Aileron

I'm back! After a year and a half since my last lesson, I've gotten back to flying. Different model plane, different side of the country, same student, same mistakes. It feels great to be back. I'm now flying out of Palo Alto (KPAO), quite different from N51 in terms of traffic volume and airspace, but super convenient in distance from home and work.

Today's lesson was just an introductory flight for my instructor and me to gauge where I am in my training. I'm a bit rusty. My old problems of juggling airspeed, altitude, attitude, and power returned; I would focus on one and the others would drift. Coordinated turns were not quite there. No landings today.

I need to run today's flight through my head a couple times, reread about maneuvers, and hope that I'll get things under control in the next lesson or two. The overarching takeaway from today is that flying is about precision. I approached today with the goal of making the plane more or less do what I want and sure, I accomplished that, but continuous exact control is what I need to move forward. This will be my theme for the next couple flights.

Curious that the lesson that started the long hiatus back in 2015 was #13. I'm glad we've moved off that number. Should be smooth sailing from here.

• Flight Hours: 13.4
• METAR KPAO 142347Z 30012KT 10SM FEW045 17/03 A3016