Progress Check...

OR, what could be known as the "check what you thought you might think you know but really don't" flight.

Actually, it wasn't too awful for a Wednesday. Sho Kassim, Oklahoma Aviation's head flight instructor, was my new passenger to check my state of affairs. Getting in that plane with someone new was a good experience. I was nervous at first and trying to get myself to relax but couldn't. I thought the most of how I wish I had a bottle of water with me to eliminate my cotton mouth.

I preflighted the plane by myself, came back inside, did a little check in session of what we were going to be doing on the flight and then headed out. I was hoping that this wasn't going to be like a driver's test, but it was. He would ask me to do something and then I would ask him again, just to make certain I knew what he wanted me to do. While getting ready for takeoff, there was lots of jabber on the radio, which didn't seem to help, so Sho took over radio duties and just wanted me to fly the plane. That was a nice relief, but I've been working on radio work quite a bit lately. My problem is that I practice by myself. When I talk to a real person that needs an answer, it's easy to get flustered.

Takeoff was a uneventful as we proceed to four thousand feet AGL to begin maneuvers. Sho was really quiet and didn't talk hardly at all, except to ask me to do a maneuver. I would question him some on what procedure I should take, but he would just tell me to do it the best I could remember. After trying to remember how to get into slow flight, (slow flight? what the heck is slow flight?) I would ask him what to do. No answer. I would babble something about what I thought he wanted me to do, but he would just not budge. After 10 minutes of that I finally thought, "okay, I'm flying this plane then, and he's along for the ride. I'm the expert here, so act like it."

I cut the chatter and would only repeat back to him the maneuver he asked for. Turn left, turn right, constant speed descent at 90 knots, set up for landing (sucky, sucky) and so forth. Not flying with an instructor for 2 weeks and then doing this ride wasn't too simple a task, even though I had beed practicing everything on the simulator at home. I did two overworked landings that weren't too bad, but on our final he offered some great advice, just set your power and direct your PLANE to the point selected on the runway.

"Oh!" I exclaimed, "I always pick a point, I just don't point the airplane that way." DOH!

Back on the ground, the guys made me feel good, Sho didn't have any real worries about me, other than I keep my head to much in the cockpit and not outside. That is already an absolute known about my flying, I want to always fly on instruments. So, he gave me a passing grade and I will go flying with Andy the next time. That's going to be nice, except he's going to cover all my instruments while flying.

Ahhh, pilot training, gotta love it.