So today, my fourth flight occurred. We flew to a new practice area just west of Provo on the far side of Utah Lake near Fairfield and once again, my awesome instructor put me through the paces. Let's start from the beginning following pre-flight before we departed; I got to work more with the radios this flight! My instructor had me pick up our flight's ground clearance (the clearance needed to taxi the airplane on the ground at an airport with a control tower, like Provo) from the ATC ground controller. Once we taxied to the runway in use following the routine run-up, I picked up our flight's take-off clearance from the air traffic control tower on the radio and we wasted no time in lining up and rolled on out for departure. Once we got off the ground, my instructor asked, "Did you see that?" I was puzzled before he proceed to tell me, "That takeoff was all you. I didn't even touch anything." I had just performed my first takeoff without any assistance! Talk about a personal boost in confidence!
 |
| It was a beautiful day flying in the Wasatch in the vicinity of Utah Lake! Snow-capped mountains in the back ground indicative of the end of summer and beginning of fall with winter soon to follow. |
Once we were in the practice area. My instructor once again, handed me a pair of foggles and I was blind. Like last time, I got to practice doing some coordinated turns relying on my instruments. And like last time, my flight time using the foggles was relatively short. My instructor then briefly took control of the airplane and had me remove the foggles and we then went into steep turns. My instructor demonstrated one going at 45 degrees and then had me do a couple. During the turns, I was required to maintain the same angle and altitude during the turn and return the same heading I started the turn at. So basically, it's just a full 360 turn while maintaining a 45 degree bank. I nailed the first one; the way I know is because my instructor told me about a little we felt at the end of the turn, which as it turns out was our plane's own wake turbulence. A pilot know's he's made a perfect steep turn when he hits his own wake turbulence (yes, even small single-engine piston driven airplanes generate wake turbulence!).
 |
| DISCLAIMER: I took these quick pictures while my instructor was in full control of the airplane! |
Following the steep turns, my instructor took the controls again and he demonstrated to me a few more stalls to show me what to do if I ever find myself in such a scenario; I wasn't required to demonstrate them at this stage of my flight training. After the demonstrations, we simulated and practiced some emergency procedures, particularly for engine failure. For the first one, my instructor had the controls and I read through the emergency checklist. Then it was my turn to fly the plane with a simulated engine failure. It was good practice and good to know how to be prepared, but I am hoping to get some more practice with it in the future. After simulating an emergency, we returned to Provo. The approach and arrival was routine; my instructor even had me do most of the landing. Now I nailed a textbook takeoff today. The landing on the other hand... wasn't that great. I'd rather save face on it, but I bounced upon touch-down (hence the blog title!)! But the airplane is reusable... and I need to practice some landings! Like last time, there wasn't any time for touch-and-goes, but hopefully we'll find time to do some real soon because I need the practice for them. After the "bounce-and-stop," it was a quick taxi back to the UVU ramp and we called it another flight and added to the logbook.
 |
| The view up front. Those black lines show the propeller blades; interesting photography effect when shooting with a smart phone! |
A quick remark on confidence: In reflecting on what I've experienced during today's flight and how I felt a little more confident, I was drawn back to some rather painful memories that I don't like talking about, yet it seems appropriate to briefly mention here...
I've spent years trying to overcome personal tendencies of timidness and lack of self-confidence. Some early memories for me begin in Japan learning the Japanese language, going to a Japanese pre-school, but my family moved to the United States after only a few years. Once placed in the American education system all those years ago, I grew up while trying to overcome language barriers. I grew up with little friends in grade school and middle school and I was often picked on by others; my third grade teacher even had the audacity to view me as an "inevitable train wreck" just because I had difficulty keeping up with the class and I had a great deal of difficulty grasping the English language. I was considered a below-average student in elementary school and my grades reflected that, but that soon changed as I got older and finally started to get a feel for my surrounding during those teenage years of middle school and high school. I became a better student with good grades, but I still had doubts about myself and confidence in myself wasn't getting stronger. I was still one of those kids with very few friends. As a result, I became someone who was independent of others; I had a hard time warming up to and trusting others. I became hard on myself and hard on others and expected nothing but the best with a no-nonsense attitude and mindset. I've mellowed out since then, however... It would take several more years before I would get to where I am currently.
Seven years have passed since I graduated from high school. I earned the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America, I got to go back to Japan on a church mission, I earned an Associate's Degree from Brigham Young University-Idaho a little over a year ago, and I even volunteered at the Legacy Flight Museum to immerse myself further with aviation. I successfully held several jobs, including a quality-control job in the food industry and even got promoted to supervisor while holding that job. I've learned some valuable life lessons since those early years... And now here I am majoring in Aviation Science at Utah Valley University; I'm pursuing my life-long dream of becoming a pilot in the aviation industry after years of waiting for the opportunity as well as for the sufficient amount of money to pay for it. I am learning something I love. But to me, the most important is that I'm proving wrong to all those who couldn't see what I would become and to those who have given up on me. I'm no "train wreck," and I love proving those who thought I was, dead wrong.
 |
| And I love proving that b**** of a 3rd grade teacher wrong every time! |
No comments:
Post a Comment