PPL Lesson #1: The journey begins
So, the day finally came. Like a child who’d gone to bed with forecasts of snow filling his head, I jumped out of bed this morning, tore open the curtains and celebrated the sunny skies with scattered clouds in the same way I did the snow-covered ground of my all-too-distant youth. My first (trial) lesson was on!
A shower and light breakfast later I was in the car for the 10 minute drive to Blackbushe, with my pre-loved headset and my virgin logbook stuffed in my flight bag all nestled in the passenger seat. I spent pretty much the entire journey hoping the more serious looking clouds on the horizon beyond the airport didn’t mean a cancelled lesson (spoiler: they didn’t).
Just like my Dad’s old Rover
After a quick chat with “ops” (the lovely Alison), and an even quicker fuss of the flight school’s resident puppy Dakota, I was introduced to my flight instructor for a speedy briefing before making our way to the trusty G-BZEB.
Probably the best way to describe “echo bravo” is as an aeroplane with… a certain special vintage character, and no small amount of charm. Made in the same year I was born, I imagine she’s very much like Trigger’s infamous broom these days. However, there’s no disguising the aroma of what I can only imagine is over 40 years of student perspiration baked into the very fabric of the airframe. It brought back happy memories of climbing into my dad’s old Rover as I folded myself into the left hand seat and strapped in.
Walking through the checklists - deftly replacing any mention of “parking brake” with “instructor’s toe brakes" thanks to the “inop” sticker near the former’s control - was a breeze, and all of a sudden we were taxying in the general direction of the runway. I got to practise some ground rudder pedal and brake control and took us as far as the runup point just off the apron for the powerup and pre-takeoff checks. Since my instructor had mentioned he was happy to let me handle the throttle and yoke for takeoff, this is the point where my palms reached peak levels of moisture.
“Cleared for takeoff at your discretion”
WIth the checks complete and “cleared for takeoff at your discretion” echoing around my head, we were lined up on runway 25 for takeoff and I got my first “your controls” (“…except for the rudder” implied) from my instructor. I gradually eased in the power and, at an appropriate point somewhere between Vr and Vx, pulled gently back on the yoke and we were officially airborne. Climbing away from the airfield I was thrilled to get a “very smooth, good job” from my instructor, and he took control at 500 ft to take us up to 1800 ft and over to the practice area to the north west of the airfield.
We started, as ‘most everyone does, with primary and secondary effects of the controls. No real surprises here - I’ve been binge-watching as many UK-based flight training youtube videos as I can find, reading other students’ reports on the Flyer Forums, hammering Blackbushe circuits in MSFS, and had worked my way through to about midway through APM #1 - and I was pleased to hear from my instructor that I got the hang of all that (at a basic level) fairly quickly. I confirmed for myself the oft-shared wisdom that it’s easier to trim in real life than it is in a flight sim; problem is, I’m not sure I can ever go back!
We still had a bunch of time left in the 1hr session, so we moved onto a preview of the next lesson: straight and level flight. I really enjoyed the exercises around flap position and maintaining altitude with appropriate attitude adjustments and trim. With multiple things all going on at once and all under my control this felt like actual flying, and I’m just waiting for the right time to tell Mrs W that I can indeed multitask somewhat successfully!
Last minute surprises
With that done it was time to head back to the airfield just as some lower-level clouds were rolling in. “Where are we?”, quizzed my instructor. I was just about able to pick out Reading but hadn’t the foggiest idea of which way we were facing (forgetting that I had both the DI and a compass to refer to) but it turned out we were just around the corner from the airfield. We had enough time to squeeze in a touch and go and a landing, with my instructor giving me yoke control down to ~100ft on final for both despite what felt to me like squally crosswinds. All good practice for some real landings down the road.
One final surprise awaited me on completion of the after landing checklist: my first radio call. On reflection, it’s utterly ridiculous (but reassuringly human) that the sudden prospect of this made my heart thump way more than anything else we’d done that day. It was the simplest of calls - “G-EB, request taxi parking” … “taxi parking, G-EB” - but when it comes to more complicated stuff down the line at the very least I can say I didn’t fluff my first one.
Debrief
So, that’s it: 1hr of dual flight logged and a check in the “takeoff” box of my now-nearly-new logbook. Not a bad start to the weekend! Now I just have to sit down and work out the most cost advantageous approach to lessons and get some slots booked.
Things to remember for next time:
- enable flight mode in EasyVFR, ‘cause it doesn’t track your flights if you don’t (or just pony up for SkyDemon)
- FlightRadar24 is a poor backup for the above: less than half of my flight was captured and at a resolution that suggests more erratic flight than I could manage even on my first lesson
- ask about crabbing into that crosswind on final and at what point we should straighten up for landing
- it was a very good idea to put on extra deodorant