{"id":3009,"date":"2014-09-18T18:31:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-19T01:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=3009"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:56","slug":"113-first-flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/113-first-flight\/","title":{"rendered":"#113 The First Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

I was ferrying a 115HP Cessna 140\u00a0\u00a0 from Denver to Tailwheel Town at Sisters, Oregon.\u00a0 I\u2019d spent the night in Burley, Idaho and was halfway there.\u00a0 But, as “TT2” and I climbed up out of Burley, \u00a0I had my face fixed for breakfast. I knew where I wanted to go.\u00a0 There\u2019s a great little airport caf\u00e9 at Caldwell, Idaho.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019m like a pigeon\u2026 I instinctively home to where I lived for a while during my somewhat shortened college career at the C of I. So, as I slipped by Boise, I yakked with Big Sky Approach, told her I was heading for Caldwell and was well-handled by the controller.<\/h4>\n

She gave me the traffic ahead at Nampa and Caldwell and turned me loose.\u00a0 I got to Caldwell at the same time as a Christen Eagle, who had been out practicing acro.\u00a0 He shot a puff of smoke at me in order for me to see the little biplane.\u00a0 I landed right behind him and taxied to the pumps which are right by the caf\u00e9.\u00a0 I fueled and parked, then scampered, drooling, into the caf\u00e9.<\/h4>\n

While I was in the caf\u00e9, I witnessed an interesting scene outside.\u00a0 An older man was talking to a woman and another man, as well as a little kid with them.\u00a0 The older guy was obviously demonstrating the control surfaces of the 152 they were standing by.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take long for me to make an assumption.\u00a0 It was almost better to be watching through the caf\u00e9 window and being unable to hear any of the<\/h4>\n
\"DSCN3624\"<\/a>
Outlaw Aviation CFI John Creason explains aileron operation to new student Jan Hay in what must be a scene which is repeated many times a day all over the world.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

dialogue.\u00a0 It was like watching a silent movie.\u00a0 But I felt like I knew exactly what was being said. The scene I was witnessing was one that takes place at lots of airports every year. The older guy was a flight instructor.\u00a0 His gestures were universal.\u00a0 Almost like that bad cartoon poster I see in airport restrooms with the old aviator gesturing with his hands. I figured that the woman was a student and the man and kid were her husband and child. All the indicators pointed at this scene as being her very first flying lesson.\u00a0\u00a0 At least that\u2019s what I assumed as I watched in silence through the caf\u00e9 window and enjoyed the breakfast special: chicken-fried steak and eggs.\u00a0 Lots of time went by and lots of yakking, then the woman and the instructor got in the 152 and taxied off.\u00a0 I paid my bill and wandered outside.\u00a0 But I couldn\u2019t help myself.\u00a0 The man and kid were at an outside table.\u00a0 I walked over and introduced myself as \u201csort of an aviation writer\u201d.\u00a0 He answered my questions.\u00a0 Even a blind squirrel gets a nut from time to time.\u00a0 Sure enough, it was her very first flying lesson.\u00a0 \u201cShe\u2019s always wanted to do this,\u201d her husband told me.<\/h4>\n

I hope it works out.\u00a0 I hope the instructor is a good one.\u00a0 I hope he doesn\u2019t chuckle at her attempt to steer the airplane on the ground with the control yoke.\u00a0 When that instinct is crushed, they\u2019ll fail to use it later to pick a wing up while landing or taking off.\u00a0 I hope he won\u2019t tell her that to coordinate her turns, she needs to \u201cstep on the ball\u201d of the turn coordinator.\u00a0 Unfortunately, about 100% of instructors do tell them that and thereby prevent them from learning to coordinate their turns by the feel of their butts.\u00a0 But even if he makes all those usual mistakes, I hope that he\u2019s otherwise good and that he makes sure she has a great time and learns in that very first lesson how much fun can be had during this winged life.\u00a0 I wonder if he realizes that right there, during that very first flight, he has the power to either start a pilot or squelch the urge to fly.\u00a0 I only watched him through the caf\u00e9 window\u2026 but something tells me he\u2019ll do well.<\/h4>\n

I wandered to the tiedowns, untied the 140, added some more oil and hauled ass for Tailwheel Town.<\/h4>\n

Happy Swooping,<\/h4>\n

Brian<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“… I watched in silence through the caf\u00e9 window and enjoyed the breakfast special: chicken-fried steak and eggs.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,63,67],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}