Cessna 152
April 7, 2013 1.2 |April 24, 2013 1.7
May 2, 2013 1.2|May 10,2013 .9
June 8, 2013 1.9
All good things must come to an end. So, this blog post will wrap up my lessons at my flight school Regalair. I’ll always hold that place close to my heart. To this day I still remember my first time walking in there with my father and brother- I remember the weather being too bad to fly- but we still received a tour of the school. I remember my second time being there and thinking about how small the plane was and being terrified upon takeoff. We soared over the Puget Sound and I was in awe, I knew this was where I was meant to be. But, throughout my lessons there I struggled and struggled. I felt like a horrible flight student and not being able to compare my training to anyone else’s I thought I wasn’t getting anywhere. Yet, no matter how I walked away from my lessons, I kept returning. I never gave up because it wasn’t my pride I cared about, it was the wonderful feeling of moving through the air, that feeling you get right as you begin to rotate on takeoff. I kept going for my love of flight. In my two and a half years at Regalair I only wracked up 44.5 hours. About 20 hours a year, looking back I understand why I had so much frustration with my training. It is completely true what they say- you need to fly consistently, otherwise instead of simply walking up a hill or two its like walking up one mountain after another. I’m not saying it cant be done- I’m just saying its difficult to do.
So how did my training at Regalair end? Quite nice actually. I finally got my area solo in! I was absolutely terrified and my heart was pounding the whole way. I played it safe, went to the same practice area my CFI and I had gone to repeativley. I had my Ipad with Foreflight being my GPS so I knew where I was at all time, though looking back I hardly even used it. I stuck around long enough to do a stall or two and some steep turns. After that I immediately headed back, called up tower and asked for a full stop. I had some oddly rough turbulence as I entered the downwind, but other than that nothing interesting happened. I was a little high on landing, but I made it work.Once I taxied back and tied the plane up I felt as though a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I had left the pattern on my own, and had little to no issues. I began to feel more confident in my ability to safely fly the aircraft and not let it fly me.
The rest of my time at Regal consisted of a mock cross-country flight during bad weather, a night flight that was at first disorientating and two relatively normal flights. Before I left for Florida I made sure to complete my written- which I passed on my first go. And I spent the rest of the money in my flight account on a new knee board, some books for my future training and a bunch of little item needed for flight training.
This is my goodbye to the wonderful staff there. All of them contributed to my wonderful experience there and I look forward to returning there this winter with my license and renting an aircraft to fly for myself! If anyone in the Seattle area happens to read this- I highly recommend this flight school.
Safe flying!
Total amount invested thus far: $9247.15
Total hours: 44.5
