After all the drama with the Prius and the passport yesterday, I was glad to get started with the complex, but known problem of flight instruction. Sherman Bilbo met me about half-hour early at 0930 and we got airborne by 1000. In the meantime he taught me how to pre-flight, start the engine, and taxi.
It is way cool being in the LEFT seat for a change.
I was too intimidated by the whole process to bring the camera on the first flight. We taxied out to the runway, and took off to the north until cleared for a turn to 090 (East) to get out to the practice area. Sherman did most of the flying, but I shadowed him on the controls.
The Remos G3/600 is very responsive, if not a mite twitchy! You don't grab the stick and muscle anything. It flys with fingertip pressure and when the wind rocks it around you react with minute, precision inputs. Sherman makes it look easy.
I was rock-steady. If those rocks are in an earthquake! After about 10 minutes of very wobbly, uncoordinated flying, we toured the practice area and started working on climbs, glides, and turns. I was very impressed with the Remos in glider mode. We had total control of everything but up! No motor equals no climb, ever. From the point you go to idle, you are constantly going down. You just choose how far down, how fast, and where the intersection of glide and dirt is!
After making circles around a curiously pink house at 1000 feet, I flew us back to Sarasota and Sherman demonstrated the landing.
A few hours later, the skies were overcast at 3500-4000 feet and the haze was bad, but the air was stable if windy. I got to taxi and actually take off with Sherman shadowing me on the stick. We turned south down the beach for Venice. Needless to say I was happy!
At Venice we got to see all the bad behavior pilots pull at uncontrolled airfields (like Daniel in Augusta). Some slob in a Citation Jet didn't talk to any of us piston pukes in the pattern. He just pulled out on the active and took off. Nevermind that we were going in the opposite direction at pattern height. Everybody on the ground and in the pattern started talking about him! And they weren't complimentary! Later a Hispanic student just ran straight in for the runway without bothering about the pattern. We were on a converging course and saw him just as he shot maybe 300 feet below us. Sherman let him know real quick, about that one.
All through this I'm doing slow flight and working the pattern. Learning what too low or high looks like. We had a bit of a crosswind and with the trees so close to the runway, the wind speed and direction changed in the last ten feet. What Sherman wanted was for me to fly the aircraft 2-3 feet off the runway and control the drift and crab. After the second wobbly, out-of-shape trip down runway 31, Sherman had me climb out and we went down the beach at 500 feet doing the same slow flight. I got a much better handle on it and we back to the pattern. The next pass was much better, and the fourth pass was going to be really cool, until Sherman started talking me into actually setting it down! We smacked a little hard and bounced right up. I made a better show of the second bounce, then Sherman showed me how easy it really was.
A few more swipes at it and then we went back to Sarasota (SRQ). I got pretty good at holding heading and altitude and set us up for a good approach. It wasn't a great landing, but it was a personal best! Taxied back in and shut down. I got 3.2 hours of flight instruction in today and am learning rapidly.
I really like Sherman. Even though the owner had locked the doors and left at 1700, Sherman was in no real hurry to rush the debrief and discuss what we did. He answered my questions and laid out a plan for tomorrow before we locked up and left. I knew he had guests at home and after flying four times with three different students that I know of, he was still loving flying!
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