Training has begun! (my journey)

joeparrilla

joeparrilla

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Sep 17, 2013
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175
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Queens, NY
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Display name:
JoeP
My Training Journal! (Updated 9/29/13)

Hey guys, So despite my concerns of the future of GA (which many of you made me feel much better about) I am officially a PPL student! I thought it would be cool to post my journey here for other students to follow, and for other pilots to input.

PPL LOG: 1st Flight 9/22/13

I had my first flight yesterday out of KISP in NY. I was in an Alarus CH2000, which I will continue with for the duration of my PPL. Simply put, it was the most amazing experience of my entire life. Until yesterday, my fascination and involvement in aviation was limited to simulations, model building, books, and just constant dreaming of flying. Now that I took the step and got up there, it was like my mind exploded. Before this flight, I had never been in anything smaller than a commercial jet... and even that I had only been in 3 or 4 times.

We started with a long talk about my general goals and such, and then headed outside to the plane. My instructor wanted to make it clear that we wouldnt be going in depth with anything.. and that the goal was to get my feet wet for this first flight. We did a basic walk around.. and showed me the very basics of inspecting the plane. We then talked about the basic principles of flight (which I knew thanks to years of reading :wink2: ) Then we hopped inside and did a run down of the instruments and the like. We spoke about the basics of communication.. and then he got clearance from the tower to taxi. We took off, climbed to about 2000 feet, and he talked about positive transfer of controls. Once he was sure I got the importance of it, he said "your plane". And now im 2000 feet in the air, first time in a light aircraft, and flying it. We did basic maneuvers (turns, ascend, descend) and some sightseeing before returning home.

Long story short (well maybe not so short), I feel like my life has changed. Nothing I have done so far in my 23 years has compared to this. It started out with some nerves, and ended with complete joy. Next week cannot come soon enough.
 
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Keep posting your updates.
Congratulations on your experience and taking the initiative to get started.
 
There's nothing like it that's for sure. I remember my first flight, it was about 13 years ago one of my dad's friends took me up in a Cherokee 180. I was 17 at the time and was hooked, unfortunately I didn't start my training for 13 years, but now here I am a private pilot.

Enjoy the learning experience, some say training is the best part. Congrats and good luck!!
 
Keep with it and don't get discouraged when things get frustrating. It's a lot of dedication and in the end it will have absolutely changed your life. Welcome and good luck! :)
 
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congratulations. flying is an awesome experience. i fly out of KFRG which is right near islip. You cant get better training than NY. the busy airspace will help you with your communications and. thats the one thing i love, being confident on the radio
 
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jordane93 said:
congratulations. flying is an awesome experience. i fly out of KFRG which is right near islip. You cant get better training than NY. the busy airspace will help you with your communications and. thats the one thing i love, being confident on the radio
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Ah that reminded me of a part of my flight that I left out. So when it was time to head back, my instructor was going to have me follow a pattern to get lined up to final so that he could land. When we contacted the tower, they wanted us to do a short approach due to traffic. He then said he would have to do it, and that it may seem extreme but its perfectly ok and I shouldnt be concerned :) . At this point we were heading parallel with the runway, heading opposite of side we needed to come in from. We then did an insanely sharp 180 and dropped down super quick and managed to line up and land.. I really didnt think such a short approach was possible :). Even ATC said it was a great approach over the radio. So pretty scary but very awesome.
 
joeparrilla said:
When we contacted the tower, they wanted us to do a short approach due to traffic. He then said he would have to do it, and that it may seem extreme but its perfectly ok and I shouldnt be concerned :) . At this point we were heading parallel with the runway, heading opposite of side we needed to come in from. We then did an insanely sharp 180 and dropped down super quick and managed to line up and land.. I really didnt think such a short approach was possible :). Even ATC said it was a great approach over the radio. So pretty scary but very awesome.
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Seems to be pretty common at KISP, I've done a few there. They are great fun to fly when you're more comfortable with the plane. Nothing better than hearing "33L cleared to land, keep it tight please" :)
 
Congrats on your first flight!!

