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*** Today I got to do my first takeoff :-). I botched it terribly :-(.
Totally forgot to do the takeoff checklist, the plane wasn't trimmed right,
the nose kept heading for the air. After our left departure, the instructor
asked "What else did you forget"? Huh? I stared at him blankly. Then
the engine died. "Oh". I put us into a glide, looked down between the
seats - Yup, he'd turned the gas off. I turned the lever, the engine
came back on strong, we continued our climb. Off to the coast we went to do stalls. On the way, we practiced ascents, descents, and standard-rate turns. Once at the coast, we did some steep turns, and then the stalls. The power-off stalls were no big deal, I don't think the C120 descended much faster than 400fpm or so. The power-on stalls were a bit more dramatic, because of the extreme angle that the plane assumed before stalling. I managed to do both of them without losing much altitude. At one point, I had trouble keeping the nose level, though. The CFI said "You really want to keep the nose level during these things". Wanna see why? I said "sure", and there followed about four seconds of the purest, starkest terror that I can ever remember experiencing. I screamed. He brought it out of the spin after just a half turn - out of pity, I guess :-). It's a good thing I'd gone to the bathroom before the flight. Then we flew back to the airport, he landed the plane... Well, I'm not going to let this spin thing beat me. Some time after I get a couple tens of hours more experience, and a proper aviator's gut, I'll get him to teach me how to do 'em, and more importantly, how to stop doing 'em :-). - Jerry "6.5 Hours" Kaidor
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