Hour 1 of 45 (at least)

So today I finally took the plunge and did something I have been meaning to do for quite a while which is start down the long road to hopefully obtaining my Private Pilots Licence. I had already been up to the local Aero Club last weekend and signed myself up for my first lesson today. It was a certainly a fun and interesting experience, and at least at this stage only a little bit daunting.

Lesson 1 was fairly straight forward, fill in some paperwork, let the instructor file the flight plan then go out and cover the basic checks of the airplane. The airplane in question being known as X-Ray - Alpha, which is a Piper Warrior II, and looks a lot like this:

After the walk round checking everything was as it should be, it was into the aircraft for a run through on what the initially bewildering array of dials and things actually mean. Certainly at first the volume of things looks a bit daunting, but for the most part if you just look at one at time they mostly make a lot of sense and will be things that you may well have come across before either on TV or video games. Certainly on my initial flight the most useful to me were the Turn and Balance indicator and the Vertical Speed Indicator.

Flying conditions today were great in terms of visibility, not so great in terms of the wind which had a 20 knot crosswind blowing from the north at a direct right angle to the runway. Fortunately lesson 1 was not going to involve take off or landing on my part so the instructor had to contend with that aspect of things (the landing at the end of the lesson was certainly interesting - having to “crab” land, pointing the aircraft quite dramatically away from the runway to keep the airplane on track and then yawing in at the last moment to land it).

The instructor sorted out all the talking to the tower, initially for permission to taxi, then to hold while we performed a series of engine and instrument tests, and finally to take off. We were then assigned an area to the south of the island to operate in, which is apparently the usual student pilot training zone. Jersey is slightly unusual as it is what is known as controlled airspace (as it has 1 airport, both general aviation and scheduled flights take place from the same location), so you have to be on the ball and be prepared to do whatever air traffic tell you to do. It was then a case of taking control and going through some basic manoeuvres, straight and level flight, turns, ascent, descents, flying with and without flaps, trimming the aircraft, and learning about the effects of the throttle (something that effects the aircraft in ways you wouldn't immediately think of). Learning what happens when you do one thing, and how it effects other things was very much the aim of the day, and just getting a feel for things.

Two thoughts at this stage on my first fly around. On the positive side, one aspect I thought would be tricky, combining the movement of the rudder pedals to that of the yolk (in order to keep the aircraft in balance during a turn), actually proved quite instinctive. On the negative, it is clearly quite easy to get confused as to where exactly you are, especially flying from Jersey where you are pretty much always flying over water and especially when you have any kind of wind blowing you constantly in one direction. At one point, even with the instructor in charge we got a warning from air traffic that we were drifting out of our designated zone and towards French controlled air space. Hopefully once less attention is required on actually flying the airplane and looking at the gauges, more attention can be utilised to keep track of where exactly I am in the sky.

Anyway, it was certainly an interesting fly around and an hour later (it felt much shorter) the instructor told me to head back towards the island and he landed us, which as I said was an interesting experience, but slightly bizarrely felt completely safe. A quick taxi and we were back on stand. The fuel guys were clearly keen today as they almost beat us there and topped up the tanks in preparation for the next flight and that was that.

So to round off the day, we got to fill in some more paperwork, I got given a big pile of books which I will have to study and do 7 exams on (joy!) and I got booked in for what will (weather permitting) be my next few lessons.

And that, as they say was that. Hour 1 complete. A minimum of 45 more to go.