Rare opportunities are often missed by people because they look like work. I consider learning to fly a very rare opportunity. To work, yes. But, also to have more joy and freedom than I ever thought possible.
Today I got to fly!! With this January weather, you just try to be hopeful. As always, I learned something new today! Have you ever heard of simulated IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) with a hood? It means that you put on a hood, a view limiting device so that you can only see the controls, you can’t see the sky in front of you, below you, or beside you (picture below of a hood) and fly using only the plane’s instruments. Before I did this, Roger explained to me that I should focus on maintaining instrument scanning skills. You cannot ever rely on what you imagine your location or movements to be. You have to force yourself to rely on your instruments only. If you were in an actual situation where you were flying in clouds or fog, you could become disoriented. Your kinesthetic senses can play tricks on you. He taught me to focus on the directional indicator, magnetic compass, and turn coordinator. You are also focused on maintaining altitude and holding your heading as he instructed me to do. (I need three hours of doing this. At least I’ve made a start!)
He also taught me the procedure you should follow when declaring who has control of the plane. Think about it; that could cause some real issues. That was fun. But, Roger always makes lessons fun. Sometimes it’s his humor that makes me remember the lesson. I can also think of a few times that his grave seriousness also made me learn the lesson with clarity. Everything about learning to fly a plane is so precise. It is so unlike anything I have ever done. You can’t just “wing” it. It’s like retraining my brain.
Flying the Cessna 152 is like flying a sports car with wings. It is tremendously fun, but there is soooooooo much more you have to learn to do so.
Lastly, I got to do touch and go’s at the Blacksburg airport. Difference today from other days is there was another student who was also practicing touch and go’s, so we both got to learn how to coordinate our movements and making sure to announce those movements to the airport and other planes in the area. It was also quite cold out so I learned how to change my flying technique to accommodate what would be best for the plane in those temperatures.
I find it a bit odd that there was a very brief period of time that I thought, “I think I’ve got this” to now fully realizing that I have so much more to learn, to remember, and to perfect. With planes, you always have to be learning and you should never take anything for granted. But, perhaps that is also a lesson about life as well.