First Flying Lesson, Part 1. Engine start, taxi, engine runup and takeoff.

all right we just completed the pre-flight so now we're getting ready to start the engine you listen to this thing called a test and what it is is it gives you airport weather conditions and it'll tell you what runway you're taking off what the wind direction is what the altimeter setting is et cetera and this is information that they automate and that's why it's called a this automated terminal information service just for the reason that stuff so they don't have to repeat themselves every time an airplane calls up they don't have toys don't want runway they're using what winds are using etc it alleviates the controller from having to continuously giving give that information and anyhow what's listen to it see what it says two nine eight five days approaches funny part always once it's right once expressed no stammering runway one-six right three four left shortened south 1,300 feet closed runway one-six right ILS out of service tech center section kilo one close section of section alpha two close aircraft over one thousand pounds sexy weight golf to hold short position at runway one-six left three four right on marked by this contact of information hotel okay it's information hotel so we know that with uh when we call it the ground controller before we taxi we're gonna tell this guy that we have hotel and we'll get to that in a little bit once we start the engine you get all that get all the frequency information from a thank all the sectional and you can find it right here on the Snohomish County gain field as we're flying at them and it shows down here the aid is frequency of one to eight point six five and then it has the pair listed as well it doesn't have ground frequencies listed on these charts but it's a you'll start to it'll use these quite a bit when you're flying around especially since you're learning how to become a visual VFR pilot standing for visual flight rules you're gonna have to refer to this chart of course the advent of GPS helped substantially in terms of staying out of airspace and stuff like that but remember when you have a private pilot's license are you allowed to fly in a cloud and the answer is no I am NOT allowed to fly in a cloud so you just remember that there are cloud clearance requirements and certain types of airspace you'll learn as you go along but this being today his first lesson I'm not really gonna worry about that stuff so and yeah let's get this fired up so I've already preflighted the airplane now we're inside the airplane everything's ready to go we're gonna go ahead and turn the beacon switch on the master switch is already on turn that on so again you know prior to starting the engine you've already walked around you made sure there's nobody out here but make sure there's nobody behind you so when the propeller does start spinning that you're not going to start blowing to bring you back into a hang or open door or towards another airplane and damaging that so as well rocks can pick up and fling typically that way to the left so anyhow let's go ahead and start it so what we do before we start we've done all the pre-flight stuff for everything set in here we've done our cockpit cockpit inspection and so now what we do didn't this is generic not towards any one specific airplane so I'll be a little bit general when I'm talking about these airplanes they're not getting into specifics for just this airplane because there's several different series of Cessna 172s that have enough differences in the fuel injection or carbureted that I don't want to really get your too wrapped up in that so for now it's just kind of a general thing so let's go ahead and start that to start this airplane we put the mixture rich this airplane has a fuel pump because it's fuel injected so we turn the fuel pump on look for a fuel flow fuel pump is off the mixture is idle cutoff which means pulled all the way out that's that phrase idle cutoff the throttle is a quarter inch open and then before we turn the key we want to look both around both ways and then also yell the word clear and why is that it just means clear the propeller we're ready to start and again you have your beacon switch on down here if you don't have that on that's the red flashing beacon on the tail you want to make sure that's on because when people see and they're walking around airplanes they see that beacon flashing that means that airplanes has electrical power to it and could start at any time so that's kind of how that that whole thing works out okay clear and then give it a couple of seconds before you turn the propeller you don't want to hear a clear and start it right away because if somebody was down there I don't know why they would be down there so anyhow y'all clear now we're gonna go ahead we look around don't see anybody so we're gonna go ahead and start the airplane okay the first thing we want to look for is oil pressure and oil pressure should be coming up within 30 seconds on a warm day or 60 seconds on a cold day so if it's a cold day it's gonna take a little bit longer then I'll go ahead and turn the avionics master switch on we'll just go ahead and listen to the ATIS again remember automated terminal information service just to hear just to make sure it didn't change okay it's changed from hotel to Information India so I'll see what the difference is okay that's a big one right there the altimeter setting two nine eight three there's a little Coleman's window in here and it has two nine eight two nine nine three zero zero I'm going to nine decimal eight three so they're using the runways one six left and right and remember the winds the winds are 230 so when you're talking about