What I did this morning

Steve Fehr

Member # 017
GCC Member
Location (City)
Chesterfield
First Name
Steve
Last Name
Fehr
After years of wishing, whining, complaining and dreaming, my wonderful wife finally agreed to let me take flying lessons. I logged my first dual instruction flight this morning. Yeehaa!

It is an absolutely clear beautiful morning here in STL; perfect for a flight. After reviewing the weather and TFRs (the flight restrictions Pat talks about) we went out and did our pre-flight inspection of the plane. No parts were hanging off and the gas was free of debris so we hopped in and took off. Of course the instructor was in control up to this point. Once we hit 2500 ft the instructor turned the controls over to me. Not surprisingly my attention was focused on the instruments and keeping an eye on my position relative to the horizon. It was more work than fun but I expect that will change over time. The instructor took over for the landing. We hit some turbulence and managed to miss a couple large buzzards on the final approach but we landed with the shiny side up.

The hardest thing to get used to was steering with my feet while taxiing. I can see it now, getting ready to take turn 1 at Putnam and letting go of the wheel and pressing the gas pedal.

Now I’ll spend a few hours on line with the next session of ground school and schedule another flight in the next few days. Hopefully I haven’t bored you to death, but this is one more thing off my bucket list.

Steve
 
Congrats Steve. Glad everything went well. Know not only have to keep an eye in my mirrors I'll have to keep an eye in the sky.

Rick:eek:
 
That's great, on my things to do as well. Will have to talk to you about cost to doing that.
 
Steve congrats on the 1st lesson. It will get easier as you go. I always tended to be a hands off type instructor and never touched the controls until I had to. Easy way to learn to taxi with your feet is to sit on your hands when you can. Just have the instructor hold the controls at 1st. I used to fly teenagers that did pretty well and flew everything above 100' and only needed a little help on takeoff and landing. Some instructors tend to get on the controls a little more. When he is flying have a hand litely on the controls to feel his inputs.

I am always here for any questions you may have.
 
That is still one of my goals. Glad to see you get to live out your dream!
 
Heck maybe we need to buy a Club airplane and I can teach everyone to fly. Everybody chip in $2,000 and learn to fly cheap.
 
Steve congratulations. My instructor let me have the controls on my first take off, with his hands at the ready, he did need to help!
Mike how about a refresher, :) I havent flown in years :(
 
I can do an informal refresher with anyone, but I let my instructor rating lapse many years ago. Because of this I can no longer be counted as any of the FAA required instruction. If anyone needs additional help or just wants to knock the rust off I can help out. If there was enough interest I could look into what it would take to re-instate my CFI.

Back 18 years ago I was pretty good at the flight instructing gig. I once used a students Corvette to teach him about flying an airplane. It was a white knuckle experience for him and a lot of fun for me as I had never thrashed a vette before.
 
Congrats Steve...

After you get your license witha tri gear...be certain to get a tail wheel endorsement. It opens up an entirely new world of small fun to fly aircraft and makes you a better pilot IMHO.

Pick up a book named "Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang Langewieschend and read it cover to cover. One of the best primers for flying an airplane ever written.

Kerry
 
After you get your license with a tri gear...be certain to get a tail wheel endorsement....

Pick up a book named "Stick and Rudder".......
Kerry

Kerry:

I didn't realize there was a tail wheel endorsement. Thanks for the suggestion.

Ahh, Stick and Rudder. I think I read it for the first time when I was about 10.

Steve
 
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