It was on a mild, flawlessly blue day, September 29, 1995 that I walked into the modern State University of New York-College of Technology at the Farmingdale Aviation Center on Long Island Route 110, experiencing a degree of unease, which I began my Private Pilot Flight Training Program. The fact that it was technically a required “class” for my Associate of Applied Science degree in Aerospace Technology, shared with others I knew from the main campus facilities some two miles away, significantly extended the scope of experiential education further. beyond what might have been considered a “routine”. . “The fact that he had already had a decade-and-a-half international airline career at JFK International Airport certainly made it a constant theme. Yet this time he was about to take the pilot’s seat.

Received by my Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), I was told to take the Apocalypse Pilot Operation Manual (POH) from the Aviation Center and drop it into the respective aircraft on the ramp. My initial and introductory lesson would be in a Cessna C-172 Skyhawk, registered N73334, a four-seat, high-wing general aviation aircraft powered by a 160-hp twin-blade Avco Lycoming O-320-H2AD single piston engine. . Its design and performance parameters were many: its maximum payload was 910 pounds; its maximum takeoff weight was 2,300 pounds; its fuel capacity was 43 gallons; its maximum speed was 125 knots; its rate of ascent to sea level was 770 feet per minute; and its service ceiling was 14,200 feet.

With checklist in hand, I did a clockwise pre-flight inspection from propeller to flight surfaces and fuel dump to check for clarity, before taking the left seat and holding onto it. the seat belt and shoulders.

“Prop, sure!” I screamed to alert anyone in his vicinity of his impending start, causing the engine to grunt and get stuck in an elevator bathroom life generating a jet of water. The plane felt alive and I controlled it.

When requesting taxi clearance from the Aviation Center on the Republic Airport ground frequency, I released the foot brakes without pushing the power lever further in and the rotating propeller naturally put the aircraft in motion along the ramp at a brisk pace. .

You had to resist the temptation to maneuver with the yoke: it only deflected the ailerons for roll in flight and did nothing on the ground. The movements of the rudder pedal ensured the direction of the nose wheel.

Pushing myself on the acceleration pad near the threshold of Runway 1, I performed a full flight check from brakes to magnets, flight surface freedom of movement, and current altimeter barometric pressure setting, and then switched at the frequency of the Torre de la República, gradually advancing to the runway and receiving clearance for take-off.

Peak power from the engine deafened the cockpit, sent a rush of air over its aerodynamic surfaces and propelled the high-wing aircraft to acceleration. The almost immeasurable pressures of the rudder pedal allowed me to keep the nose wheel on the center line, while the wheel itself, beginning to jump off the ground, was the Cessna’s signal that it had gained enough speed to surrender to the flight.

A gentle pull on the yoke and a depression of the right rudder pedal to counteract the propeller torque, released her from her gravity restraints several thousand feet before the end of the runway, while “riding the ball”, trying to keep her centered. .

Ignoring the procedure, I veered to the right, so my flight instructor advised, “Hold the runway heading until you clear it.”

The ground receded and the blue purity of the sky became the new dimension of flight.

Climbing to 2,200 feet and reducing power to grade, I crossed Long Island to Northport Stacks, while my instructor demonstrated the unevenness and descents. The hour-long introductory flight passed quickly.

When I approached the Republic airport again, I radioed: “Republic Tower, this is the Cessna 73334, coming in to land.”

Authorization to “continue” was given.

Unable, in my rookie state, to actually execute the landing, however, I was able to fly a pattern to the right, which consisted of the wind direction, base, and end legs, the last of which required extensions. progressive flaps of the trailing edge, which could only be counteracted by pushing the yoke to avoid the tendency to raise the nose. A reduced power round and flash refined the aircraft at its immediate takeoff rotation angle and stripped it of its airspeed, allowing it to gently touch its main wheels. Brake-assisted deceleration and a drift to the taxiway preceded a frequency change to Republic Ground, which granted clearance to return to the Aviation Center while I “cleaned” the aircraft by retracting its flaps. A pull on the power lever deprived the engine of its fuel and all vibrations, noises and drafts ceased.

