First Flight - Day 1 of getting current

June 14th, 2008


Well after what seems forever, I finally got back into the cockpit today.

The day started off with 2 hours of ground covering such things as... required documents, airspace, FAR regulations, weight & balance calculations, V speeds, emergency procedures, and a few others I can't recall at the moment.

After the ground work was done, it was off to the airplane. Preflight went well and once in the plane, I felt right at home almost immediately.

We went thru engine start, taxi, run-up, and finally, 1 for takeoff on 31R

Once in the air and out of the traffic pattern, we moved onto slow flight and stalls which went very well. In fact I even stayed right on my altitude during the slow down to slow flight speed.

Next came a simulated engine out emergency. While I got the basics down like pitching for best airspeed for best glide & locating a potential landing site, I did forget a few important items, like oh uh turning to the emergency frequency and declaring an emergency and setting the transponder to 7700 (code for an emergency).

We happen to be near a soft sod field called Frasier Lake while performing a simulated engine out, so we decided to land there and practice soft field landings and take-offs. That also went very well and my landings were quite good.

Next came some radio work at an uncontrolled airfield without a control tower. You have to make your own position calls at an uncontrolled field, since you do not have a control tower doing it for you. This was done at South County Airport in Morgan Hill, and was my best landing of the day.

With that behind us my instructor was satisfied with my landings and overall performance, so it was back to Reid-Hill View airport. We got cleared for a straight in approach for 31L and landed. Taxied back to parking and shut down.

My instructor said I did a very good job and was impressed with my overall handling of the aircraft considering I have not touched the controls of an airplane in 2.5 years.

I did not get my sign-off today though to fly solo again. He wants me to work on emergency procedures again tomorrow. He said to study the procedures and we will go fly them again tomorrow. Once that is done he said my basic air-work and aircraft handling is good and I will get my sign-off to fly solo again.

Once I get that, that is what I will do, go out and continue to practice by myself for about a mth, a couple of times a week and then I will start my instrument training to get my instrument rating.

That is it for now, I will report tomorrow after my follow-up flight hopefully with my sign-off in my log book.


Happy landings,

D.