alright for the sake of readability... reposting
Alright I am going hijack my own thread back...
So yesterday I went flying with my new instructor and here is how everything unfolded...
It was OVC2700 early in the day, I texted him asking can we fly at all today or should be reschedule. he replied saying just come over, we will find a hole
We sat in his office and he asked me what I am feeling when I am up there, I told him my ridiculous fear, he asked me a few questions to clarify if I knew the basics of flying etc and then he said we are going to try an unorthodox move today, we will try to fly under the hood for first 30 mins and then with visual reference without instruments for the next 30 and see how it goes. our goal would be 20 degree turns with comfort. I agreed.
preflight done, run up done, I told him I haven't taken off yet and that he should take off and hand over controls to me once we are about 4k feet. he calmly said in a godly voice... "No you are taking off, I will help". and before he finished his sentence we were full power down the runway. I did my first take off (instructor assisted, he was doing the rudder). climbed to 4k. he trimmed the aircraft and showed me how it pretty much flies on its own. then he put the AP/FD on and kept moving the changing the heading and showed how AP would fly the plane.
no sweaty palms yet...
next I put on the Foggles , he put the FD on (I think) and asked me to follow the pink moustache with no gap between the pink and the yellow line as he was changing the heading willy nilly. I did it just like a game trying to follow the FD as close as I can... need more practice on that one for sure. climbed, descended .. turned around. I couldn't see outside, never it crossed my mind that I was going to fall down, I was too busy chasing the darn pink moustache...
no sweaty palms, no death grip. albeit when he asked me to climb with full throttle to 5k, I didn't. more on that later.
next he said ok, now lets get your outside reference back, take your foggles off and we will fly by visual reference. by the time I was done taking off the headset, foggles, put my glasses back and made sure not to drop anything (did I say I was big and 172 you all already know 172 shoulder room), he turned the PFD contrast to ZERO, handed me the controls and that godly voice again said, now fly the plane…. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat????
I had no reference of what pitch angle was, I had no idea where the ball was, I had no idea what angle of bank I was taking on a turn. It was exhilarating experience. Also, I completely forgot that there is a steam gauge which is still not covered and I can easily look at it. I thought of that after we landed
. Anyway, there I was flying the plane with NO instrument reference whatsoever. I told him a few times … I think I cant control the plane, would you take over? The godly voice in my headset said .. You are doing fine, just fly the plane. He took away my crutch, my only hope that when I want to hand over the controls, there is someone there next me. Nopes, I didn’t had a choice.
After some nerve wrecking moments, don’t know when.. But I suddenly realized that I AM flying the plane and when there are no instruments to focus on, how enjoyable the flying part actually is. This is the first time in 5 hours I am actually enjoying what I am doing.
He asked me to descend and get into landing pattern (palms are sweating now, I have no freaggin idea what my pitch angle is), I asked him whats my pitch angle and whats the bank angle that I just made and before he could answer, I said, you know what, I don’t care, I am enjoying this…. Tower calls to look out for a king air, I couldn’t care less, I at 1900, King at 3500. funny part, I was looking at the steam gauge altimeter for altitude, didn’t occur to me to look at the dial to the left for the bank angle
He took over controls from an extended downwind to base and right when he was walking me through the base to final turn… I was a rainbow… I didn’t have to look up to see one, it was right in front of me… it was out of the world experience, guess now I know why birds sing. Its just beautiful and I cant wait to go back.
Post flight brief, he said .. I think this is what was going on, 1. you were trying to juggle too much and overthinking everything. 2. we separated your instrument and visual reference. Down the road, we will put them back.
It worked!!
A couple of things I need to work on - full power climb. I just couldn’t go to a full throttle while climbing from 4k because .. U know I think I will pull the yoke way back, the plane will go out of control and we will go straight up on its tail and drop like rock. Yes, its ridiculous, I know. But what can I do? Its real feeling and I am not a 19 yr old invincible guy anymore. That one for the next time when the godly voice just says, you are fine, just keep going.
O yeah.. I heard that "more right rudder" a few time
Overall folks, I cant express what I am feeling since last evening. I came down with an ear to ear smile and still have a grin on my face. I still cant believe I flew a plane, and for once it didn’t feel nerve wreaking. Flying without instrument reference just felt like driving a car, I was feeling what the plane wants to do… this is awesome and I am hooked.
Unfortunately no flying for next 10 days, my CFI is taking some personal time. He offered me another CFI but no way in hell I was going to leave his side, so I told him I will work on ground school and wait for you.
Cant wait to go back…. I know it’s a long read, but hopefully helps someone like me to understand a few things
-- a great CFI is a must have. I am not blaming my previous CFI, she is new with 600 hours and the current has a zillion hours, the experience makes a difference
-- you can fly the plane with pretty much nothing (as my CFI ended my training saying Wright brothers didn’t have any instruments)
Later folks and thanks a lot again to everyone who contributed to this thread and helped me get over my demons (well I am not over it completely, but getting there). Yesterday it was Fear 0, Aviation 1. the match continues…
