Stage II and III

I haven’t posted since I soloed, which was late April. I should bring everyone up to speed on where I am in my flight training.

Flight training is broken down into three stages. Stage 1 is complete when you do your first solo. You learn all the basic maneuvers (e.g. turns around a point, s-turns, rectangular course, steep turns), stalls, and landings, landings, landings. In one lesson, I did 12 takeoff and landings with my flight instructor! After you do all that, you practice landings some more. Once your instructor is comfortable with your landings, she’ll let you solo. Once you solo, you move onto Stage 2.

In Stage 2, you learn to do short and soft field takeoff and landings, instrument-only flight, night flying, and cross-country flights. In addition, you continue to review everything you learned in Stage 1. Short field landings and takeoffs are used when the runway is either short for your aircraft (what is a long runway for a Cessna 150 may very well be very short for a 737), and/or there are obstacles near the ends of the runway. Soft field landings and takeoffs are used when landing on turf or other runway surfaces that aren’t your standard asphalt/concrete runways. They are a lot of fun. Instrument-only flight is practiced by wearing a hood that covers the view outside the cockpit and the only thing you can see are the aircraft’s instruments. You really have to distrust what you body is telling you and trust the instruments. Often, you will be flying straight-and-level and your body will feel like you are turning. Cross-country flying includes learning how to complete a flight plan (using your trusty E6B). You do a day and night cross country flight with your instructor.

I have completed Stage 2 and now am in Stage 3. In Stage 3, you do at least two solo cross country flights. I went to Independence for my first cross county flight. For my second, long cross country flight, I went to Olympia and Centralia. I’ll write more details about those trips in later posts.

I am now studying for my written exam, which I hope to take in the next couple of weeks. After that, my flight instructor thinks I can do my checkride in late September.