless given the chance to fly a right-hand sample, consisting of downwind, base, and last legs, the latter of which required progressive trailing edge flap extensions, which might solely be counteracted by a push of the yoke to keep away from the nose-rising tendency. An influence diminished spherical out and flare reprofiled the plane into its rapid take off rotation angle and stripped it of its airspeed, enabling it to softly contact down on its predominant wheels. Brake application-assisted deceleration and a flip off to the taxiway preceded a frequency change to Republic Floor, which granted clearance to return to the Aviation Middle whereas I “cleaned up” the plane by retracting its flaps. A pull of the facility lever starved the engine of its gas and all vibration, noise, and slipstream ceased.
A debriefing and logbook entry passed off inside.
The next week’s lesson entailed operation of the smaller, two-seat Cessna 152, registered N67856, with a takeoff from the reciprocal of Runaway 1-in this case, 19-and a cruise to Lengthy Island’s south observe space over Jones Seaside-connecting, erector set resembling Captree Bridge. The return required the radioing of, “Republic Tower, that is Cessna 67856 over Captree, inbound for touchdown.”
The five-session, 5.7-hour flight coaching course, designated “Introduction to Flight I” and working from September 29 to October 27, additionally concerned plane N757AA, one other C-152, and the curriculum entailed the 4 fundamentals of flight, minimal controllable airspeed, 30-degree banks, approaches to stalls, descents, and landings on Runway 14.
The succeeding six-flight, six-hour “Introduction to Flight II” course, working from February 27 to April 19, 1996, entailed all Cessna 172 plane, though in two registered N734HD and N1517E I had not but flown. I used to be additionally launched to a brand new flight teacher.
Though the usual curriculum included such observe maneuvers as site visitors sample flying slow-flight, and coordinated flight, a man-machine merge in regularly altering meteorological situations created some difficult moments.
A half-hour sector on Marah 15 in plane N734HD, as an example, prompted a fast return after take off in rain and nothing greater than a site visitors sample circuit due to low, visible flight rule (VFR)-threatening situations.
Coordinated flight on April 12 in plane N1517E over the north observe space was made amid a soupy overcast and 35-knot winds blowing from the ahead, proper facet, buttressing the Skyhawk and rendering it tough to keep up management.
And the next week’s sortie, with N734HD on April 19, entailed the grinding roar of the engine when it was throttled to a setting above 2,200 rpm, leaving the flight teacher to take management and instantly return to Republic Airport from the south observe space, all of the whereas at a slight climb angle. An engine inspection was clearly so as afterwards.
The autumn 1996 semester’s “Main Flight I” course, with the identical flight teacher and the Cessna 172s with which I had now grow to be acquainted, entailed eight sectors and eight.7 hours throughout the September 19 to December 5, 1996 interval. It included a few of its personal surprises and difficult conditions.
On two occasions-September 19 and November 1-both with plane N734HD, I flew 15,.5 nautical miles airline-reminiscent sectors from Farmingdale’s Republic Airport to Islip’s Lengthy Island MacArthur and landed earlier than return. In the course of the first, I made crosswind take offs and landings, the latter with solely ten levels of flap, and was launched to radio communication in Class C airspace. Upon return from the second I made a left downwind flip beneath clouds that have been at 1,600 ft, experiencing reasonable turbulence, a 50-degree crosswind at 25 knots gusting to 32, wind shear on last, the incessant blare of the stall warning horn, the left wing’s continuous dip to the bottom, and inadequate rudder journey, inflicting my flight teacher to desperately assume management and proper every lateral axis upset till sufficient airspeed had been bled off to flare and snatch Republic’s Runway 32 with its predominant wheels.
The remainder of the autumn curriculum concerned the extra “mundane” maneuvers of airspeed and configuration modifications, 45-degree banks, s-turns, and turns-around-a-point.
The spring 1997 continuation of “Main Flight I,” spanning the four-month interval from January 27 to Might 12, included eight sectors and seven.7 hours, and the re-introduction of my authentic flight teacher. The primary three flights have been made in plane N734HD, with the remaining 5 in N1517E, all clearly Cessna 172s. Its classes included climbing and descending turns, monitoring, air site visitors management procedures, straight-and-level flight, airport entries, an inadvertent plunge into cloud-causing instrument meteorological (IMC) situations, and a fast, short-final descent from 1,200 ft to Republic Airport’s Runway 14.
Coupled with a personal rental of a C-172 Skyhawk from Republic’s Nassau Flyers fastened base operator (FBO) again on January 30, 1996 (registered N5700E) for a one-hour Lengthy Island South Brief cruise, throughout which certainly one of my airline colleagues constituted my first “passenger,” my flight coaching program concluded with 32 sectors and 29 hours in my logbook.
