First Flight - Just Finished!

Salutations All,

I just finished my first introductory flight in a Diamond Katana.

I have but two words to describe it: Absolutely Amazing!

My instructor was a great guy by the name of Jeff Willis, out of
Skyline Aeronautics at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (SUS). Today was a
beautiful day in St. Louis, clear skies, 10 miles visibility and almost
no wind.

We took off west from runway 22R (as I recall), and I was shocked by
how much this airplane wanted to fly! Just the smallest amount of pull
back on the stick and the thing really seemed to jump in the air! Jeff
handled most of the rudder work - I was also surprised at the turning
tendency of the aircraft during takeoff, that's something simulators
don't capture well. Once we got above 400 ft, he retracted the flaps,
took it up to about 3000 feet, looked over at me, smiled and said "Your
Airplane."

Wow! My first thought was "There is no way I can do this." My legs were
actually shaking. Since I'm a flight simulator geek, I was already
familiar with the majority of the instruments and their relationship to
one another, so he didn't have to do much explaining once in the air.
The first thing I did was timidly move the stick into a left bank, and
it was quite the exhilirating experience to finally see and feel the
way the instruments reacted to one another, and the way the forces felt
against the airplane.

I also loved the way the aileron trim worked in the Katana - the small
switch right on the top of the stick was convenient. It was so weird
how quickly the aircraft responded to even the smallest of
modifications to the trim tab.

One thing I *didn't* like was my headset - the microphone on mine kept
cutting out, and the instructor missed half of what I said; not that
big of a deal, but I'm going to purchase my own headset before my next
flight to be sure.

I must say, this was one of the most exhilirating experiences ever. It
was challenging and fun - while up I was trying to do things like
maintain a certain altitude while making a turn, things that I've
mastered long ago in Flight Simulator, but now faced with the real deal
take away and entirely different viewpoint on the instruments
interrelations.

As I told my wife, the whole experience was as if God himself had
picked me up, placed me on his shoulder, and gave me a guided tour of
all of creation. It was amazing!

Now that my first flight is over, the "hard" part begins. I've got
books to buy, and studying to do - the technical aspects of flying
simply fascinate me, and I'm looking forward to digging in! I'm a
software engineer, so it's in my nature to be inquisitive and detail
oriented, and I'm now faced with a topic that seems enormously
technical, and I'm quite excited!

Regards,
Bryan Porter

PP Student - 0.5 Hours VFR! ;-)