winds and runway headings the wind is the direction from that it's coming from so if they say the window wind is two seven zero that would be the wind's coming from the west if the winds from one eight zero that means it's from the south zero nine zero would be East right so in this case it's two thirty so it's coming kind of from the southwest and runway one-six is the runway that we'll be taking off on I don't know if we're gonna be using the right or the left runway there's two parallel runways here at this Airport but that runway the whole idea is that you want to take off into the wind up to a 90 degree cross one if you have a ninety degree crosswind on a runway they could go either way but the whole idea is that you want to take off into the wind so any let's give ground controller a call and what we're gonna tell him is who we are and who we are is sister 9 5 3 3 Delta you notice in America there's an end before every number in on an airplane November 9 5 3 2 Delta all the N stands for significance is that it's a u.s. registered airplane so that's it so anyhow we are cessna 9 5 3 2 delta we're located on a thing called central ramp that's where we're parked - central ramp and we are going to be westbound with India because we're gonna go to the west let's get my call and I'm paying grad sister 9 5 3 3 Delta central parking westbound with India 5 intersection via Delta 1 1 1 ok 1 6 right alpha 5 via Delta Delta 1 across runway 1 1 3 3 Delta things ok so that sounded like secret code didn't it but what it is is all these deltas and gulfs and all that sort of thing they're just name names of taxiways is all it is so Sonia before we start taxiing when I turn the left look to the right make sure that we're clear police the brake and then immediately apply the brakes to make sure that the brakes are working and then to turn the airplane believe it or not you don't steer it like a car with the left and right there is no left and right here notice it doesn't do anything when we're going straight down the taxiway you actually turn this thing with your feet so no hands I'm steering it with my feet pretty cool kind of like a sled so how this thing steers yeah you can steer it with your feet but if you just steer with the rudder pedal portion only the bottoms of these there's pedals on the floor two of them ones not a gas pedal the others not a break it's not way it works in airplane they're both rudder pedals the rudder pedals the bottom portion of the pedal works the rudder in the on the tail of the airplane and the top portion of those pedals actually are independent independent brakes right top of the right pedal for the right brake top of the left pedal for the left brake well when you're on a long straight taxiway you don't need to use any braking for turns but when you're making very tight turns sharp turns you have to use brake so if you're going to be making a sharp right turn you're gonna have to step all the way down on the rudder pedal but then you're also gonna have just apply some brake well if you do that without trying to add any power you'll just stop again as we're taxiing you always want to stay on the yellow line to biggie and when you're coming up to any intersection you want to look behind you and make sure that there's nobody else got it and again following the the taxiway here staying on the yellow line so nowhere on Delta right now so when we're taxing how fast do we taxi and how do we control the taxi speed well if you have a bunch of power put in meaning gas kind of the equivalent of stepping on the gas pedal and you've had to step on the brake at the same time in a car what you think that you're probably giving it too much gas yeah you take your foot off the gas pedal and step on the brake right same applies here in this case the gas pedal is in your right hand called the throttle and the brakes are on the two pedals on the floor so anyhow you just want to taxi as long as you're in control that's the big thing if you're having to apply brake when you're taxing you're taxing too fast and just reduce just reduce power so what I do is to control the airplane a little better as I pull back on the control wheel what I'm taxing that just helps raise the nose a little bit and it keeps the propeller clearance higher off the ground which is good to keep it away from any rocks and that's primarily why I do it but also seems to give you a little bit better control of the airplane when you're taxing so like they said we could cross that runway one one which we did just did back there and now we're pulling up to this mysterious place called alpha five and it sounds cryptic and it sounds like you'd have to be a 32nd degree Mason to know what that means but all that really does mean is this whole taxiway down here is called alpha it starts at alpha one and it works its way all the out all the way to alpha and or something like that at the other end so in this case we're half way in the middle of the runway you can see alpha five on there on the left in the black sign and then you can see the runway three four left and one six right brief the runway three four would be to the north the runway one-six will be to the south and that's one that we're gonna take off on today so anyhow okay before we get going we have to run the checklist to make sure that everything is checked before we take off anyhow okay before we get going we have to run the checklist to make sure that everything is checked before we take off when we were taxiing I made sure that the turn coordinator was working down here now I'm taking a look at the heading indicator and setting that to the heading of three four zero which matches our magnetic compass up here and then I'll go ahead and put the