Merlinspop
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2016
- Messages
- 133
- Reaction score
- 39
Greetings all -
I'm Bruce from the Easter Panhandle of WV. For various reasons (some medical, mostly just "life" getting in the way), I let my medical lapse a dozen years ago and pretty much stopped flying. An hour in a glider, and an hour each in a Carbon Cub and a SportCruiser over a decade hardly count as "active." This summer, after my wife threatened to divorce me if she has to suffer through another late July of me whining about not going to AirVenture, I started the process to get my medical back. Lots of tests and scanning of records and waiting and I received the precious piece of paper in the mail a few weeks ago and I immediately scheduled a flight review.
Being most comfortable in Pipers (Tomahawks and a very early Cherokee 140), I found that a flight school relatively close by in Frederick (KFDK) had an Archer. I was fortunate to be paired with an instructor who is fairly experienced for her young age (she's getting close to the magic 1500 hours now) and she and I sat down and came up with a plan to get me up to speed.
Of course, the wind was howling the day of our appointment so we scrubbed the flight and spent the time doing the ground portion. While I haven't flown in a long time, I have kept current with regs and have taken several online classes through AOPA and elsewhere every year, so the ground portion went fairly well. The CFI, Rachel, had the audacity to get married a couple days later and would be off the schedule for a couple weeks, and offered that I could book the flight portion with one of her colleagues. I decided that I've waited a decade; 2 more weeks is nothing. Besides, I could use the time to study the POH and get the emergency checklists committed to memory.
We had our first flight in the Archer Saturday morning. The winds were pretty sporty still and the practice area is downwind of a couple of ridge lines, so we really didn't accomplish much. Only .9 hours. I was surprised that evening to realize that I could remember almost no details at all of the flight. That really bothered me, actually, because I normally remember everything. The Archer was booked solid yesterday, but they have an Arrow on the line so I booked it, for just an hour in the evening. I got there early and preflighted while Rachel was with a young teen on a discovery flight (his grandparents will fund his training through solo - how great is that?!). The Archer is a bit ragged... okay a LOT ragged, but the Arrow, while 20 years older, was in much better shape. GTN750 (I'm in love). She asked me what I wanted to do and I said, "lets just depart, go out a ways, let me just get comfortable there for a bit and then come back in. We also sat in the plane (hobbs NOT running) for a bit and talked about the previous day's flight. She said she really didn't "help" much and that I did run through all the checklists and everything else I couldn't recall doing (as if a CFI would let a person get away with not doing it, but it was good to talk it out).
So, the flight 10 miles out and then back was tremendous help. Didn't do a thing to check any boxes for the flight review, but it was great nontheless. Hell, even the 15 minutes spent between the runup and waiting to depart (FDK was very busy!!) were beneficial for me. Yes, the added complexity of the Arrow was a bit much, to be honest with myself, and I'll be switching back to Archer for the rest of the review, but the volume from the firehose was much more manageable last night and I already feel much more comfortable. I really hadn't expected this much rust; it was almost overwhelming. Maybe I'll go back a few months after the flight review is done and get checked out in the Arrow. Or maybe I'll join a club based there that has an Archer. That's probably the ticket, if they have an opening. There doesn't seem to be much going on at Martinsburg, which is much closer to me.
Sorry for the long, rambling post. And thanks for reading if you got this far. And if anyone is in the Frederick, MD area considering flying... do get scheduled with Rachel! She's an excellent instructor and a good amateur psychologist, too!
I'm Bruce from the Easter Panhandle of WV. For various reasons (some medical, mostly just "life" getting in the way), I let my medical lapse a dozen years ago and pretty much stopped flying. An hour in a glider, and an hour each in a Carbon Cub and a SportCruiser over a decade hardly count as "active." This summer, after my wife threatened to divorce me if she has to suffer through another late July of me whining about not going to AirVenture, I started the process to get my medical back. Lots of tests and scanning of records and waiting and I received the precious piece of paper in the mail a few weeks ago and I immediately scheduled a flight review.
Being most comfortable in Pipers (Tomahawks and a very early Cherokee 140), I found that a flight school relatively close by in Frederick (KFDK) had an Archer. I was fortunate to be paired with an instructor who is fairly experienced for her young age (she's getting close to the magic 1500 hours now) and she and I sat down and came up with a plan to get me up to speed.
Of course, the wind was howling the day of our appointment so we scrubbed the flight and spent the time doing the ground portion. While I haven't flown in a long time, I have kept current with regs and have taken several online classes through AOPA and elsewhere every year, so the ground portion went fairly well. The CFI, Rachel, had the audacity to get married a couple days later and would be off the schedule for a couple weeks, and offered that I could book the flight portion with one of her colleagues. I decided that I've waited a decade; 2 more weeks is nothing. Besides, I could use the time to study the POH and get the emergency checklists committed to memory.
We had our first flight in the Archer Saturday morning. The winds were pretty sporty still and the practice area is downwind of a couple of ridge lines, so we really didn't accomplish much. Only .9 hours. I was surprised that evening to realize that I could remember almost no details at all of the flight. That really bothered me, actually, because I normally remember everything. The Archer was booked solid yesterday, but they have an Arrow on the line so I booked it, for just an hour in the evening. I got there early and preflighted while Rachel was with a young teen on a discovery flight (his grandparents will fund his training through solo - how great is that?!). The Archer is a bit ragged... okay a LOT ragged, but the Arrow, while 20 years older, was in much better shape. GTN750 (I'm in love). She asked me what I wanted to do and I said, "lets just depart, go out a ways, let me just get comfortable there for a bit and then come back in. We also sat in the plane (hobbs NOT running) for a bit and talked about the previous day's flight. She said she really didn't "help" much and that I did run through all the checklists and everything else I couldn't recall doing (as if a CFI would let a person get away with not doing it, but it was good to talk it out).
So, the flight 10 miles out and then back was tremendous help. Didn't do a thing to check any boxes for the flight review, but it was great nontheless. Hell, even the 15 minutes spent between the runup and waiting to depart (FDK was very busy!!) were beneficial for me. Yes, the added complexity of the Arrow was a bit much, to be honest with myself, and I'll be switching back to Archer for the rest of the review, but the volume from the firehose was much more manageable last night and I already feel much more comfortable. I really hadn't expected this much rust; it was almost overwhelming. Maybe I'll go back a few months after the flight review is done and get checked out in the Arrow. Or maybe I'll join a club based there that has an Archer. That's probably the ticket, if they have an opening. There doesn't seem to be much going on at Martinsburg, which is much closer to me.
Sorry for the long, rambling post. And thanks for reading if you got this far. And if anyone is in the Frederick, MD area considering flying... do get scheduled with Rachel! She's an excellent instructor and a good amateur psychologist, too!
