Well I made the plunge - I went up for my first flight. It was a
little bit rushed - I had made the first couple of appointments over the
phone with the receptionist at Ahart -
my FBO. There was some confusion and I thought I wasn't flying until
the 22nd but I got a call from my instructor, Bruce, asking where I
was. So I hustled and got in but was about an hour late. That's embarrassing
and not the best start. Oh well - time to fly.
We went up and worked on some basic manuvers - straight and level flight,
turns, etc. We then worked our way up and around the east side of
Mount Diablo and came back over Concord at 3500 feet. We did a couple
of circles over Concord and came back down the San Ramon Valley and angled
back into Livermore (LVK). Bruce talked me through the landing - it
was a pretty bumpy approach with the afternoon sun and coming in over the
gravel pits to the west of Livermore (the wind was reversed so we were
landing and departing Runway 7L/R - something I've still only done about 3
times - climate in California is very consistent).
And so ended my first flight. It was a blast. Not the least of
which was noting that we did a loop in about 50 minutes that would have taken
two hours to drive with light traffic. Look out world, here I go.