Keep up with being as prepared as you were for this one (by reading and doing your assigned preparatory homework) and you'll get the most out of each flight and progress well.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Congrats on your first flight!!

Keep up with being as prepared as you were for this one (by reading and doing your assigned preparatory homework) and you'll get the most out of each flight and progress well.
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Yes. I recieved my Airplane Flying Handbook as well. I plan to keep a notebook to take notes while I read. I am going to treat it as much like a school subject as I can, so that I can learn as much as possible while I am not in the air.
 
joeparrilla said:
Yes. I recieved my Airplane Flying Handbook as well. I plan to keep a notebook to take notes while I read. I am going to treat it as much like a school subject as I can, so that I can learn as much as possible while I am not in the air.
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Good idea...

One conversation to have with the CFI is about the syllabus s/he plans to use. It's generally preferred that there is a written syllabus showing what is to be accomplished on each flight versus doing it off the top of his head and by memory. By having the various elements of that lesson and checkboxes for same in writing, it helps to both track progress and keep the lessons focused on the tasks/skills at hand.

The written syllabus can also have what book work to do in preparation of the lesson.

Not every instructor will do a written syllabus, but it's encouraging when they do.
 
another hint that ive done that i found really helpful is during the de brief (assuming your CFI does a de brief), take notes about what he said was good and not so good. write down the things you need to work on and review them during the week and before your next flight. tihs helped me a lot during training
 
AggieMike88 said:
Good idea...

One conversation to have with the CFI is about the syllabus s/he plans to use. It's generally preferred that there is a written syllabus showing what is to be accomplished on each flight versus doing it off the top of his head and by memory. By having the various elements of that lesson and checkboxes for same in writing, it helps to both track progress and keep the lessons focused on the tasks/skills at hand.

The written syllabus can also have what book work to do in preparation of the lesson.

Not every instructor will do a written syllabus, but it's encouraging when they do.
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Yep, I received my syllabus yesterday. It has the associated handbook chapter next to each section as well.. so that I can go home and read up. For a part 61 school, it seems very well organized. The good thing is that he said even though there is a syllabus, we will focus on what I need as a priority. So if that means going off track for a certain lesson then so be it.
 
jordane93 said:
another hint that ive done that i found really helpful is during the de brief (assuming your CFI does a de brief), take notes about what he said was good and not so good. write down the things you need to work on and review them during the week and before your next flight. tihs helped me a lot during training
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Good idea. We will do de-breifs after every lesson.. so I will definitely use that time the best I can.
 
joeparrilla said:
So if that means going off track for a certain lesson then so be it.
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This can be a good thing when a skill needs some work before progressing. But be mindful if it starts being abused at the expense of your dollar budget.
 
marcoseddi said:
now next step solo!!!
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Heh yea sure. I think I may not quite be ready, considering every time I looked out the window to my left... when I looked forward again I was totally not going straight anymore :wink2: Barely can multitask 2 things...
 
joeparrilla said:
Heh yea sure. I think I may not quite be ready, considering every time I looked out the window to my left... when I looked forward again I was totally not going straight anymore :wink2: Barely can multitask 2 things...
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I think the old "horse follows it's nose" challenge is something we all overcame in our primary training. Same thing happens to me when I'm driving (look left, drift left).

One tip is to get straight and level, then note the position of your wingtip in relation to the horizon. That's the visual reference for level attitude. Not not only the vertical position, but the lateral position against the horizon.

With these two bits of info locked into memory, you can then detect when you're banked, or climbing/descending and make the appropriate correction.
 
AggieMike88 said:
I think the old "horse follows it's nose" challenge is something we all overcame in our primary training. Same thing happens to me when I'm driving (look left, drift left).

