Flight Experience 1 – Cessna 152

I was planning to write a post introducing my first training aircraft, the Cessna 152. But the internet is full of detailed technical information about the aircraft, so writing about the aircraft would add little value to anyone. Instead of writing about the aircraft I decided to describe an experience I had flying this particular type of aircraft. I will provide few details and a brief description about the aircraft on my aircraft page, but if you are interested to learn more technical details about the aircraft then you should check out Wikipedia for example.

Cessna 152

Day as a Flight Instructor

About four months into my flight instructing days I was working in Kissimmee, Florida, just outside Orlando. It was my first job as a pilot and I wanted to fly as much as possible. During those first four months I flew around 350 hours; not nearly as much as I would have liked, but it was a decent start for my career.

With a ten dollar pay per flight hour that translated to USD 3500 minus tax in four months; no wonder I had a to share an apartment with another instructor. We could barely pay the rent between the two of us after paying for food, electricity, car insurances, and other living expenses.

Getting a New Flight Student

I hadn’t flown for couple of days because my only student at the time was doing solo flights and my other students had recently graduated. That Tuesday morning I was assigned a new student.

He traveled from Canada for flight training in Florida. Many of our students came from outside of Florida because the weather in the “sunshine state” allowed flight training just about 365 days per year minus the hurricane days. Getting the same flights done in their home countries or states might have taken considerably longer time.

My new student came to Florida just for a month, which was enough time to get a private pilot license. The plan was we would be flying twice a day, every day, for about a week until his first solo flight.

After that he would do local solo flights and we would do some cross country flights together to different airports. In the final stage he would do his solo cross countries followed by more local training and then a practical test with an FAA examiner. Once he passed the practical test (or checkride) he would fly back home to Canada. We would do all this in a month.

Preflight Briefing

We had a short briefing in one of our briefing rooms. Introduced each other and talked about the flight plan for the day. We would do a short introductory flight; I would let him control the aircraft as much as possible while explaining what to look for and what to do, but I would be ready to control the aircraft all times. Robert was his name. He was very well aware about things to come; he had done his homework and studied his aviation manuals. He would still do ground school with a different instructor in the evenings, but my job was to teach him to fly.

The Aircraft – Cessna 152

Kissimmee Airport

We walked towards our aircraft while admiring our new fleet of sleek looking Diamond Katanas and the sturdy Piper Warriors. All belonged to our school and were used for same purposes as the Cessna’s. They just had different price tags for same training. Training with the Diamond aircraft and Piper aircraft were more expensive than training with the Cessna’s so most students chose the Cessna.

‘Sorry dude we are taking this rusty piece of junk! ..just kidding, it’s no junk. It may not look as cool as those composite body Katanas but it is still my favorite training aircraft; especially training private pilots with no previous flight experience. It’s not fast but it is easy to fly and land. You can land it hard as you can and never hit those high wingtips or the propeller to the ground. You can cruise with the windows open and easily recover from stalls and spins. So lets have fun!’ N94291 was our aircraft for the day.

Once we reached the aircraft I showed Robert what to inspect in the aircraft before each flight. Preflight inspection would be his job from now on. I would of course go through it with him again on later flights to make sure he knows what he is doing.

Taxiing in Kissimmee Airport

We got the engine started and were cleared to taxi. The wind that day was from the south and the active runway was 15, a short taxi from our flight school. Runway numbers are based on the magnetic compass direction they are oriented to. Meaning on runway 15 we would be flying to a heading of 150 or southeast.

As we taxied I explained Robert how to control the aircraft on the ground. He instinctively tried to use the control wheel to turn to right. “Nope, use your feet” I said. On the ground you use the toe brakes and rudder to turn the aircraft. Same principle applies to most small aircraft but not all. The control wheel or yoke controls the ailerons on the wings which don’t do much on the ground. Using feet to turn the aircraft comes unnatural to anyone who had driven a car before, but most students get used to it very quickly.

Airplane Engine Run-up

Just before entering the runway there was a run-up area where small airplanes can stop and check their engines run smoothly before taking off. When you only have one engine it’s good to check the engine works with a high power setting before actually getting inthe air. If your only engine malfunctions during takeoff you may be in some serious trouble. Our run-up was good.

Holding Short of the Runway

Once we saw two solid yellow lines followed by two dotted yellow lines we stopped again. This was the entrance to the runway, also called hold short line. We saw another of our company Cessna’s approaching, touching down, and taking off again in front of our eyes.

