0.9 hours logged towards my licence!
The discovery flight was very successful; although, to call it a discovery flight is a bit misleading. The instructor who I intentionally booked the flight with turned it into a full blown first lesson, which I was quite happy with. We started off in the club office. Attila, the instructor, gave me a quick into to reading the flight board and determining the planes status, current weather conditions, and forecasted weather. We then sat down and discussed my goals and reasons for getting my PPL, and did a pre-flight briefing.
- C-GIBY – The Namao Flying Club’s 2002 American Champion Citabria (Source: FellpeG – Flicker)
I told Atilla how my long term goals were somewhat dependent on my wife’s comfort with flying as a family. If she is okay with flying, then family trips and cross country treks are going to be the primary mission. If she does not like flying, then it will be for my enjoyment alone. In this case some back-country flying or even gentlemen acrobatics will be the mission. Either way, not only do I want to learn to fly, but I want to fly for years after getting my PPL.
With the discussion behind us, we went out of get into the Citabria. We ran through some basic stuff like how to get into the plane, where the controls were, how to work the radios, a safety brief, and where I could mount my GoPro camera. (There was more, but this is what I can remember right now.)
The Citabria is a tandem two-seat plane. This means there is one front seat, and one rear seat. The rear seat has the basic controls (stick, rudder pedals, throttle and carb heat). The front seat has everything, and is typically where the pilot would sit – today this was my seat! I was pleasantly surprised by this, and figure it was a leap of trust on Attila’s part. I realized at this point that he was interviewing me as much at I was interviewing him.
Flight 1 – Discovery Flight – Highlight Video(Best viewed on a computer or your mobile browser)
I am going to condense the whole flight a bit to the big items. I could go into every little detail, but this would go from a blog to a book. We taxied out to he runway and this is where I got my first taste of being in a tail dragger. The first thing I noticed was the forward visibility is awful. Seeing where you’re going is a real challenge with the cowl pointed skyward. The second thing I noticed was steering it was awkward. I have taxied a Cessna 172 before with tricycle gear. It was not easy, but it was intuitive – the front wheel steers. In the tail dragger the rear wheel steers and it pivots about the front main gear. I liken it to driving one of the shopping carts where the front wheels are fixed and the rear wheels steer. It takes a while to get use to.
Attila handled all the important stuff, including the take off. After my questionable taxiing, there was no hope I was going to be doing the take off. Once aloft however, I was given the controls and did the climb out and pointed us in the direction of practice area for the day. This is when I noticed the third difference between flying the Citabria vs. a 172… damn that plane is snappy. Small control movements make big changes. The most noticeable difference was yaw. The Citabria demanded that you use the rudder with forceful diligence. The 172 wanted to hold the ball centred, the Citabria seemed to tease you with it – as if to say, “you have no clue what you are doing yet!”
Once clear of the airport we did some turns. 90-degrees right, then 90-degrees left, then a 180. With each turn the slip ball laughed at me. “Lead with the ailerons, then the pedals. Push the pedals into the ball.” Attila’s directions helped me get the ball closer to home, but it still chuckled at me time and again. Something to work on for the next flight.
Next Attila took the controls and did a stall. It doesn’t look like much on the GoPro video, but it felt like a bit of a roller coaster ride. This was the most dramatic flight maneuver I had ever experience… that was about to change. When Attila asked if I wanted to experience an aileron roll, I could hardly contain my glee and excitement. I tried my best to respond with a cool, “yes”, but I am sure he saw through my façade. As we came out of the roll he asked how it was. I think I replied, “that was amazing!” It was!
I soon found the controls in my hands once again. We did some climbs and descents. APT – Attitude, Power, Trim for climbs. PAT – Power, Attitude, Trim for descents. We did this procedure several times. It was only after reflection on this that I realized this was a real lesson, and I was learning real flying skill. We were not on some sight seeing tour.
Our time was growing short and we were heading back to the airport. The lesson was not over yet though. Time to learn about the circuit. First Attila took us into a downwind entry and a low speed flyover. As we climbed back up to circuit altitude on the crosswind he gave control back to me and let me give it a go. The first one went good (or at least I thought it did), the second one I came in too high, and too short. During the flight I has my iPhone running CloudAhoy and when I got home and reviewed the flight tracks my error was glaringly obvious. Circuits are going to take some work.
The errors made on the second circuit by me, made for a great opportunity to experience an interesting slip and landing by Attila. As he pushed the plane into uncoordinated flight we descended rapidly and made a smooth landing. It was clear that he commanded the plane in ways I could only dream of for now.
We taxied back to the hanger, refueled, and had a post flight briefing. I asked the questions I talked about in my previous discovery flight blog and the answers he gave were satisfying. Scheduling flight time could be an issue, but I think I can work around his schedule. Otherwise, everything else was spot on. I have my flight instructor and flight school.
I bought my flight club membership, paid my dues, got my club introduction, wrote a little test about club rules, and booked my next lesson. This is going to be great!
Aurora Astra 
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