sean's place

Climb and Maintain Seven Thousand

“Greeley Traffic, Skyhawk One Seven Two Zero Zulu, departing runway three four, Greeley.”

It all started with what would seem like an ordinary burger run.

Several weeks ago, a few of us from work (actually, my old work, for a certain video security company), decided to go grab some burgers at the new Smash Burger in Colorado Springs. Owing to the sheer distance (2 hour drive) between Fort Collins and Colorado Springs, we opted to fly — in a lovely single-engine Piper Saratoga. KFNL to KCOS was about a 40 minute flight, but more importantly, it was a flight.

That started it. That it? Flight school.

The owner (and pilot) of the aforementioned Saratoga is now my flight instructor. He’s teaching me out of a Cessna 172 based from Poudre Aviation, out at Greeley-Weld County Airport (KGXY). So far, I have just under 4 hours in my log book and a student pilot certificate, and I’m having a blast.

I hope to keep this blog updated with my progress.

So far, in those 4 hours, Craig has had me practice taxiing, takeoffs, landings (just 2 so far, I could really use more practice!), straight-and-level flight (could use some practice on the trim wheel), coordinated turns (steep, shallow, medium banks), slow flight maneuvers, basic instrument flying, and stall recovery (this made me sick today).

It’s actually pretty amazing what you can learn in 4 hours of flight and untold more reading the flight manual and the flight maneuvers guide.

I think, especially at this point, I could use a lot more practice. I’m struggling to keep up with all the new inputs while piloting an aircraft. Trying to manage a checklist, listen to radio calls, monitor traffic (which I do poorly), keep up with the 6-pack (airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter, turn coordinator, heading indicator, vertical speed indicator), not to mention throttle, mixture, oil pressure, oil temperature, and the myriad of other doodads — (trying to manage…) is a real challenge.

As I noticed on my way home from the airport a week or two ago, I found the driving to be nearly automatic. I’m hoping I can get flying to a point like this, where I know where I am, where I’m going, and how I’m pointed, without having to inspect each gauge.

That’s what next weekend is for.