The skill of trimming out unwanted control pressures is developed early in the training, usually introduced during the first lesson. To gain the maximum feedback from the airplane’s controls, the pilot must be able to use trim effectively. In the video, Clay and I are working with the trim in a Cessna 172 …
Every Discovery Flight I fly with someone always seems to have its own unique twists, but one thing remains constant … no one ever walks away disappointed. In this video shot this past Saturday, we had intended on going up toward San Francisco but, instead, a deteriorating weather situation caused us to divert south to San Jose International. Ever see a B737 waiting patiently to takeoff behind a landing Cessna 172? … or a low pass down the length of Moffett’s runway? … well just watch!
Once you earn your pilot’s license, one of the first things you’ll probably want to do is expand upon the number of different kinds of airplanes you are qualified to fly. Since your initial pilot’s license will likely be for Single-Engine-Land Airplane, you can opt to gain experience both low-wing and high-wing models, and perhaps get a high performance endorsement which qualifies you to fly airplanes with engine horsepower ratings of greater than 200 horsepower.
The video attached below is an aircraft checkout flight I performed yesterday for a recently-licensed Private Pilot. The video does a good job of highlighting the key aspects of flying, including 1) radio communications 2) many of the basic maneuvers associated with private pilot training, and 3) the sheer enjoyment which comes with being able to fly an airplane.
From beginning to end, it took Chris only 4 months and 52 hours flight time to earn his Private Pilot license. While there is no question that this is an exception to what most people will see in their own flight training, it does demonstrate the positive impact that training 3 times per week and relentless home studying can have on overall completion time (and cost!).
Though I continue to maintain a paper logbook (just out of habit I guess), I switched over to an electronic version named SafeLog quite some time ago. Not only does it make it easy to analayze flying history in every way imagineable, but it also has this feature which I discovered just today – pretty sweet! Just recently, SafeLog apps for iPad and iPhone became available so, now, my logbook is never more than a couple of clicks away no matter where I am.