An information session and a log book entry were held inside.

The following week’s lesson involved operating the smaller two-seat Cessna 152, registered N67856, with a takeoff from the reciprocal of Runaway 1, in this case, the 19, and a cruise to the South Long Island practice area over Jones Beach, connecting, set of erectors resembling Captree Bridge. The return required radio communication from “Republic Tower, this is Cessna 67856 over Captree, incoming for landing.”

The five-session, 5.7-hour flight training course, called “Introduction to Flight I” and which ran from September 29 to October 27, also involved aircraft N757AA, another C-152, and the plan of studies included the four fundamentals of flight, minimum controllable. airspeed, 30 degree slopes, stalls, descents and landings on runway 14.

The next six-flight, six-hour “Introduction to Flight II” course, which ran from February 27 to April 19, 1996, included all Cessna 172 aircraft, although two N734HD and N1517E have not yet been registered. had flown. They also introduced me to a new flight instructor.

Although the standard curriculum included hands-on maneuvers like slow-flying traffic pattern and coordinated flight, a man-machine fusion in continuously changing weather conditions created some challenging moments.

A half-hour sector at Marah 15 on aircraft N734HD, for example, caused a quick return after takeoff in the rain and nothing more than a traffic pattern loop due to conditions threatening the visual flight rule (VFR). .

The coordinated flight on April 12 in aircraft N1517E over the northern practice area took place amid thick overcast and 35-knot winds blowing from the right side forward, propping up the Skyhawk and making it difficult to maintain control.

And the following week’s departure, with the N734HD on April 19, involved the roar of the engine as it revved to a setting above 2,200 rpm, leaving the flight instructor to take control and immediately return to the LA airport. Republic from the southern practice area, all while at a slight angle of climb. An inspection of the engine was clearly in order afterwards.

The “Primary Flight I” course in the fall semester of 1996, with the same flight instructor and the Cessna 172 with which I had already become familiar, covered eight sectors and 8.7 hours during the period of September 19 to September 5. December 1996. He included some of his own surprises and challenging situations.

On two occasions, on September 19 and November 1, both with the N734HD aircraft, I flew 15.5 nautical miles in sectors reminiscent of the airline from Farmingdale’s Republic Airport to Islip’s Long Island MacArthur and landed before returning. During the first, I made crosswind takeoffs and landings, the last with only ten degrees of flap, and learned about radio communications in Class C airspace. Returning from the second, I made a left turn downwind. below the clouds that were 1,600 feet, experiencing moderate turbulence, a 50 degree crosswind at 25 knots with gusts of 32, wind shear at the end, the incessant sound of the stall warning horn, the falling continuous left wing to ground and insufficient rudder travel, causing my flight instructor to desperately take over and correct each altered lateral axis until enough speed had been bled to fire and snatch runway 32 from Republic with his main wheels.

The remainder of the fall curriculum involved the more “mundane” airspeed maneuvers and configuration changes, 45-degree bank, S-turns, and turns around a point.

The spring 1997 continuation of “Primary Flight I”, spanning the four-month period from January 27 to May 12, included eight sectors and 7.7 hours, and the reintroduction of my original flight instructor. The first three flights were on the N734HD aircraft, and the remaining five on the N1517E, all obviously Cessna 172. His lessons included climb and descent turns, tracking, air traffic control procedures, straight and level flight, airport entrances , an inadvertent dive into cloud-causing instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) and a short, rapid descent from 1,200 feet. to runway 14 at Republic airport.

Along with a private rental of a C-172 Skyhawk from Republic’s Nassau Flyers Fixed Base Operator (FBO) on January 30, 1996 (registered as N5700E) for a one-hour Long Island South Short cruise, during which one of my airline colleagues were my first “passenger”, my flight training program ended with 32 sectors and 29 hours in my diary.