"Ground, Cessna One Two Papa."
"Cessna One Two Papa, go ahead."
"Cessna One Two Papa, we're here on the ramp requesting taxi via Bravo to runway one nine for a VFR departure to the Northwest"
"Cessna One Two Papa, you are cleared to taxi via Bravo, runway one nine."
"Cleared to taxi via Bravo, runway one nine, Cessna One Two Papa"
*A Few moments later*
"Tower, Cessna One Two Papa."
"Cessna One Two Papa, go ahead."
"Cessna One Two Papa, on the ramp at runway one nine, ready for a VFR departure to the north west."
"Cessna One Two Papa, cleared for take off. Winds at..."
"Cleared for take off. Thank you, Cessna One Two Papa."
That was the beginning conversation between myself, ground control, and air control before I took off on my last lesson. A typical routine conversation between many pilots and air traffic controllers, but this conversation happened to be my second. Ever. My novice to the field of aviation is still apparent, and will be for quite sometime. But I have found that the more you immerse yourself into its realm, the more you will be able to find yourself speaking the language. This past week, I even compelled myself to memorizing the entire phonetic alphabet:
Alpha
Bravo
Charlie
Delta
Echo
Foxtrot
Golf
Hotel
India
Juliette
Kilo
Lima
Mike
November
Oscar
Papa
Quebec
Romeo
Sierra
Tango
Uniform
Victor
Whiskey
X-Ray
Zulu
It was easier than I thought. I just had to give my mind a task to do involving these letters, rather than sitting in a chair staring at the same words over and over again. So I found that task- license plates. Driving around, or walking through a parking lot, You can see all kinds of license plates, each one with their own individual sequence of letters and numbers. I would look at each plate and from memory, attempt to recall each phonetic letter and use it as a call sign instead of a plate number. Stupid? Yes. Did it work? You bet.
Before I continue, I need to put it out there that I'm not devoting my entire blog to discovering flight, but as it so happens, that's what I'm focusing on as a life long learner at this point. I have a few other posts coming on different ideas, but they will happen in good time.
Now, back to flying. I now have four and a half hours logged of flight time, and things are starting to get interesting. For the first time ever, or at least it felt like it to me, I had complete control of the airplane during my last take off. Once you get into your groove, you'll find that the process is pretty easy to follow:
Line up on center line. Make sure your front wheel is straight. Full power. Use rudder to keep aircraft going down center line. Airspeed at 50 kts, pull back on the yoke to rotate the plane up. Keep pulling back slightly. Plane lifts into air. Continue climb. Maintain an airspeed of 70 kts. Level. Trim.
It's that easy. I may have left a few things our for redundancy, but having that experience of being able to have the controls to yourself without corrective input from the instructor is a bit intimidating and liberating at the same time.
The plane is getting easier to fly, and all the time we're learning new things: Stalls, slow flight, steep turns, more stalls, using the instrument panel, the list goes on and on. The more time you spend in the plane, the more you learn.
But it hasn't been friendly skies the entire time. I have subjected myself to my own personal scrutiny of wondering why I am doing what I am. Why am I spending copious amounts of money for something I have no idea which direction I am going to take after I have earned the credential? Why can this plane be so hard to fly sometimes? Why is some of this stuff going over my head? Am I wasting my time and money? Personal evaluation is important in everything. I have always known myself to be overly critical of myself.
Regardless of what I put myself through, I also need to step back and ask myself these questions: Am I enjoying what I do? Yes. Is what I am doing fun? Yes. Am I accomplishing a goal that I have set for myself: Yes?
Three yeses. That seems worth it to me. Although at this point, Im not sure where or what direction this is going to take me, but as I written before, we don't know where life is going to take us. We don't even know what is going to happen tomorrow. The best we can do is enjoy the ride.
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