Saturday, March 7, 2009

Last Flight for my PPL !!!

Yesterday March 6th 2009, I completed my 40 flight hours for my PPL (Private Pilot Licence). The best thing was, that I flew in a Cessna 172. A plane I've never flown before. Luckily, a friend found the 172M POH (Pilots Operating Handbook) in PDFs and I studied it carefully. This flight was the "exam" flight and the plane was a Cessna 172M XB-LCA:



It was a normal, local flight over Cajititlan lake, which is 6NM (Nautical Miles) South of GDL Airport at 6500 feet. We refuled the plane and I did the Exterior Check or Walkaround. Everything fine and I started the engine. We taxied to runway 10 via Golf and Alpha and when we were holding short of runway 10, I went through the Before Takeoff Checklist.
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk is taller than the 152 and the nose looks as if it's shorter, so you have excellent visibility. We were cleared to takeoff and off we went! Full throttle, engine instruments green, airspeed alive, everything looks good and at 70 knots we took off really smooth. I made a turn to the right and climbed to 6500 feet.
When we reached Cajititlán I was instructed to do some turns, turns around a point, an S across a road, an 8 around two points, slow flight and an emergency procedure. Everything went extremely well!! So after an hour flying, we returned to the airport to land. "LCA join right downwind to runway 10" So I joined downwind and abeam the runway threshold, I was cleared to land.
The 172 floats more than the 152 and I made a good landing :) Not veeery good, but fine hehe, it was my first landing in that type of airplane. I taxied to the general aviation apron and my last flight for my PPL came to an end.

Hope you enjoyed it! Bye.