Checked out and ready to fly!

I just finished my bi-annual flight review and I'm checked out on the local airport's rental planes. Yahoo! I'm officially airborne again and able to fly around pretty much anywhere that I need to go.

What makes this really good is that I'd gone about three years without flying a plane since I was previously living in the middle of the Washington DC Air Defense Zone, which is a big restricted airspace that makes it very difficult to just fly small planes for pleasure. Now that I live out in real America again, I can once more fly a small plane for pleasure. Of course it's been three years and things were a bit fuzzy when I got back into the cockpit again with a new instructor pilot for the first of my re-orientation flights leading up to my check-ride which would recertify me to fly solo. Add to this the fun of flying over a new area and the fun began well before I first tried to figure out how to start the aircraft's engine without letting the instructor pilot know that I'd forgotten. (I knew that some of those do-dads would turn it on if I pressed 'em in the right order...) And it didn't help that this was a newer model aircraft than I was used to flying and it had lots more bells and whistles.

But it didn't take long for it all to come back...taxiing with ailerons in the proper position to deflect quartering winds, right rudder on take-off to counteract prop torque, rotate off the runway at 55 knots and climb out at 75 on full power... Once in the air though, it all came back and it looks like I still have what it takes to fly safely from Point A to Point B. And more importantly I can still land at Point B without knocking parts off of the aircraft. (Yay for me!)

So after a few hours of ground discussion and flight, including short trips to a couple of other local airports just to familiarize me with the area, Tom the flight instructor signed my biannual review endorsement and certified me as safe to rent the company's two Cessna 172's.


Now it's time to start looking for a nice taildragger Cessna of my own, preferably one with external bomb racks...

Next flight up will produce pictures. I promise.