Flying lesson #2 went much better. At least, I thought so. Glen said I looked more relaxed than last time and he never asked if I wanted to return to the airport.
I went through the pre-flight inspection myself and got most of it right, expect when I embarrassed myself by pointing to the flaps when it said fuselage. There are more parts to a plane than a person’s body.
We worked on taxiing. If you see a small Grumman wobbling like a drunk man, it’s me practicing how to go left and right on the ground. It made a big difference when I pulled my seat up close enough to reach the top of the rudder. Still seems like a strange place to put brakes to me.
My oratory skills are lacking – so much to learn – because instead of “Guthrie Airport, Grumman eight nine uniform,” I said, Grumman eight nine uniform Grumman.” Oops. At least, I tried this time.
Finally in the air, we practiced the same thing as the first lesson. Ascending, circles, and descending. Or as he wrote – climbs, glides and turns. Not smooth, and only messed up seriously a few times on the rudder. If he would have said left rudder when turning left, and right when turning right, that would have helped. Maybe he assumed any logical person would know that. Who said an accountant was logical? Or maybe he said it and I missed it during the trauma of the first lesson.
Glen added our first maneuver. “Maneuver” sounded a little scary, but we did ground tracking. Never heard that term before, but he said to circle the town of Crescent. Since he didn’t say which way, I assumed he meant a left circle since we had just circled right, so I lost sight of the darn town pretty quickly. Couldn’t see anything out the left side of the plane since I’m still sitting on the right side. I bull’s eyed city hall.
We landed safely, and although he said to stay with him on the landing, I allowed him the privilege of being in control. As if he wasn’t all along.