It has been a long time since I flew. I think the last time I flew it was in March which is about three months ago. This gap in my flying record occurred because I had some after affects of bronchitis and my schedule in school was just too busy. This is the last stretch of the school year and several assignments are being assigned so I cannot makeup all the assignments because the school year ends in just a few weeks. I also participate in track which goes from 4 to 5:30 so that block would be impossible to be put in.It has been unfortunate to not be able to fly because it is fun going up there controlling the plane. Hopefully if cannot fly this year, then I’ll fly next year.
As I said, the last time I flew was around March. I had been flying for the past few weeks so I was familiar with the plane. The routine would be first; I would go through my checklist. Mr. Koch let me check the plane’s surroundings without his help so I then could go inside and check the flight instruments and the indicators. After this we went through the run up and then made some radio calls. When I was cleared, I took off runway 28 up over the mountains and into the sky.
The first move I would do would be two 90-degree clearing turns that would indicate to any plane in my vicinity that my plane was at their altitude and that they should watch out. I would then practice some power off stalls and some power on stalls to be in the habit of being used to emergencies. I would fly over the highway 66 and then turn to see Wal-Mart and Target really close to each other because of how high in the air I was. The main new lesson of the day would be to practice some more emergency landings. I would have to locate some empty terrain where my plane would be able to land safely without too much damage. After I would find an open field, I would go down to about 500 feet and then I would go back up after seeing how I would have landed.
The next part would be to go and land back at the airport in Front Royal. It was still a challenge for me to land because whenever we close to the runway, we would always have to point the nose down so low that it would frighten me. The same thing happened again and I asked Mr. Koch whether we were too low and he would say we are just fine.