Long overdue update...

So I'm up to about 18 hours now (man... weather sucks over the winter).
In the interim, I decided to get Lasik surgery done on my eyes (turned out
quite well, thank you) that has had me waiting before I could get my
medical. As a result, I've done a lot more dual before solo than would
normally be required. It is awfully nice to see well without glasses
though.

Still wake up like it's Christmas morning when I'm scheduled to fly. Still
pout and am sour when the weather doesn't cooperate (like today). The days
are starting to get long, so I'm hoping that when my medical comes through
(have appointment next week, then it's just submitting the papers) I'll be
able to put in some long hours.

I find the book learning fascinating as well as the actual flying (though
would admittedly rather be in the air). I have lots of school experience,
so find the study / exam writing not too difficult... it's really pretty
easy when you're interested in the subject.

No really scary happenings during training. Here in Canada, there is spin
instruction (I understand this isn't the case in the US?) Recently they
changed it that spins have to be demonstrated, but not practiced. My CFI
asked if I would like to try a few, and I'm a sucker when it comes to trying
cool things in a plane, so of course I did. That, and spiral dives have
been the "hairiest" of the flying I've done. Can't say as though it feels
very comfortable, however. My CFI commented that glancing out the window
during recovery from a particularly nasty spiral that he could see the wing
flexing and "rippling", which scared me more than the actual activity.

Had an interesting flight awhile ago. Here in Montreal, there are two large
airports. The Pierre Elliot Trudeau (formerly Dorval) airport, and the
Mirabel airport. Mirabel was "supposed" to be the big international when
the government built it in the 70's, but has turned out to be a white
elephant. It's still open, but pretty much no traffic. We flew out there
to do some touch and goes. It is a BIG change to do touch and goes in a
C-152 on a 12,000 foot by 200 foot runway, when you're used to something
much smaller. I got quite a kick out of turning crosswind at 700ft while
still over the runway with lots left to go! Hard to judge the flare on
landings though. With the wide runway, I tended to flare too early...
thinking we were close when still at some altitude. Flying would be easy if
things were the same all the time (wind, runway, plane, etc.)

Anyhow, wanted to give an update and let you all know that I'm enjoying
reading and learning from the newsgroup as I go along. Why the hell didn't
I do this earlier?


"Jase Vanover" wrote in message
...
Was on vacation this week, so decided to drop by the nearby GA airport and
go for a flight to see if I really do want to get my pilot's license.
Let's just say that I'm hooked and leave it at that. It's a good thing
the Instructor was busy scanning the sky because had he looked at me, I
would have felt silly with the big **** eating grin on my face. I ended
up leaving the airport with a manual, logbook, student record, fuel
testing cup, a reserved spot in groundschool that starts in January, and
time booked for the next three weekends to fly.

It was only in a 152, which seemed really small when we got in (getting in
and out seemed to be the hardest part). The instructor ran the throttle,
mix, and assorted switches... I got to fly the rest of the flight (apart
from flare and touchdown). We took off, flew around for a bit, got lined
up with the runway (it's a good thing the instructor was there to tell me
where to turn and when... the runway just seemed to appear in front of me
without really realising how we got back). I've spent quite a few hours
on PC simulation, which I think paid off. He'd say something like, "I'm
going to throttle down to decend, just adjust attitude to keep your speed
at 60 knots," but didn't explain what gauge to look at or what to really
do. Nonetheless, I nailed it because of the familiarity I had with the
simulator. He said we could probably do the next several exercises all at
once, since we pretty much did most of it in the intro ride anyway
(climbs, straight and level flight, decents, turns, etc.) I'm pretty sure
I'm the lowest time pilot on this newsgroup (got to log 0.5 hours of dual
instruction time). Anyhow... I'm hooked (but I pretty much knew I'd be).

I had been talking about doing this for some time... reading magazines,
lurking here, checking out websites and such. Looking forward to the
journey.

Anyone else fly out of Les Cedres (just West of Montreal)?