I woke up early to prepare for my 8 am flight. The sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. As I gather my things, I call the local AWIS to get the weather, this is a habit I pick up early in my training even when things looked great outside. The report was CAVOK (Conditions and Visibility O.K.). As always, there is a stiff wind, 270/15knots gusting to 20.

My first lesson had mild wind compared to this and it plagued my mind a little on the drive to the airport. I noticed on the way the car was being pushed around and I could not help but wonder what effect that was going to have on my flight. Will it be turbulent or will it even be too windy for flying today?

I arrive at the airport and my instructor greets me in the car park with a huge smile on his face. "Great day for flying isn’t it?" I agree with him vocally but in the back of my head I was really thinking, "is it?"

Today would be very different to my first lesson. I was the only booking he had all day. We took all the time in the world and had a chat about all things aviation. Well I should tell the truth. He talked and I listened, resisting the urge to contribute with flight sim stories I’m sure he would laugh at. How could my IMC ILS approach into YSSY compare with his fire bombing stories? He even had real fire not that 2D stuff you can download from Avsim.com. We finished our coffee and moved into the briefing room.

Today is going to be easy he said. You will taxi out to runway 26 and depart to the western training area. Once there you will demonstrate to me that you can fly in a straight line without loosing or gaining altitude with a high, medium, and low attitude.

We spend very little time in the briefing room discussing the flight. I guess I expected more but what more is there? My instructor is not rushed today so that cant be why we talk so little about the up coming flight. I started having thoughts about a quick and easy flight. Maybe I would be able to do lesson 3 in the other half hour. I didn’t voice any of my thought’s I was just along for the ride in the respect. We gather our things and head out. My instructor hands me a homemade looking booklet. The booklet is already turned to the preflight checklist page. There is a list of 30 or 40 things that have to be checked. The instructor got me to read them out as we walked around the plane together. He would point out the smallest of bolts that have to be checked. Lifting every control surface and checking for wear. Kicking the tires and looking for bird’s nests in the engine, it all seemed very strange.

While going through my checklist the instructor begins to tell me of some tricks instructors use to test their students. He tells me of a student he let taxi all the way to the runway with sticky tape over his static vent and a matchstick in the pitot tub. All of this really amused me but I wondered if this was general knowledge or an early warning. I checked my pitot tub very thoroughly and I scratched the static vent to make sure there was no clear sticky tape over the top. Seeing me check brought a smile to his face I seem to amuse him with my paranoia. As if not strange enough he asked me if I know how to kiss the airplane. I must have had the dumbest look on my face but I managed to pull out a Rex Hunt joke before he was offended. My instructor told me to stand on the tire and blow into the pitot tube. I gave him another strange look but he told me to trust him. I did, hey cool it made a noise, I climbed down looking pleased with my self. He asked me if I new why it made that noise and I didn’t have an answer. I did however manage to say, I thought it sounded like a stall warning. I was right and my lucky guess did not go unnoticed. I was not sure if I was being asked because I was supposed to know or just because he wanted to see what I knew. We spoke a little more about the function of the static vent and the pitot tube before moving on.

Satisfied with the preflight check we enter the aircraft and make our way down the taxiway. There was a Skywest aircraft entering the area and I missed all my early radio calls because I found myself concentrating on the Fokker 50 a little too much. My instructor decided to take over for a short time because we were also going to be back tracking the main sealed runway, runway 21. I was a little glad because he miss judged the distance between us and the Fokker 50. We were taxing down the runway at 40knots to make sure we were well clear because the Fokker 50 was on 10 mile final already. After a few quick radio calls by both offending pilots the situation was well in hand and we maneuvered off the runway with the F50 now on short final. We waited a short time before beginning our takeoff. I put my feet to the floor and made one last glace inside the cockpit before pushing the throttle slowly in.

On our climb out and barely more than 300ft above ground, the instructor reaches across and pulls the throttle to idle. Like a stunned mullet, I did absolutely nothing even though I was well aware that this would come eventually. I was totally un-prepared for something like this so early in my training. He takes over and lowers the nose of the aircraft while at the same time trimming her out for a glide. While we are on this descending glide, I find myself fixated on the ever increasing size of those sheep down there. We were down to 100ft before I was told to take over and resume our climb. The aircraft responded with a leach and a pull. I pushed the throttle in and tried to hold the nose down. The instructor noticing my struggle with the aircraft kindly removed the huge amount of trim and we continued our departure to the western training area.

Today is a spectacular day with sunny clear skies and you can just make out the Abrolhos Island in the distance. The wind that was concerning me earlier didn’t even rate a mention for the rest of the flight. Above 500ft, the wind was almost non existent and I enjoyed the smooth flying conditions.

We start the exercise and my instructor gave me a quick rundown on what he wanted to see. I started with normal straight and level flight at 110knots. This really felt like a waste of time, after all I have already landed. I asked my instructor "why did you let me land on day one but now I’m only doing basic stuff like flying straight and level." The answer was simple, I needed to know how to land just incase something happened to the instructor. That got me thinking, these guys are constantly thinking about what could go wrong. Before takeoff he was thinking about an engine failure and after takeoff he’s thinking about his student having to save his life by getting the plane back in one piece. I remember thinking, that can’t be healthy? I wouldn’t fully understand for a few weeks but the understanding hit me like a ton of bricks. I went to the airport like I do every weekend and there are people everywhere. Fire Brigade, Police and an ambulance. I walked in and asked the question, "what’s going on" I was told an ultralite had crash-landed in a paddock 20ks east of YGEL 2 hours ago. A student on his 4th flying lesson had to land the plane after his instructor had a heart attack. The aircraft was a write off but both pilots survived with minor injuries minus the heart attack. What a lucky escape and all because his student was taught early how to land the aircraft safely. Me and my instructor glance in each other’s direction and without saying a word we had a full conversation. I acknowledged I understood and he said we are going to work hard on emergency procedures.

The most challenging part about the rest of our flight was the final test of my straight and level abilities. We pulled the power back to 1500RPM and I began to raise the nose. I can’t see anything out front and we are maintaining a slight descent. I raise the nose a little further and the stall horn begins to whine. With encouragement from my instructor, I pulled the nose up just a little bit more and we were straight and level with the bare minimum of power and the stall warning now a constant noise in the headset.

Satisfied we head back into the circuit and I’m told that we will perform a few touch and goes when we arrive. I don’t do any of the radio calls due to some military aircraft that are in the circuit with us. After the instructor had me in the pattern I took over for the rest of the flight. Concentrating on staying in positions between 2 very fast PC9 trainers from the RAAF. It was a very fast circuit with so much going on all at once. I turned downwind and started my B.U.M.F.H. checks. Turning base and then final must have been all the PC9 behind me could take. He was sick of waiting and cut across the circuit to join the upwind leg at high speed. Over flying me on short final I kept my eyes on the runway and my instructor was watching the PC9. We slow to 55knots, I flare, after lowering the nose and getting all 3 points down its back onto the throttle, and we are airborne in no time. The circuit is empty, I don’t know where they went, and I didn’t hear a radio call declaring there departure but the PC9’s were gone.

We complete our circuit and taxi back to the hanger where the next student is waiting to take my place. I was disappointed just the smallest amount because I felt the day’s lesson was a little easy. My instructor did however mention I was ready to move on and I hoped that meant I could cram 2 lessons worth of flying into one lesson. I was very keen to get my license and I wanted this to cost me as little as possible.

I return home with fond memories of the day’s events and very much looking forward to next week.

Regards Gavin