I Finally Flew An Aircraft!!

[Fly2e]

Well, as I mentioned in the cafe, I turned 40 last week. My wife really gave me a wonderful gift! An hour and a half in a Piper Cruiser! Before I flew, I registered and am now enrolled with The Nassau Flyers Training School at KFRG! When I was done, I received my official log book and officially have 1 hour of stick time in there! I basically flew 99% of the flight! Did a precheck of the aircraft, hoped in, started her up and then away we went. I taxied to the runway and took off! It was a bit windy with 18 to 20mph gusts so the minute we took off, we were bounced around a bit! as we climbed up, it calmed down a bit! Flew out over my house then over the North shore of Long Island. Headed East out to Port Jefferson then North again over to Connecticut. Turned around and flew over to the South shore for our approach and landing. Since it was a surprise, I did not have my Nikon digi but at least I had my old Olympus digi in the glove box! Here are the shots and then I will post where I went after!!































































MY HOUSE is just right of the four smoke stacks! Those stacks are the "visual" when departing straight out to the North from KFRG.
I am really excited that i am now registered with them and can now just schedule some flight time! The instructor I was with is 31 and flies twin engine props. He has his applications out there at a few of the regionals! It was real exciting and not much different than the sim except for the bouncing around! Will post some shot of where and what I did after we landed!!!

Here is what I did after my flight!
THE PARTY!

[pepper_airborne]

Nice! Looks like there will be another RL pilot soon .

Remember ; the art of flying is to throw yourself at the ground and mis!

[MWISimmer]

Looks like you had a great time Dave, but next time your wife springs a "surprise" tell her to warn you in advance so you can be prepared with your Nikon..  ;D  ;D

[Mobius]

Nice Dave, there's no going back now.

[Hagar]

Nice pressie. Good one! [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

[C]

Nicely done Dave. There goes most of your money for the next couple of years!

[Aerophile]

Congrats!  That's how I got hooked.

[Clipper]

Congrats and about time! I remember my first lesson well, the teacher let me do the pre-flight unsupervised after I apparently convinced her of my extensive "sim" experience. Big mistake....Twenty minutes into the flight I realized I hadn't checked the tanks for condensation. I remember the blood rushing to my a## and all I could think about was brrrrp....brrrrp...bbbbrrrpp..engine stall. Anyway, great to see you got the opportunity, now don't you agree there's nothing quite like the freedom of flight, and of seeing the horizon from 4,000 ft. Good luck and hopefully you can afford to keep it going Dave.  :)

[Brett_Henderson]

You've taken the controls of an airplane.. felt it leave the ground and made it do what you ask of it, in the air..

[BFMF]

Looks like you had fun....!

Now for groundschool, and many fun hours of studying, and flying.... 8-)

[Rifleman]

Good one Dave...next time you go, get us some shots of those static birds....looks to be maybe a Tomcat and an Aardvark....possibly a Texan (Harvard/SNJ type)..........

[Willit Run]

Sweet Gift!!    8-)

[beaky]

I didn't realize this was your first lesson... congrats!!  8-)

And good for you for booking more lessons... welcome to the Dark Side... mwahahahaha...
I suspect KFRG would be a good place to start learning: fairly mellow Class D close enough to the Class B to give you good experience with nav and comms, but with all of Long Island at your back door; such easy navigation and plenty of cool little trips you can make.

Reminds me I haven't flown out over "Lawng Oyland" in a long time!
I recognize that patch of the North shore, though. Those stacks are a very useful landmark.

Next time I decide to make that easy cruise out to Montauk, I guess I'll have to stop at Republic to pick you up.



Regarding that panel shot: yes, I'm also wondering what the heck y'all were up to, there... and that misaligned  DG... tsk, tsk!

For future reference: when taking a shot of the panel in flight, always make sure everything's lined up!

[beaky]

Congrats and about time! I remember my first lesson well, the teacher let me do the pre-flight unsupervised after I apparently convinced her of my extensive "sim" experience. Big mistake....Twenty minutes into the flight I realized I hadn't checked the tanks for condensation. I remember the blood rushing to my a## and all I could think about was brrrrp....brrrrp...bbbbrrrpp..engine stall. Anyway, great to see you got the opportunity, now don't you agree there's nothing quite like the freedom of flight, and of seeing the horizon from 4,000 ft. Good luck and hopefully you can afford to keep it going Dave.  :)

But FS doesn't teach you diddly about preflighting...   what kind of instructor- nevermind.      

[ozzy72]

That is one super-cool pressie Dave 8-)