One tip is to get straight and level, then note the position of your wingtip in relation to the horizon. That's the visual reference for level attitude. Not not only the vertical position, but the lateral position against the horizon.

With these two bits of info locked into memory, you can then detect when you're banked, or climbing/descending and make the appropriate correction.
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Good tip. I learned how to judge my attitude when looking out at the nose.. and that worked pretty well. Every time I felt like I was level I took a peek at the attitude indicator as well as rate of climb, and I was almost spot on. Once I tried to do anything else.. whether it be look out the window or talk into the headset... I was gaining or losing altitude pretty quickly without even realizing it.

Another major issue was when turbulence hit. The wind would knock me off course and I would respond wayyy to hard, which made it worse.
 
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joeparrilla said:
Hey guys, So despite my concerns of the future of GA (which many of you made me feel much better about) I am officially a PPL student! I thought it would be cool to post my journey here for other students to follow, and for other pilots to input.

I had my first flight yesterday out of KISP in NY. I was in an Alarus CH2000, which I will continue with for the duration of my PPL. Simply put, it was the most amazing experience of my entire life. Until yesterday, my fascination and involvement in aviation was limited to simulations, model building, books, and just constant dreaming of flying. Now that I took the step and got up there, it was like my mind exploded. Before this flight, I had never been in anything smaller than a commercial jet... and even that I had only been in 3 or 4 times.

We started with a long talk about my general goals and such, and then headed outside to the plane. My instructor wanted to make it clear that we wouldnt be going in depth with anything.. and that the goal was to get my feet wet for this first flight. We did a basic walk around.. and showed me the very basics of inspecting the plane. We then talked about the basic principles of flight (which I knew thanks to years of reading :wink2: ) Then we hopped inside and did a run down of the instruments and the like. We spoke about the basics of communication.. and then he got clearance from the tower to taxi. We took off, climbed to about 2000 feet, and he talked about positive transfer of controls. Once he was sure I got the importance of it, he said "your plane". And now im 2000 feet in the air, first time in a light aircraft, and flying it. We did basic maneuvers (turns, ascend, descend) and some sightseeing before returning home.

Long story short (well maybe not so short), I feel like my life has changed. Nothing I have done so far in my 23 years has compared to this. It started out with some nerves, and ended with complete joy. Next week cannot come soon enough.
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Awesome Joe! I fly out of Islip too! It's a great airport with terrific flight school options! I flew with the guys across the ramp from where you took your lesson. Have a great time with the journey- it's amazing and we are both really lucky that we have two of the prettiest practice areas I can imagine!
 
joeparrilla said:
Good tip. I learned how to judge my attitude when looking out at the nose.. and that worked pretty well. Every time I felt like I was level I took a peek at the attitude indicator as well as rate of climb, and I was almost spot on. Once I tried to do anything else.. whether it be look out the window or talk into the headset... I was gaining or losing altitude pretty quickly without even realizing it.

Another major issue was when turbulence hit. The wind would knock me off course and I would respond wayyy to hard, which made it worse.
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You're getting the idea... "less is more".
You probably already see that once trimmed, an airplane like that will fly perfectly well at the altitude and heading you want, as long as you don't interfere. :D Maintaining altitude and heading can be very difficult for beginners, because it requires mostly doing nothing.... just one of the things about handling airplanes that is counter-intuitive.
Keep a loose but ready grip on the controls and move your eyes more than your head when possible, and eventually you should stop having that "horse's nose" problem. It's also best to get a good idea early on what minimal control movements can do... most newbies over-control; it's normal and easily fixed with practice.
As for turbulence: fighting it, as you see, does not help, especially if the turbulence is ongoing. You're not going to stray very far off course or altitude if you wait a sec before picking a wing back up or climbing or descending a bit to compensate for a bump. And as usual, smaller control movements should yield better results.
None of this comes easy when you are a little nervous, but keep it in mind and it will help you.
 
Rotty's info is spot on.

