First Flying Lesson!
Discussion
Long story short, eldest Son bought me a Virgin Experience Day (brand, not an experience with a Virgin) for my 50th Birthday last year. The actual gift was 30 laps in a F1000 Single Seater, but as I do many track days every year i thought I'd look at exchanging for something a little different in Virgin's repertoire & decided upon an Extended Flying Lesson (I'm of the age where a Bucket List has appeared).
Due to the inconvenience of Covid-19, i was of course unable to book anything up until now, but am booked for said Extended Flying Lesson out of Blackpool Airport tomorrow morning.
To say I'm excited is an understatement, but i find that today the day before take off, I'm also getting a little apprehensive as I've only flown on Commercial Aircraft as a Passenger & my only time as a Passenger in a Cessna (pal was doing his PPL in Philly), i really can't say it was enjoyable (was sat in the back navigating).
1. Anything obvious i need to do in preparation &/or to take with me tomorrow?
2. Best to wear warm weather of cool weather clothing? Looks like the ground temp tomorrow will be around 17 degrees Celsius with a chance of light showers.
3. I do love flying, but that's as a passenger so am i likely to love/hate this experience.
4. I'm guessing being only a 1hr lesson, I'll only be at the controls for at best 50% of the time & expect being up front it will be considerably more interesting that my only other light aircraft experience.
It appears Westair Flying School have several 2 & 4 Seater Cessna's, so my assumption is i'll be up in one of their 2 seaters & as it's an hour i believe we head up the Fylde Coast towards Cumbria/South Lakes before returning to Blackpool.
Will of course try & if I'm allowed, take plenty of photos.
Thanks in advance
Due to the inconvenience of Covid-19, i was of course unable to book anything up until now, but am booked for said Extended Flying Lesson out of Blackpool Airport tomorrow morning.
To say I'm excited is an understatement, but i find that today the day before take off, I'm also getting a little apprehensive as I've only flown on Commercial Aircraft as a Passenger & my only time as a Passenger in a Cessna (pal was doing his PPL in Philly), i really can't say it was enjoyable (was sat in the back navigating).
1. Anything obvious i need to do in preparation &/or to take with me tomorrow?
2. Best to wear warm weather of cool weather clothing? Looks like the ground temp tomorrow will be around 17 degrees Celsius with a chance of light showers.
3. I do love flying, but that's as a passenger so am i likely to love/hate this experience.
4. I'm guessing being only a 1hr lesson, I'll only be at the controls for at best 50% of the time & expect being up front it will be considerably more interesting that my only other light aircraft experience.
It appears Westair Flying School have several 2 & 4 Seater Cessna's, so my assumption is i'll be up in one of their 2 seaters & as it's an hour i believe we head up the Fylde Coast towards Cumbria/South Lakes before returning to Blackpool.
Will of course try & if I'm allowed, take plenty of photos.
Thanks in advance
Well that didn’t pan out as expected.
Set off for Blackpool Airport (80 mile round trip) in plenty of time to arrive early, but upon arrival was told the cloud base was too low & wind speed too high, so I’d need to reschedule.
I guess it was too too much to ask that they got in touch to inform me of this before I started my journey. Just typical that the last few days have been perfect weather, as will the next few days.
Re-booked for next Saturday, so fingers crossed the weather behaves & I’ll be sure to call the Flying School before setting off.
Set off for Blackpool Airport (80 mile round trip) in plenty of time to arrive early, but upon arrival was told the cloud base was too low & wind speed too high, so I’d need to reschedule.
I guess it was too too much to ask that they got in touch to inform me of this before I started my journey. Just typical that the last few days have been perfect weather, as will the next few days.
Re-booked for next Saturday, so fingers crossed the weather behaves & I’ll be sure to call the Flying School before setting off.
DrDeAtH said:
I shall sit back and await the OP having his own episode of Aircrash Investigation ... 
ThanksNot long now, so will THIS time call Westair first thing on Saturday to check the weather's playing nicely & hopefully be in the air around midday.
Can't say the timing's all that good given the England vs. Scotland game tomorrow is absolutely one that can ONLY be viewed in a pub
So lesson went ahead on Saturday as agreed & decided that morning to upgrade to a 4 Seater Cessna so the wife & youngest son could accompany me (the latter of those 2 passengers didn't have the best time).
Was as expected great fun, but defo harder work than I expected. Overall flying time was closer to 1hr 15min as Blackpool had Covid related ATC issues (open for an hour & then closed for an hour), so we managed to get as far North as Ambleside & then a low level path down the centre of Windermere, before tracking out over the coast at Ulverston across to Fleetwood & then back into Blackpool.
Other than the final approach & landing, all control was me which was a huge shock, as i never for a minute imagined I'd be responsible for the take off & so much of the flying. Even had a couple of shaper turns, climb & descend around some onerous clouds.
Weather was ok visibility wise, but was a bit breezy at 3-4k ft & cloud base was around 4k so had to stay in the breezy air & of course this lead to youngest son having a very unpleasant experience & some post flight cleaning being required.
Defo something i want to do again, but wouldn't take passengers next time as that defo added to the stress, but did mean some great video & photos were taken (although as the wife took them on her iPhone, she used the wrong bloody format so can only post the couple she didn't take on here).
Was as expected great fun, but defo harder work than I expected. Overall flying time was closer to 1hr 15min as Blackpool had Covid related ATC issues (open for an hour & then closed for an hour), so we managed to get as far North as Ambleside & then a low level path down the centre of Windermere, before tracking out over the coast at Ulverston across to Fleetwood & then back into Blackpool.
Other than the final approach & landing, all control was me which was a huge shock, as i never for a minute imagined I'd be responsible for the take off & so much of the flying. Even had a couple of shaper turns, climb & descend around some onerous clouds.
Weather was ok visibility wise, but was a bit breezy at 3-4k ft & cloud base was around 4k so had to stay in the breezy air & of course this lead to youngest son having a very unpleasant experience & some post flight cleaning being required.
Defo something i want to do again, but wouldn't take passengers next time as that defo added to the stress, but did mean some great video & photos were taken (although as the wife took them on her iPhone, she used the wrong bloody format so can only post the couple she didn't take on here).
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