First Flight Safety Flight

X-Country VRB - PBI - VRB
Originally uploaded by sasnook.

Today, almost four weeks after arriving in Vero Beach, I finally had my first flight. I flew in a Cadet from Vero Beach on a cross country to West Palm Beach. As you all know I love to beat myself up and over criticize myself as well, so in my eyes I did not perform up to my standards, but my instructor (Nick Hall) thought I did a really good job considering I haven’t flown since the 14th of June (the math: 7 months ago). The first thing that is taking some adjustment for me is that the checklists are so unbelievably different from what I know, so trying to block out the procedures that have been drilled into my head and spit out the correct checklists was a bit of a challenge. Another challenge is that Winona (ONA) was a non-towered airport, where as Vero Beach (VRB) is Class D and is towered and I flew 61 NM to West Palm (PBI) which is Class C airspace, also towered. Therefore, my communications were a little rusty – but on a positive note, my radio communications were great in PBI and I tracked the VOR’s perfectly. I flew my flight plan to exact amounts on planned heading, time and fuel, almost down to the second – which their method of flight planning is foreign to me as well. All these differences! I think the strangest transition so far is the checklists and that they pitch to Vy of 79 knots (which is about 6 degrees nose up in climb and I am used to 2 ½) after rotation until 500 feet above the runway and then pitch to cruise climb of 87. It felt really good to be in the plane again and I am excited to be at Flight Safety. I have no doubt that in a few flights I will have all of this under and all will be well.
On another note, I have a new roommate named Katie (don’t worry Melissa is still my roommate, I just have two now) and she is from EVERYWHERE. Most recently she came from Colorado but she has also lived in Hawaii in the past year and the Bay Area and is originally from Texas. She’s cool – her and I are auditing the Private Pilot course together. Last week I completed the Instrument Ground and took all the FAA Exams that go with that (IRA, FII & IGI), including the ground final – trust me, it is way too many tests to take in 4 days.