One thing to practice early is "flying by fingertips". As you're doing a lesson, when you're need a few minutes break between activities, just ask your instructor if you can just fly with out distractions for a little while. Then once you're properly trimmed, hold the yoke with just finger tip pressure only, no force from wrist, elbow, or shoulder permitted. Then make some gentle turns and climbs, and descents with just that light touch.

If your aircraft is properly rigged, and you properly trimmed, you will quickly discover how that it doesn't require a large amount of input to make the aircraft do what you want.

If you develop this light touch early on, other maneuvers will be a bit easier to acquire later.


If you ever feel you're being a bit to heavy handed and white knuckled in holding the yoke, weave a pencil or pen through your fingers. This will cure you of holding the yoke that hard real quick.
 
Congrats on your first flight ,enjoy the ride ,flying out of the island you will get plenty of act work. Good Luck
 
jspilot said:
Awesome Joe! I fly out of Islip too! It's a great airport with terrific flight school options! I flew with the guys across the ramp from where you took your lesson. Have a great time with the journey- it's amazing and we are both really lucky that we have two of the prettiest practice areas I can imagine!
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Thanks. The view from the practice area was gorgeous. We went to the north one, and the shoreline was amazing.
 
joeparrilla said:
Thanks. The view from the practice area was gorgeous. We went to the north one, and the shoreline was amazing.
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Yea both the north and south practice areas are great! I like the south a little better because you can cruise the beeches of Fire Island and it is so tranquil flying over the Atlantic ocean. Just spectacular! Keep us all updated on how things are going!
 
joeparrilla said:
Hey guys, So despite my concerns of the future of GA (which many of you made me feel much better about) I am officially a PPL student! I thought it would be cool to post my journey here for other students to follow, and for other pilots to input.

PPL LOG: 1st Flight 9/22/13

I had my first flight yesterday out of KISP in NY. I was in an Alarus CH2000, which I will continue with for the duration of my PPL. Simply put, it was the most amazing experience of my entire life. Until yesterday, my fascination and involvement in aviation was limited to simulations, model building, books, and just constant dreaming of flying. Now that I took the step and got up there, it was like my mind exploded. Before this flight, I had never been in anything smaller than a commercial jet... and even that I had only been in 3 or 4 times.

We started with a long talk about my general goals and such, and then headed outside to the plane. My instructor wanted to make it clear that we wouldnt be going in depth with anything.. and that the goal was to get my feet wet for this first flight. We did a basic walk around.. and showed me the very basics of inspecting the plane. We then talked about the basic principles of flight (which I knew thanks to years of reading :wink2: ) Then we hopped inside and did a run down of the instruments and the like. We spoke about the basics of communication.. and then he got clearance from the tower to taxi. We took off, climbed to about 2000 feet, and he talked about positive transfer of controls. Once he was sure I got the importance of it, he said "your plane". And now im 2000 feet in the air, first time in a light aircraft, and flying it. We did basic maneuvers (turns, ascend, descend) and some sightseeing before returning home.

Long story short (well maybe not so short), I feel like my life has changed. Nothing I have done so far in my 23 years has compared to this. It started out with some nerves, and ended with complete joy. Next week cannot come soon enough.
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Hey! I am also a student pilot! I have been training a while now and finished my solo and moved on to cross country flying! I also have a youtube channel that you guys should checkout! www.youtube.com/thatpilotdude1
 
Ok, time for a question! I want to get myself a decent headset that will not break the bank. Any suggestions? We have one in my training airplane, but my instructor said it would be best for me to just get one, as the rental one takes quite a bit of abuse. I have seen headsets from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. What do I need?
 
joeparrilla said:
Ok, time for a question! I want to get myself a decent headset that will not break the bank. Any suggestions? We have one in my training airplane, but my instructor said it would be best for me to just get one, as the rental one takes quite a bit of abuse. I have seen headsets from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. What do I need?
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http://www.sportys.com/PilotShop/product/17387

Definitely this one!!! I love it! My first headset when I started to fly and it wasn't as expensive as Bose headsets. You can play music on it, control the volume, really great headset for the price of it! It is also very comfortable! Look into it!
 
joeparrilla said:
Ok, time for a question! I want to get myself a decent headset that will not break the bank. Any suggestions? We have one in my training airplane, but my instructor said it would be best for me to just get one, as the rental one takes quite a bit of abuse. I have seen headsets from a few hundred to thousands of dollars. What do I need?
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This has a wide range of possibilities and answers. There is no pat answer.

