The Anticipation

Well, tomorrow's the big day. I'm a bit nervous, to be sure, but not as much as I would have thought. It will be a strange feeling, to be in the familiar surroundings of a small plane cockpit, but to also be "in charge" of making it go where it needs to go.

The checklist for tomorrow's lesson deals with the basic administrative stuff, like required paperwork, aircraft checklists, school rules, etc. The flying portion will include preflight inspection, basic radio operation, ground movement, and then basic flight (straight and level, shallow turns).

I suppose I'll brush up on the aircraft's operating handbook to try to have as much of the material memorized as possible, although I'm sure it won't really be needed this early in the game. The first flight is usually pretty low key, to let the instructor see how the student can handle flight (and vice versa).