Today I added my first 1hr 18mins to my flight log. I met my isnstructor at the airport at 13:30 local time and he told me how to do the ground check of the aircraft – a Rans S6 taildragger. At first I was shocked that I would do my first hours os flight in a taildragger, but everybody kept telling me, that this was a good thing to do as I will be able to fly every kind of aircraft – taildragger or tricycle.
After the ground check and a quick instruction on the instruments (as I’m pretty aware of all the instruments from my years of simulator flights) I started the engine which immediately died. And no: It did not come up again. 🙁
Good though: it was not my fault – Norbert, the instructor, told me the engine would be warm and we wouldn’t need choke.
After the engine was running again I taxied to the holding point of runway 07 in Landshut. Norbert did all the radio telephony as I was busy controlling the aircraft. By taxiing I mean zig-zagging along the taxiway, merely keeping on the concrete. That’s the bad thing about taildraggers:
- you can’t see where you’re taxiing
- you zig-zag along the taxiway as taildraggers are pretty sensible on the backend – especially if you’re not familiar with the type or taildraggers at all.
After takeoff I had a bumpy ride heading NE out of the Munich Airspace on which I learned how to coordinate the aircraft in turbulent air. After leaving the airspace I climbed up to 5700ft thru a thin layer of clouds where the weather was brilliant. I was circling around EDPD (Dingolfing) for about half an hour and then we turned back to Landshut, joinded the short pattern for UL aircraft and landed.
I really, really enjoyed my first flight lesson and am looking forward to my next one.