Finally Got Airborne!

Today was a great day for training!  I spent the morning being lazy watching "Sunday Morning" and studying for Thursday's check-ride.  As luck would have it, the weather was good, not great but good enough to go flying today.  After flying the simulator this past week, it was great to get in in a real plane.  ATP has its students fly the Piper PA-44-180 Seminole, its characteristics make it a great trainer, allowing the student to grasp the concepts of multi-engine flying and aerodynamics. 

One of ATP's  Piper PA-44-180 Seminole's

After my check ride on Thursday, I'll be able to be the PIC during all the following flights during my instrument, commercial and flight instructor phases of training. Allowing me to start racking up the multi-engine time.  Sitting behind the dash was great, especially since I knew what all the knobs and buttons do! 

My new "desk" for the new few months

 

After start up we headed out, it was weird at first it took a little to get use to the plane's handling and how the controls felt.  Soon Matt and I were headed east bound to let me get adjusted and go thru maneuvers.   After practicing in the simulator, the real thing felt light on the controls, smooth and it was quiet!   The view was great, so far I'm loving the plane.  Performance wise it is not a great hauler or fast, but after the first flight I'm happy with it.   Over all the simulator made me a better pilot, making the plane easier to fly. The maneuvers felt smoother and easier vs in the simulator. Hopefully the weather holds this week, we should be flying everyday this week!  So I can't wait, and so far I'm not nervous about the check-ride we'll see how I feel as the week goes on.  But I still have six more hours of training before Thursday.