It was a blast! Weather was amazing, the sky was clear without any clouds in sight. I met my instructor, Christian, for the day and we went over a few basic things. How to fly level, how fast to climb, what makes the plane stall and how that shouldn't happen, taxing, and take off/landing procedure.
He also told me that I would be controlling the plane the whole time except the landing. He told me that he would let me handle the landing depending how the flight went and mentioned something about the ATC but don't remember what. He said 1 in 30ish students actually land the first time with them.
The taxing wasn't difficult we had 2 90 degree turns pretty much right off the bat. Christian said he might help with that, but from running zero turn mowers I had the concept down of braking one wheel to make sharper turns. He handled all the communications through out the flight as well. Then we took off, I did here the ATC mention my "quick ascent." I did bring the nose down a little bit and we climbed steadily after that to 3000ft. Made a few turns to visual landmarks. Flew level for a little bit as well.
Then we made a decent to 2000 ft. During the decent we made a left turn to a landmark and around 2300ft he heard on the comms, I missed it, that another aircraft was approaching us. He instructed to go full throttle to go back up and I pulled the throttle all the way out for a second then pushed it in. I think that was my only "mistake" which I realize wasn't really an issue.
We glided for a little bit to show that even in a stall we would still be able to control the plane and then a few pitch turns. We used the GPS to head back to the airport. He told me that I would handle the landing as I had done well with controlling the plane. During the landing was the only time I he touched anything and that was the throttle to control the rate of decent. This is were Christian said I should pat myself on the back, the landing was very smooth and that some of the other students pilots haven't even landed that smooth after a few hours under the belt.
We chatted afterwards about more instruction and right now I'm going to do a self-study and take care of ground school first. After what he had seen he mentioned that doing so I could be one of the few people who could get their PPL done in 40 but should plan for 50-55.
Overall I had a great time and my wife took some great pictures. I didn't feel overwhelmed at any point during the flight with what was going on and controlling the plane. It was very relaxing, fun, and I did take time to look out different windows and see the landscape while we were up there.
Hopefully this link will work. It is a video I put together.