2 big items to consider: Comfort/Fit and protecting your hearing.

Comfort and Fit: Try to borrow as many different models as you can before purchase to see which you like. Better if you can fly for at least an hour with it on as one that you like after 3-10 seconds of wearing might become very uncomfortable after long term exposure.

Hearing Protection: Many here are big fan of ANR models, including me. I started with Lightspeed 30-3G that I got used off of eBay (and still have) and then later popped for the bigger money and the Zulu.2's. I really like the comfort, fit, and function of the Zulu.2.

ANR makes a significant difference in clarity of what you hear. IMO it's worth spending the money on that.


I also own a Quiet Technology Halo. It gets close to the noise reduction of the Zulu's and is very comfortable. I will wear that when I have non-pilot passengers and they where the Zulu.


In the end, ask yourself, what is my hearing worth? Lower Budget headsets are okay for occasional use, but for long term, spending a few more dollars can make you a much happier pilot.
 
AggieMike88 said:
This has a wide range of possibilities and answers. There is no pat answer.

2 big items to consider: Comfort/Fit and protecting your hearing.

Comfort and Fit: Try to borrow as many different models as you can before purchase to see which you like. Better if you can fly for at least an hour with it on as one that you like after 3-10 seconds of wearing might become very uncomfortable after long term exposure.

Hearing Protection: Many here are big fan of ANR models, including me. I started with Lightspeed 30-3G that I got used off of eBay (and still have) and then later popped for the bigger money and the Zulu.2's. I really like the comfort, fit, and function of the Zulu.2.

ANR makes a significant difference in clarity of what you hear. IMO it's worth spending the money on that.


I also own a Quiet Technology Halo. It gets close to the noise reduction of the Zulu's and is very comfortable. I will wear that when I have non-pilot passengers and they where the Zulu.


In the end, ask yourself, what is my hearing worth? Lower Budget headsets are okay for occasional use, but for long term, spending a few more dollars can make you a much happier pilot.
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Thanks Mike... thats a good point about wearing them for an hour. The headset on my schools plane felt great for a bit. Once we were airborne I started getting a horrible pain on my ear... it was just sitting so uncomfortably.
 
My Training Journal! (Updated 9/29/13)

PPL LOG: 2nd Flight 9/29/13

So my 2nd flight is complete. There was not as much time in the air this time, as we got a lot more in depth with the pre-flight and radio usage. We started with going through the pre-flight inspection checklist. We did the entire left side together, and then I led the inspection of the right side. I feel like I have a good grasp on what to look out for, and what the red flags are during inspection.

We then moved inside and went through the start-up checklist and got the propeller spinning. I was the one doing all of the switch flipping and key turning, which was nice. I learned the basics of the two radios, how to tune them, how to switch between them, etc. I didnt do any speaking with ATC yet.. maybe next time. All of this was done with the strict use of my checklists, and nothing was skipped.

Now the fun part. I went through the engine run-up checklist and performed the run up more or less on my own. We then took off, and once at about 500 ft, I took control and learned how to reach a target altitude while holding a target airspeed at full power. This wasnt too bad, as once I hit that airspeed I just held the pitch there until the altitude was reached. Once we arrived at the practice area, we began some turn practice. Instead of just random turns like last time, we started with turning to specific headings. I learned how to calculate when to roll out of the turn by beginning the roll out at a heading that is half of the degree of the bank angle before the target heading. For example if I am turning right with a target heading of East at a bank angle of 30 degrees, I would begin rolling out of the bank at a heading of 75 (15 degrees before the target heading of 90, which is half of the bank angle). At first I was rolling out a bit early, as I wasn't reading the instrument correctly. Once I figured it out, the turns went pretty well. We then did some of the same thing except using visual references in the landscape as a target.

