Effects of Control 1

Position: Approaching R236.. Altitude: 2000 feet.. Equipment: Cessna 172.. POB: 3 person..

This time, I brought along a Friend of mine whom I presume had seen me grow up for a duration of 5 years. We're college friends and had been closed buddies ever since, not to say that he is the only close buddies I have, but I have this speacial feeling of ease when he is around.

I also managed to grab a new Indian instructor who seems like a good guy, with good looks and attitude. He seems like a more chilled person compared to the last one, which makes me more relaxed and concentrate on my flying rather than concentrating on each and every single curses that I'm exposed to.

"You have control," the instructor said.

"I have control, sir" I took hold of the control collumn, throttle and feet on the rudder before saying this. Eventhough the instructor is a few months younger than me, I look up upon him due to respect as a teacher and a pilot with higher ranking than me. Some people say it's the 'respect on the left seat', but in this case, I'm on the left seat.

Julia swayed a bit to left and right due to some updrafts but I managed to ease her down and making the flight more pleasant. We are enroute to R236 (training area) and the weather seems nice except that it is a bit humid and hot, but still not hot enough to give us a horse ride.

"Simpang Tower, 9-FC established Romeo 236, 1500feet," I managed to blurt out once we've established the training area.

"9-FC, clear to operate 2000 feet and below, report ops normal at time 35."

"Clear to operate 2000 feet and below, report ops normal at time 35, 9-FC."

Basically, the tower wants us to fly not more than 2000 feet, which is yeah a bit too low and boring I guess, because we won't fly any higher than the base of the clouds. And at the same time, the tower wants us to report back to him when the minute hand of the watch is pointing to 35 within the same hour.

I glanced at my watch and it shows 1105 and its going to be noon soon, so the instructor brief a bit regarding the exercise to make sure that I remember all of the stuffs that had been briefed earlier. What we did was some exercise on the effects of aileron (banking/rolling), rudder (yaw where the aircraft nose pointing to the left or right) and elevator (pitch up or down). It was super basic and I guess my grandmother could do that.

The instructor then told me to maintain 'datum attitue', this is where I need to ensure Julia is flying straight where it doesn't bank or yaw to the left or right and fly level. Because it was getting hotter, the updrafts were strong adding more to my difficulty in maintaining the 'datum attitude'. But after like 12 years of flight simulator training, I managed to get the hold of Julia controls within seconds.

Once I'm satisfied, the instructor asked me to do some trimmings in order to maintain the attitude. At first, Julia was flying like a snake, but in this case, it was snaking up and down. This is due to Julia having only elevator trim. So, it takes off the load from the pilot when maintaining level flight. It was quite bad trimming for the first time, I keep on chasing the attitude making Julia pitch up and down non-stop. The instructor told me to use the 'SHOT' technique or 'Select HOld Trim'. I select the pitching attitude of Julia, hold it there and trim her until the load eases off from the column. Julia was behaving under my control and I gave her a lil pat on the column, thanking her of course. The instructor gave me a few more runs but this time without any aid at all and he was smiling which is a good sign.

"Ok well done, I thought it was gonna take us the whole hour but I guess we can go back now, good job." The instructor was happy.

"Thanks sir, so shall we go back?"

"Yes, call the tower and fly the airplane, I want to enjoy the view"

I pressed the radio button and do the radio call, "Simpang Tower, 9-FC request rejoin."

"9-FC, rejoin downwind, report above north of Bukit Besi, 1500 feet."

"Report north of Bukit Besi, 1500 feet, 9-FC"

I flew Julia maintaining her level at 1500 feet towards Bukit Besi. The flight was a bit rough since it was almost noon. It was getting bumpier by the second but I kept a hold on to Julia making sure she doesn't drop us out of the sky. I managed to think to myself imagining how would my passengers feel if I fly the airplane in a bumpy situation like this. Suddenly I remembered, I turn around and there was my friend, almost white as sheet.

"Dude, you okay?"

He smiled a sheepish smile.

"Don't worry dude, this baby is strong, we won't dive to our graves"

He looked at me smiling the most stupidest full of fear and confusion smile ever.

Life on the column continues.