The title pretty much says it all. Today’s lesson was awesome.
I got to the airport about ten minutes early (15:10 Zulu) as usual. We went downstairs and covered some basic stuff. We went over material from last lesson for about five minutes and then moved on. For the majority of the lesson we talked about local airport stuff. We started off with the traffic pattern and the various names of the legs. The whole time he was talking I was taking notes to make sure I remembered everything when I got home (I did). He then went over what to do in the pattern. I paid special attention to this section because, unlike the previous half hour, this was something I did not know. He explained that when abeam the numbers, to reduce power to 1500 rpm and add the first notch of flaps. Then he covered how to make radio calls. When we covered everything, we went upstairs to check out a headset and plane. Looking out the window, I could tell the weather was going to cooperate (unlike last time). There was not a cloud in the sky and visibility was unlimited. Like the first lesson, we got N43020. Lucky for us, the plane was already on the ramp so we didn’t have to go walking for it. I got into the plane, noted the tachometer (measures engine hours) and hobbs time (actual hours), got the checklist out and completed the preflight in about 15 minutes. After starting up the engine, we tried to figure out which runway we would use. The windsock was indicating a crosswind. We finally decided that 26 was the best one. After taxiing and the engine run-up, I was instructed to make the radio call. It was very simple:
Lake in the Hills Traffic, Warrior 43020 Departing runway 26, westbound Lake in the Hills
We then taxied into position and took off. We ended up pulling up at about 85mph. One thing odd about this plane is that it indicates in miles per hour. Most airplanes indicate in knots, or nautical miles an hour. Nautical miles are slightly larger (796.115 feet to be exact) than regular miles (or statute miles).I didn’t know it at the time but I took off all by myself; no help whatsoever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When Johnny told me that after we had landed, I had the biggest smile on my face. Anyway, we climbed up to 2,100 feet to do some more practice with climbs, turns, and descents. He had me do an exercise to help me control the plane better. I was to climb 1,000 feet and fly straight and level for two minutes followed by a 180 degree turn. Again I was to fly straight and level for two minutes then turn another 180 degrees. We repeated this two more times and then moved on. I held heading fairly good only deviating five or so degrees. I held altitude so-so holding altitude within about 150 feet. It was a bit hard to stay straight and level due to an excess of vertical air. This is caused by ground heating and cooling and is indicated by the puffy clouds. Next time I’ll try to tighten the tolerances up. Before I knew it, we were overlying Lake Geneva. We then spotted some type of blip thing and decided to look closer. It turned out to be a small blimp so we continued to the airport. On our way back, we could see the Chicago skyline. It was really cool. As we got closer to the airport, we decided to continue south due to the (relatively) high volume of traffic. We over flew Commons Airport (a private one) while we waited for traffic to clear. I then flew back and entered the pattern on a 45 degree angle to the downwind leg (parallel to the runway). While in the pattern, Johnny made all of the radio calls. While abeam the numbers, I reduced the power to 1500 rpm and added the first notch of flaps. When we were 45 degrees off the runway, I turned left again to the base leg and added another notch of flaps. It was here that we were about 65 mph. I added another notch of flaps and then turned left to line up with the runway. I ended up rolling out of the turn just a little right of the runway, so Johnny corrected for that and we landed. After turning off the runway, I taxied back to the ramp and shut down the plane. After we locked up the plane, we talked about another lesson. Because I will be gone next week for camp and Oshkosh (one of the biggest air shows in the world) is the following week, we decided that tomorrow would be the best day to do it!!!!!!! So lucky you, I will be posting again tomorrow. My mom then came to pick me up and took some pictures of me by the airplane.
Overall, this was a really good lesson. I pushed myself to get the airplane to do what I want and it worked (for the most part). Well I have to be reading up on some stuff for tomorrow so I will be ending this now. Thank you very much for reading!!!
Evan Krueger
Hey Evan - not sure if you still check this site or not, and I am not sure if you are the same student that posts on the AOPA board, but that was a great write-up about your flying lessons. Hopefully you have made a lot of progress over the past year. I have been working on my instrument rating at Blue Skies and have been flying out of there for the past 5 years. I’m am guessing you already know they are a good group of people and Mike (the mechanic) is excellent. If you ever want to chat about Blue Skies or flying, drop me a note!!! Good luck with school and good luck with your flying. I started taking lessons my Junior year of high school, but didn’t get my PPL until my freshman year of college. I had to work part time to pay for lessons, but I don’t regret it ever. Take care,
Terry