We finished off with practicing descent to a given altitude without letting the engine speed get too high. It was good practice.. but difficult, using the throttle while trying to steer and hit a target altitude. As we add more tasks, I am beginning to feel the stress of multitasking and the nerves that come with it.

Overall it was a great day. Beautiful weather, and some solid learning. I definitely felt infinitely more confident than last time. I was able to hold straight and level flight using visual references pretty well compared to last time. I still found myself looking at the instruments a bit too much, as well as grabbing the yoke a bit too hard. On the other hand, when I was looking outside, I felt more aware and more able to keep control while not looking straight out at the nose the whole time. We received two notifications from ATC about aircraft near us, and I felt as I did a good job of seeing them pretty quickly... as opposed to last time when I felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack.

On my weeks agenda is hitting the Airplane Flying Handbook again, and investigating some new terms that my instructor asked me to learn about for next week. The journey continues!
 
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Sounds great good luck keep posting and if you have issues or question shoot away the guys on here are great supporters. I just finished my ppl and it was great using the forum throughout the process.
 
marcoseddi said:
Sounds great good luck keep posting and if you have issues or question shoot away the guys on here are great supporters. I just finished my ppl and it was great using the forum throughout the process.
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Thanks! Slightly unrelated, but there is a way I can rename the thread title so that I can update it with the date each time I post a flight log update? I can only seem to edit the post names, but not the main thread.
 
Welcome to flying, Joe. It sounds like you are enjoying the learning. Stay focused and hang in there.
 
Well every time you post, the thread gets bumped, so anyone who's posted to it or subscribed will know there is an update.

Congratulations on starting your training. There is a lot to learn but you'll get it all.

What study materials do you have other than the Airplane flying handbook, if any?

My advice on the headset is to spend more now. You will be wearing it for many, many hours. Consider an active noise reduction headset. I had a DC ANR unit, and while it worked pretty well, I switched to a Bose one and the difference was phenomenal not only in how well it cancelled noise, but how comfortable it is. Pricey? Yes. But over the course of your flying, the cost isn't much and it will add to your enjoyment.

Make sure you post some pics too! What airplane are you training in?
 
Never mind, I caught it in the first post. Never heard of the CH2000 but it looks like a fun little plane to fly. Similar to the 152 in performance.
 
fiveoboy01 said:
Well every time you post, the thread gets bumped, so anyone who's posted to it or subscribed will know there is an update.

Congratulations on starting your training. There is a lot to learn but you'll get it all.

What study materials do you have other than the Airplane flying handbook, if any?

My advice on the headset is to spend more now. You will be wearing it for many, many hours. Consider an active noise reduction headset. I had a DC ANR unit, and while it worked pretty well, I switched to a Bose one and the difference was phenomenal not only in how well it cancelled noise, but how comfortable it is. Pricey? Yes. But over the course of your flying, the cost isn't much and it will add to your enjoyment.

Make sure you post some pics too! What airplane are you training in?
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As of now I only have the handbook. We have a syllabus that references the book.. but I just read as much of it as I can. Any other materials you would suggest? My instructor gives me topics to research that are outside of the manual... So I guess the internet will come into play there.

Thanks for the headset tips.. I am going to start shopping soon.

And yes its an Alarus CH2000. Basically its a pure trainer. 2 seater, not too fast, supposedly forgiving. I have nothing to compare it to.. but I love it! Its low wing also which wins cool points for me ;) Thanks for reading... I am having such a blast!
 
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