Wednesday, June 15, 2005
First Flight
June 15, 2005. One small flight for a Marine, one giant leap... Well, maybe not such a dramatic event for the Corps as a whole, but a big one for myself.
At 1130, equipped with a Cessna 172G older than myself, I took flight under my own control for the first time. To be honest with you, there was too much to think about to enjoy the moment at the time, I didn't really enjoy it until I was driving away from the airfield and looked back on what I had done.
Nothing really special, just a one hour flight with some ascending, descending and some turns. There really is a lot to think about and monitor while you are flying, it is not as easy as it might seem. The instructor did the take off and gave me the plane to climb out from 500' to 2,500' and turn south over the Potomac River. I was so busy that I didn't realize that I was at altitude until I leveled off and took a look around.
The devil is in the details though, you have to monitor your attitude, altitude, heading, speed, engine RPMs, etc, etc. It's crazy, once you get one thing right, something else pops up and you have to correct that. The good part is that even in my one hour of flying I got the hang of a lot of it and feel a lot better.
Good thing, I have another flight tomorrow morning at 0900. Ascending and descending turns, airspeed changes and drag.
At 1130, equipped with a Cessna 172G older than myself, I took flight under my own control for the first time. To be honest with you, there was too much to think about to enjoy the moment at the time, I didn't really enjoy it until I was driving away from the airfield and looked back on what I had done.
Nothing really special, just a one hour flight with some ascending, descending and some turns. There really is a lot to think about and monitor while you are flying, it is not as easy as it might seem. The instructor did the take off and gave me the plane to climb out from 500' to 2,500' and turn south over the Potomac River. I was so busy that I didn't realize that I was at altitude until I leveled off and took a look around.
The devil is in the details though, you have to monitor your attitude, altitude, heading, speed, engine RPMs, etc, etc. It's crazy, once you get one thing right, something else pops up and you have to correct that. The good part is that even in my one hour of flying I got the hang of a lot of it and feel a lot better.
Good thing, I have another flight tomorrow morning at 0900. Ascending and descending turns, airspeed changes and drag.
// posted by Josh @ 6/15/2005 08:32:00 PM 
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Yea! I say a photo from NC wire earlier this week of a plane refueling over Fort Bragg, I thing it was, and thought of you. Hey you might have been taking the controlls for the first time about that time. Who knows. I once got my hands on the contros of a cesna when I went up in Lynchburg with an editor and it was a kick....even if all i did was try to go straignt. Have fun!
Lynn
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Lynn
# posted by 
: 6/16/2005 9:48 PM
: 6/16/2005 9:48 PM << Home
