Also, be sure to keep us updated on your progress! I love reading about each person's experience.
Keep in mind though, until Ron or Steve come up with an FAR that proves otherwise, you can only log your own time, not another online airman whom you're living vicariously through. [/tease]
Sooooooooooo, when do the lessons start?
David
The overwhelmed feeling is what I remember about my first flying lesson. It was windy and I was all over the place. The radio calls and turbulence plus flying the plane were just too much to put together.
For me it seemed at about the 10 hour mark things really started to come together, and I solo'd shortly after. Stick with it for 10 hours of regular lessons and I bet you will begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel VS the 'holy crap, I have no idea what i'm doing' feeling.
lol, not sure yet, I'm still kinda getting over the shock from yesterday. I did, however, email the guy this morning and told him I'm ready to get back in the plane!
this pretty much sums it up for me. I was overwhelmed and had the same 'holy crap' feeling, and still have it. I'm not sure about you, dell, but I had hoped all the studying I did before the flight would have made it a little easier for me, but it didn't. well, I take that back, I sort of knew which instruments to look for, so I guess that was one less thing to be confused over.
When I flew down there out of EQY, my instructor would take me down to JAARS (N52). AirNav says it's 40' wide, but I swear when I was down there it was 37'. Either way, it felt like 20'.I had done a lot of studying too, I flew R/C planes and did flight simulator as well.
I knew a lot of the stuff they would teach in ground school as I read through a private pilot training manual very thoroughly.
My very first lesson was taxi practice only as it was a very windy/bumpy February day. I logged .3 hours and got it down pretty well. The next lesson, I was surprised that my instructor let me take off, and I remember very clearly making a decent take off, then it felt like all hell was breaking loose as I got into some turbulence.
Just FYI - you'll probably experience a some turbulence each flight because you will likely stay down around 3000 AGL or so practicing and flying to local airports. If you climb up higher (on a normal day absent any significant weather features) the turbulence goes away. It is usually possible to find a turbulence free altitude to cruise at during each flight.
Also I find 8A6 is an enjoyable airport to fly in and out of. You'll find its a completely different experience than JQF. I learned at a huge runway similar to JQF and fortunately my instructor took me to some shorter/smaller fields.
..... I did, however, email the guy this morning and told him I'm ready to get back in the plane!
Flying is about finesse and light inputs on the controls. It's not uncommon for new pilots (including me when I started.) to over control by using big muscles in the shoulders and bicep. These are "power" muscles that make big movements. Especially if you have a very tight grip on the yoke.