Axel published this post shortly before returning to Florida, late in 2008. He describes how the first lessons will be and what his options are to start training on the G1000. Vincent.

My flight back to Florida is moving closer, and so, the series on my plans for my upcoming flight training continues…

Let’s assume that I have completed the first step of my plans as described in the first part of this series. In other words, I have already spent a whole flight in the traffic pattern getting those landing skills back into shape. With that well taken care of it will now be time for my next planned flight, this time extending beyond the confines of the local airport environment.

“Daytona clearance, Skyhawk three-seven-eight foxtrot-alpha at Sheltair, request VFR at 3000 feet to North practice area with information Alpha”. Corrected for the actual aircraft callsign of the day and whichever ATIS is current, that will be just about what my first radio call for this next flight will sound like. In return Daytona clearance will probably give me a clearance that goes something like this: “Skyhawk three-seven-eight foxtrot-alpha, Daytona clearance, cleared VFR at or below 3000 to North practice area, contact ground on one-two-one point niner when ready to taxi”. I’ll read back the clearance and go through the appropriate checklists to get the aircraft ready before I contact ground control on frequency 121.9 to request a taxi clearance to the active runway.

The main objective of this flight will be to give myself a chance to refresh my basic flying skills as I once learned them throughout the flight-training program for the Private Pilot License. This means I will be going over things like steep turns, engine failure and emergency landing procedures as well as brushing up on my stick-and-rudder skills and other basic flight maneuvers.

A good way of giving your stick-and-rudder skills a good workout is to do so-called Dutch rolls. Actually The Dutch roll is the name of at least two different things. One of the definitions of a Dutch roll is about a certain flight characteristic associated with a dynamic instability that is most prevalent in swept-wing aircraft. After a control input from the pilot, this instability can result in continuing and simultaneous oscillations both along the bank and yaw axis of the aircraft. Another definition of Dutch rolls – or “coordination” rolls, which would be a more accurate description of this exercise – is the one of interest to us here. This is the exercise in which you first pick a reference point in front of you on the horizon. Then you roll the airplane into a bank while staying coordinated at all times using your rudder pedals. Before the airplane has a chance to actually start turning, while still maintaining coordination using the rudder pedals, take the airplane out of the bank and continue rolling into an equal amount of bank in the opposite direction. Repeat this exercise over for as long as you are comfortable with, and you will feel your stick-and-rudder skills really being put to the test. Honestly speaking, this exercise, if you are not used to it, will likely put your stomach to the test as well. Just for fun I tried it out for the first time during my first unsupervised solo flight back in my student pilot days, and it didn’t take very long before I started to re-taste my breakfast from a couple of hours earlier. Still, it was fun to try, and it is indeed good practice.

After the first “in-the-pattern” flight I am planning on doing at least two more flights to brush up on the VFR stuff before I start focusing on my Instrument training again. I haven’t completely made up my mind yet about when exactly in this process to start flying the glass cockpits. Since I would like to try out the G1000 at least once in VFR conditions before I start doing my Instrument training in it, I am contemplating two different scenarios:

One option is to do two flights, both of them in the G1000 combining the first stages of my glass transition with the brushing up of my basic flying skills. The benefits of doing it this way is I’ll have more time to get used to operating all the different features of the G1000 before I start using it for my actual Instrument training. My only concern with this approach is that once I do start flying the G1000, it will probably be crying out for attention so to speak, especially in the beginning when it is all new to me. That may make it harder to focus on the primary task of the first of these flights, which is to work on my basic flying skills. If I postpone the G1000 for one more flight that may give me a better chance to get my basic act together before all the new features of the G1000 starts stealing my attention.