- Plane: Cessna 152 (4713B)
- Lesson: level flight, climbs, descents
Today was the first day we actually went up flying. A standard lesson is 2 1/2 hours. There was only a 1 1/2 hour slot available today, so I had just a short lesson scheduled. I thought that was not a bad idea anyway for my first flying lesson. Robert, my CFI (certified flight instructor), was a bit late because of some car troubles, which even shortened the time a bit. The short time ended up not being the best situation, because everything felt rushed. Feeling rushed is not how I plan on learning how to fly.
There was about a 12 mile/hour wind today, which made it a bumpy ride. We worked on level flight, climbs, and descents. We ended up only putting 30 minutes on the hobbs, so it was definitely a short flight.
I thought the 152 felt small, and hard to get into. Makes me want to try a 172, but I save $30 per hour flying the 152 . I’m sure I’ll get use to it.
I hate to admit it, but the wind scared me. I was not hoping that’s how my first lesson would be. I was nervous, which makes it hard to learn anything. There’s way too much going on at first to learn anything anyway. I feel like the major goal of the first few lessons is to just learn how to be comfortable (relaxed) in the plane.
What would have helped me:
At times during the flight, Robert was talking about our air speed, the tachometer, the altimeter, etc. I couldn’t follow along. I didn’t know where all these dials were. I know them, I just don’t know them fast enough, or their locations in the dash. I should have taken a picture of the cockpit. That way I could study where the respective dials are, so next time, when he starts to talk about our air speed or RPMs or whatever, I can immediately look down inside the plane to the correct location without searching, and feeling lost.