“Landing practice I see.” As I was watching the plane getting further away and smaller before my eyes I heard: “Cessna 291, cleared for takeoff.” That was for us; about time to start the day. Time to show this guy how flying is done. I was actually enjoying teaching. Who knew? Somehow I found teaching quite meaningful and rewarding experience even if though it didn’t pay much.

Lining Up on the Runway

We lined up to the runway. No rush, I let Robert do the taxiing with little tippy-toe help from my side. All the flight controls could be operated from both sides, which is typical for most airplanes. I usually let the student do the take offs from the beginning but the first few landings would be mine. Showing how things are done works but letting the student actually do things from the beginning seemed to work better.

Cockpit of Cessna 152

Takeoff in a Cessna 152

Toes off the brakes I said while we were rolling on to the runway. Little bit of left brake was needed to for the shallow turn to the runway. “Now, push the throttle all the way in” I said. His had pushed the black knob, which was the throttle, slowly forward and I could see the nervous tension in his arms. Normal for the first flight I though. WROOOOOOOMMMM!!!! ..ok, it wasn’t that loud, but we started rolling.

Reaching around 55 knots of airspeed rolling along the runway I felt the aircraft wanting to lift off. “Now follow with the controls as we take-off” I said, and pulled slightly back on the controls to bring the nose wheel off the ground. The aircraft started slowly climbing. In the air the air I adjusted the pitch attitude to maintain about 67 knots which was our best rate of climb speed. “See the nose position in relation to the horizon? We just maintain this attitude until we are ready to level off”. At around five hundred feet I pressed the microphone button and I said “Cessna 291 request turn right for a southwest departure”. We were planning to head to a training area airspace to the west of the field and do some basic airplane maneuvering.

“Cessna 291 cleared to turn crosswind and return back for landing” the tower said. “Hhmm, negative, we are heading to southwest for training” I said.

Airport Traffic Pattern / Circuit

“No, you are cleared for a right crosswind, and come back for landing!” “..ok, roger, turning right crosswind, but why?” “There has been a terrorist attack in New York, and the president has ordered all the aircraft to land now”. Oh, ok, Cessna 291 turning downwind.”

Time to Go back to Landing

My controls, I said, as I took the controls and turned the aircraft right. “What the heck is wrong with these guys, we are nowhere near New York.”

During the cross wind leg reached 1000 feet which was the traffic pattern altitude. Next we turned right downwind. “This is not normal. I guess we go back down and see what’s going on.” I said to Robert.

I looked down to my right and saw another of our company aircraft exiting the runway. They had been practicing landings but were told to make a full stop. Now I also heard other airplanes heading back from the surrounding training areas. This is weird I thought.

On base leg and final leg I showed Robert the usual power settings, flap settings, and airspeeds for the approach to landing. I told him to “follow” with the controls as I landed the aircraft.

After exiting the runway we completed our after landing checks and taxied back to parking. I still let Robert practice taxiing and do the checklist items although my mind was wondering what was going on.

We logged 0.3 hours from engine start to stop. Meaning I earned 3 dollars that day. Great.

Back at the flight school we noticed everyone was gathered in the common room around a TV. There was quiet chatter from the instructors and students while the volume of the news broadcast was loud. Everyone seemed pale with a shocked expression on their faces. I turned to look at the television and saw the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on fire. A moment later the South Tower collapsed.

It was 9:59 in the morning of September 11th, 2001.

Due to the gravity of the situation all training flights were grounded for an unknown period of time. Because of all the uncertainty Robert decided to fly back home to Canada. I never heard from him again. He didn’t come back to our school in Florida. Maybe he changed his mind about flying completely or maybe he went to a different flight school. My next flight was about a week later.

My First Flight in a Cessna 152

When I first arrived to the United States in February of 2000 I stayed about a week in New Jersey where my brother was working as a flight instructor. While he was flying with a student, his room mate took me up in a Cessna 152, and we did a tour around the Hudson River in New York side. That was my first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and the World Trade Center twin towers. After 9/11 the “Hudson Tour” became a no go.

If the video doesn’t work you can watch it in YouKu by clicking the following link: Hudson Tour in Cessna 152

For more similar posts you might want check out my Flight Experience Page! Or for all aviation posts you should go to my Aviation Page.

If you are just looking to see something fun you will like this Airplane Spinning Video. For all my videos you should check out my YouTube Channel, and don’t forget to subscribe to the channel!