What was your first trainning aircraft

[tomahawk]

[quote]
"What's the range of your radio?"
If I can see it, I can control it.
"Yes, but how far exactly?"
Well, I've never been too concerned about that.

[Tequila Sunrise]

I'd deffinetly recomend Gliding , engines, who neds em?
I flew the Grob Viking with 662 VGS at RN Condor and loved it (first launch scared the S*** out of me though).

[Hagar]

I'd deffinetly recomend Gliding , engines, who neds em?
I flew the Grob Viking with 662 VGS at RN Condor and loved it  

Compare Craig's Viking with the T.31 in my earlier reply.



Seems things have moved on a bit since my day.  ;D

(first launch scared the S*** out of me though).

Some things never change. I would describe it as exhilarating rather than scary. Loved every minute.
Oh to be 16 again.

[pete]

Piper - PA-38 - Tomahawk.

Got my licence on it but still prefer anything else  ;D

[Iroquois]

Does R/C aircraft count? If so my first was on a Hobbieco Superstar. I've sometimes felt like going over to the local airpark but lessons cost on average of $8,000, money that I just don't have.

[congo]

Hagar's piccy above is of a Grob Twin Astir I believe.

My first Instructional flight was in one of these.
My thoughts......... If the Instructor has a heart attack or does something really stupid..... I can handle it! Might not be pretty, but I'll walk away!

I had been flying sims for thousands of hours before the first flight.

I shared time in my early training between the Grob (a high performance sailplane) and a Blanik L-13 (lower performance).

I found that by flying both aircraft in my early training (in all weather conditions), gave me a lot of confidence and verified what I had learned on simulators.

This had the side effect of my instructors believing I was over-confident when I actually had the ability.

I went solo after 10 hours of instruction and on reflection, this was only just enough time to be safe.

On my third solo, I was thermalling at cloudbase and realised I didn't know how to read the metric altimeter in the Blanik. I had always flown "seat of the pants" using angles, sound and judgement with occasional reference to the airspeed indicator for verification of launch and landing speeds.

I think soaring in sailplanes is one of the purest forms of flight because you fly an extremely efficient and controllable machine using weather as an energy source. I love it.

[C]

Congo,

to avoid confusion

In RAF speak the Grob 103 is know as the Viking (Grob 109 = Vigilant, Grob 115e = Tutor (plastic pig:D), which is far better than the RN's 115D Heron :-/).

Check out the nice DSB Design Viking...


Charlie

[Hagar]

I shared time in my early training between the Grob (a high performance sailplane) and a Blanik L-13 (lower performance).

I found that by flying both aircraft in my early training (in all weather conditions), gave me a lot of confidence and verified what I had learned on simulators.

This had the side effect of my instructors believing I was over-confident when I actually had the ability.

I went solo after 10 hours of instruction and on reflection, this was only just enough time to be safe.

This shows the difference between now & 40 years ago. In June 1959 when I took my first gliding course on the T.31 it was somewhat different.
Minimum requirement before being allowed solo = 20 launches.
Qualify for A & B civil gliding licence = 3 solo flights.
Total = 23 launches.

I qualified in the minimum time on the second day of the 1 week course. I still have the licence although it is no longer valid. Unfortunately I lost my logbooks some time ago. Remember the average time for each flight was 2 1/2 minutes. 2 1/2 x 23 = 57 1/2 minutes.

[robbo1]

My first training aircraft was (and still is) a Cessna 172, however sadly, my first hands on flight experience was in a King Air C90...I was spoiled...the Cessna is so much slower than the King Air.

[congo]

Hagar, I soloed in the L-13 Blanik, flight no. 41, so I guess my flights were about 15 minutes average. This included a few flights of over an hour. And we get about 1800' AGL on the winch launch which gives us a bit of time to find a thermal.

[Hagar]

Hi Congo. That shows how things have changed since my day. Max altitude from a good launch was about 750 feet - if you we're lucky. Just enough for a circuit & landing. Great fun all the same. The last time I flew a glider was in a Grob 103 while on hoilday in Florida some 8 years ago. Took a trip for old times' sake. About 1 hour airborne from a 4,000 foot aero-tow. Quite a difference I can tell you.  ;)

[Northwest 102]

My first lesson was in a Piper Comanche out of Flying Cloud field (KFCM) in Minnesota.  Part of an MAC community of airports including (KMSP), Minneapolis/St. Paul International.  I loved it even though it was a little complex for a training flight, retrac gear and all.  From there I flew a Piper Tomahawk twice, then on to 6 or so flights in a Piper Warrior II.  Other traing I have is one half hour in a tailwheel, Boeing Stearman, 2 summers ago.  Lastly, a few hours in a Beechcraft/Raytheon King Air B200 out of Anoka (KANE).

Mike

The only aircraft I flew in just for fun and could not count any time in is a Cessna Caravan on floats.

[bricks4wings]

Nothing exotic here. Just your Basic 172R. I've only flown a "Traumahawk" once. I cant say that I enjoyed it near as much as the Skyhawk.

[chomp_rock]

Piper Pa-28-150

[pliabos]

cessna 172 . and my instructor was a formal F-4 phantom pilot in the army.lol he was only looking out and listening engine, no altitude or speed needed for him (sorry about my english