heading but not all aeroplanes have those but there's a heading book that I'm setting for that runway so I know when I pull out turn on to that runway up that heading bug is not aligned with my current heading when I'm on the runway then I know I'm probably on the wrong runway so we've checked all the instruments my airspeed is indicating to zero my attitude indicator is showing the level wings are level my altimeter is good my turn coordinator wings are level by heading checks in my vertical speed indicators is zero so these are things but you'll get used to it's a lot to absorb initially but eventually this becomes a normal flow just like anything in a car so okay so before we take off we have to run the engine up and this particular airplane to run up to 1800 rpm and now we're checking the Magneto's it's one flick to the left to check the left back back to post then two clicks to the right bag and back to both then I'm looking over here at the vacuum so why is that I've checked the Magneto's those are what provide the spark for the engine there's two of them two sets of them and the vacuum drives a lot of these instruments now I want to go ahead and look at the ammeter I could do that by lowering the flaps and raising them real quick just down but not too back up and that shows me that the ammeter is working taking it's taking a charge I've checked the fuel I checked everything else down here fuel floats are good temperatures are good and the oil pressure is good so now at this point we're ready to take off but we still have to run a checklist don't we because you can't just it's not like a car where you start it and go these things you have to take your time and read the checklist so this checklist parking brake is set seatbelts are on seat backs upright flight controls I'm going to check those I'm looking in the opposite direction I'm turning to the left but looking to the right to see that comes down pulling back to see that the elevator comes up turning to the right and then looking behind me to make sure that the rudders are in fact working by stepping on each individual pedal the mixture is rich that's the red knob down here that controls the fuel air mixture into the engine higher altitude you go you don't want there's not as much oxygen so you don't want to have as much fuel going in so the mixture controls the mixture between the two the elevator trim which we talked about earlier has been set for takeoff and I set that on the pre-flight remember and it's again it's just rechecking everything that you do and in my case the how I run a checklist there's two ways you can run it I suggest when you're brand new do it item by item it's just easier to do it on that way as you start flying more and more more you start getting used to the flow go ahead and run your flow and then just make gonna read the checklist to make sure you got the items so but initially I highly recommend just going line by line that's the best way to do it so okay we did the throttle check 18 in our army whoo check the Magneto's the anunciar panel you checked not every airplane has that this particular one does very nice airplane throttles 1,000 rpm or less ok so we're sitting here and I can see we have one guy right here and we have a big jet on final for landing so I'm gonna call him up and tell him that we're ready for takeoff but I know that there's maybe a couple guys in front of us so I'm just gonna I'm not up at the whole line in the pole position so I'm gonna use this phraseology called ready in sequence and we'll tell them what we ready to do again it's who we are where we are over 9 5 3 3 Delta where alpha 5 remember and we're ready for takeoff westbound so let me give him a call and our system 9 5 3 3 Delta album 5 all ready for takeoff the westbound 3 q donut so in this case I saw that that guy is just sitting there he's still running his engine up I know this guy's landing right there it's a big jet inside disregarded the secret a in sequence if there's multiple airplanes down here then you can use ready in sequence because it just tells them if you're ready to go and there's fire with their guys down here they'll let you go before them because you told you that you already in sequence ok so I'm going to go ahead and pull out here and taxi up because I don't see anybody else around here and then over everything that you do make sure you look around before you make any move ok clear takeoff so once it's right at alpha 5 3 3 Delta what happens on your first flight isn't it bad it's the way it works you know but it's fun stuff there's so much information that comes to you when you're first learning to fly it feels like your head's gonna explode but that's what the beauty of flying is is every time you take question you learn something new and it starts to come together and it's just a really good pool so you can go ahead and do what's called the death grip it's looking out for traffic as we're making this turn big thing always looking out for traffic 99% of my skin is outside so let's go ahead and continue around on that 360 degree turn I'll show ya what happened to learn a turn right now right what do you think is gonna happen if I let go of that control wheel he's gonna roll over and that's the end to captain Scott here I know let's let's see what happens okay ready okay I'm gonna release the death grip got the death grip then I'm releasing death grip you

Channel: askcaptainscott

Views: 694,553

Rating: 4.9414816 out of 5

Keywords: flight training, private pilot lessons, flying lessons, how to be a pilot, learn to fly, askcaptainscott, first flying lesson first pilot lesson

Id: ZBEipeiKxh0

Length: 17min 47sec (1067 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 10 2015