It Begins!

Hi! My name's Jason, and after a life-long fascination with aviation, i've decided to start working on my private pilots license. Two weeks ago, i did a $59 intro flight with Southwest Flight Center, located at Scottsdale Airport. I did a lot of research online at different flight schools located here in the valley, and they seemed to have reasonable prices and their website didn't seem as sales-y as a lot of other sites i looked at.

For the intro flight, they set me up with Miguel, who, in addition to being a CFI (certified flight instructor), is also an engineer. He walked me through the preflight checklist and explained all the gauges and different controls. We fired up the engine on the Cessna 172SP, and he let me taxi it onto the active runway. Steering with my feet is definitely going to take some getting used to... i was constantly swerving left and right. Once we were on the runway, he advised me to give it full throttle, keep it straight, and pull back on the yoke at 55kts. Holy Jesus i was nervous, not about flying or even crashing, but in fear of screwing up (which i guess could potentially involve the crashing part).

Luckily, everything went fine and we got off the ground just fine. Once in the air, Miguel took over and got us to the correct altitude, which from what i recall was around 3500ft. He asked if i wanted to try some stalls, which i said "sure!" We did two of them, one of which the right wing dropped really bad. They're pretty freaky, the entire aircraft shakes like crazy and there's a stall buzzer that goes off. After, we brought it in for a landing, with my hands on the controls, but he was doing all the work.

Overall, I was very impressed with both Miguel and Southwest Flight Centers. I'm the kinda person that likes to research every aspect, and shop around, but i had a very good experience, and see no reason not to go through them for my PPL. I called a few days later to let them know i'd decided to go through them, and set up an appointment for 9am Wednesday, 5/21/08 (today).

To save money, i decided on the Cessna 152, which is $84 an hour instead of $110 for a 172P and $130 for the 172SP. It's a much more "cozy" aircraft, but they reassured me that we'd be within the weight limit. Luckily, Miguel weighs less than i do. So, i show up today, nervous as hell but excited to be flying, and we go through some basic radio calls, and then go out to the 152 and go through the preflight. The wind was blowing pretty hard, and i asked Miguel if it was gonna be too much. He said he has no problems flying in the wind, but that it would be difficult for me, especially for a first lesson. We decided to postpone, and rescheduled for this coming Saturday. I purchased all the books i need, so i'll be doing some studying between now and then.


Wish me luck for Saturday! I'll post again as soon as i get to fly!



Here's some pics of their aircraft from their website for reference:


Cessna 172SP




Cessna 172P

Cessna 152