[Promotum] Broke the surly bonds of Earth

[Ed Hintz]

First Time. Cessna 172. I did the takeoff and landing-CFI was hands off
the yoke for both-and we took it out over  Berkeley to the city. Ran a
360  over the city at 2k feet, then overflew Alcatraz, shot over the
golden gate, out to sea a little bit, did some maneuvering, and then came
back over Tamalpais and the san rafael bridge back into Concord. Almost
all of that I was actually controlling it. Total airtime just over an
hour, a little over 2 hrs ground instruction. 

 Somewhat daunting. Reminded me a lot of when I first installed NetBSD on
my old SE/30 back at Apple. Sitting there looking at that command prompt
the first time around was a similar feeling. Certainly less instinctive
for me than riding a motorcycle was.

Things I'll need a lot more work on: comms. Was for the most part
completely lost-although at least I already have the NATO call signs down
pat from my days as a phone monkey. Taxiing. Foot controls will take some
serious getting used to, as well as the engine control. Mixture control.
Simply didn't deal with it at all.  Instruments. Brain completely
overloaded by all the data.

Things I took to as a a fish to water: Rudder usage. Both on turns and 
to compensate for pfactor on the prop. 

Pretty happy that I did the takeoff and landing. Had all kinds of
coaching of course, but damn it all I really flew that thing. Clumsy,
yes. Hamfooted, certainly. But I did it. And I didn't even damage the
plane. Yee-haw... ;-)


Peace,

Edmund A. Hintz              **|**     "You may say I'm a dreamer,
Mac Techie, Unix Geek,      *  |  *      But I'm not the only one...
Mac/Unix Consultant        *  /|\  *     I hope someday you'll join us,
<ed@hintz.org>              */ | \*      And the world will live as one.
'78 Westy                    *****      Imagine."
                     http://www.hintz.org