Lesson 2 - First Flight With Ed Bryce

Flight Time: 1.0 hours
Total Time: 1.5 hours

My first day of flying on a regular basis was on a Tuesday afternoon after work. It was a clear, fairly warm day, with almost no wind. I left Microsoft early, anticipating a long commute during rush hour traffic. The drive took nowhere near as long as I thought, so I ended up stopping by the Boeing Field Pilot shop and then sitting in the parking lot at the northeast entrance to Boeing Field for about 45 minutes waiting for Ed to show up.

When he did show up, we got introduced and talked a little bit about what I could expect during the day, and then he led me into the small aircraft parking area to show me the basics of the plane. We started with the pre-flight inspection, and he walked me through the process using the checklist that he’d given me.

N738VJ - My Trainer

N738VJ's Cockpit

Once we got into the plane, Ed told me that he wanted me to do everything I was comfortable doing from the moment I got in the plane. The idea, he said, was that the more I did from day one, the more comfortable I’d be and the quicker I’d learn as we went along. This meant that unlike my first flight, I needed to worry about coordinated flight.

Ed had me make the call to request clearance to taxi from northeast parking to the runway, which I stumbled through, but finally got after a few tries. He then had me taxi to the runway, which also took quite a bit of work. Learning to steer with your feet is not easy at all, and although he kept telling me to keep my hands on my knees and the throttle, I kept reaching for the wheel. With some work and a lot of swerving I finally made it to the runway for the pre-flight part of the checklist.

I was vaguely familiar with the steps we went through, but there was a flood of new information as we checked controls and engine function before takeoff. I really didn’t understand what we were looking for with all of the steps yet, but he did, so I didn’t waste too much time questioning him about the why’s until later.

Once we had clearance, we taxi’d onto the runway for takeoff. Rather than controlling the rudder for me, Ed expected me to use the rudder to keep us on the centerline (which I did with moderate success) and reminded me that because we were accelerating and climbing, that I needed to keep a heavy foot on the right rudder to keep us straight.

We climbed out of the short runway heading north towards downtown Seattle, and I had an amazing view as rose to 500 feet, where we turned towards the east and flew over Lake Washington towards Belleview. I snapped a few shots over Bellevue while he held the controls and we headed further east over Lake Sammamish - the area that I live in.

Bellevue

Flying Towards Mount Rainier

Factoria

Mount Rainier

Over Lake Sammamish, we started working on the basics of flight: keeping the plane straight and level, trimming the plane, and coordinated turns. In the previous flight, my instructor had controlled the rudders. This time, I was in control of the rudders. The rudders are used to maintain “coordinated flight.” When you turn the wheel left, the ailerons turn so you make a left hand turn, but when you do this, your tail is slipping around behind you. To prevent this, you press in enough rudder in the direction of your turn until the ball in “turn coordinator” is centered. Not coordinating your turns leads to an uncomfortable skidding type feeling when you turn, and if you stall during the turn, can lead into a spin – something that gets distracted pilots in trouble when they’re closer to the ground.


Ed told me that this flight would be one of my shorter flights because the first real flight is always the most draining with so much to learn. He was right, and we were back to Boeing Field within an hour. We came in for a landing from the north, following a greenway that runs south from near the Amazon.com headquarters and parallels Boeing Field. He had me turn on carb heat, pull out the throttle and drop flaps as we hit the end of the short runway; then start turning, drop the throttle to idle, and drop full flaps and start to turn when we hit a 45 degree angle from the end of the runway. He directed me to turn at the right time to get lined up with the runway and we put it down fairly smoothly a little bit late, but still with plenty of runway to spare.

We debriefed after getting the plane tied down, and I had a hard time concentrating because I was still on a buzz from the experience. My stomach was a little woozy and I felt extremely hyper and exhausted at the same time.

Ed filled out my logbook and we made plans to meet at the same time the next day. All in all it was a good experience, and I left looking forward to my next lesson and feeling confident that this really is something I could do.