With those words, Carl, my CFI (Certified Flight Instructor), pushed the throttle forward and the newly rebuilt Piper Warrior whose right seat had held me so many times barreled down the runway with a new face in the pilot’s seat.
The day passed slowly as I waited for 4:00 to roll around. I met Carl at the airport and he introduced me to the preflight inspection, this time actually knowing what to look for. With preflight done, and both of us strapped in, Carl handed me the checklist, and I began to prepare the airplane for flight.
Our plane for today was a Piper Warrior II, a four-seat, 161 horsepower, low-wing aircraft. The Warrior was the second version of Piper’s popular Cherokee series, and the Warrior II is simply a newer, more powerful version. For more information on the Piper PA-28 Cherokee series, read the Wikipedia article. This particular Warrior had graced my logbook as a child many times, dad and I had flown it to Reelfoot lake in northern Tennessee once for lunch. Sitting in the Warrior brought back memories of the joy of flying, and it only helped to make me more eager to get in the air.
“I’ll handle the radio communication on this first flight,” Carl said. “Well, have you done any communication before?”
“Yeah,” I replied.
“What are you going to say?”
“Which way do you want to go?”
“Let’s go East.”
“Ok, then the call would be ‘Marion ground, Warrior two eight seven five x-ray ready to taxi for take-off for an East departure.” I said.
“Yeah, you’ll be fine.” Carl replied.
He seemed moderaly relieved that he didn’t have to teach radio communications to another student, and I felt as if I at least had one-leg up on what was going on.
I hadn’t taxied an airplane in nearly seven years, and it wasn’t exactly the most beautiful trip to the side of runway 2, but we got there.
My first run-up felt like it took forever, but finally I ran out of items on the checklist, and the plane was ready to go. I, however, was anything but. Carl asked if I’d ever taken off, of course I hadn’t, and he volunteered to do the takeoff.
Seconds after we were in the air, he handed me the controls and the culmination of a few weeks of flight sim was suddenly in my hands. The Warrior was easy to fly, getting the feel of the controls took only a second, a slight turn to the right on climb-out and we were headed for the practice area.
Pulling the throttle back to 2300 rpm for cruise takes a long travel of the lever, it seems like it’s going to idle, but I setup a decent cruise at 3,000ft and we reviewed some basics of flying. A few turns, proper techniques for climbs and descents, nothing difficult.
My biggest concern, and it was quickly realized, was that I had never had the experience of a rudder. Keeping the ball centered is easier than on Flight Sim, but it takes quite a bit of concentration at first, although I never did really get it down to a science. I’m finding out that most students struggle with proper rudder control, but I can’t help kick myself for not getting it right.
As the sun was starting to drop, Carl had me make a right turn back towards the airfield and the first flight was over.
Logbook:
Aircraft/Type: N2875X (PA-28-161)
Dual: 0.9 hrs