Max's Flight Log • A Most Memorable Dream Come True

• A Chronicle on Learning to Fly, by Aviation Photographer Max Haynes • Sponsored by Full Motion Flight Training and Twin Cities Aviation •

• Home
• 1 - And So Begins A Journey
• 2 - First Things First
• 3 - I'm 'Fliming!'
• 4 - In The Air Junior Birdman!
• 5 - From The Ground School Up
• 6 - The Hang Of It
• 7 - Hot Dog!
• 8 - Banking Toward Success
• 9 - Ground Pounding
• 10- Back In The Saddle
• 11- Plain Brain Plane Pain
• 12- Covered in Gleim
• 13- Soloing!!...the sim
• 14- Plane Picnic?
• 15- If They Can Do It
• 16- Avoiding The Stall
• 17- The Bare NeCessnaties


191st


	Day of Training

- Current Anxiety Gauge Reading -

If you have a comment about my quest, or a memory of learning to fly, send it in via email. I may post it here, subject to editing.

“Man was not meant to fly by GPS only, pilotage is essential too. Map reading, and as you said, radio communications. Radios and towers can be intimidating. I always dreaded SLC Center or any of that traveling from Center control to Center control, or trying to file a IFR flight plan. I am a VFR type pilot, “I follow railroads”. Or when the clouds are in the sky, I don’t fly.
Never seen a Cirrus, never heard of one till you started learning to fly.
Nothing wrong with starting in an old bird. I started my fixed wing transition in a 1939 Taylorcraft, high wing, hand prop, little or no instruments, fuel gauge was the cork and wire bobbing in front of my windscreen. That plane was born the same year I was, the year Hitler stomped his way across Poland.
When the ole Taylor quit twice on the same flight, contaminated fuel tank, my instructor decided we needed to move up to a Cessna 150. High tech, elect flaps, real gauges, adjustable seats, 4 cyl rather than 2. Uptown…the more high tech I find, the more chances for gremlins running thru the computer wires. I prefer my flying simple as possible…thus I also flew Army helicopters before they went computerized and digital.

I almost flunked out of military basic flight school…thought I never was going to solo, basic instruments about bested me, but I did it…logged about 1140 hrs now, rotary wing, fixed wing and a couple hrs of multi-engine with instructor at the helm. So if I can learn it, anyone can…I got to where my heart will not pass a flight physical anymore, so I watch and listen and admire from the ground.
My one life goal has not been realized quite yet, so not ready to hang up life yet…need that ride in a P-51D Mustang someday. Got a few around here, but don’t know the pilots yet.
Keep your wings level unless in an intentional turn…ha!
--Gary Martin

Hi Max, I am sorry that you chose to change airplanes. And I know how it goes. I to had to change airplanes during training. I changed from the Cessna 150 to the TR-1 Gruman and from a hard surface runway to a short grass strip. Landing speed from 45 MPH to about 80 Mph. What a trip that was. However, I took my check ride in a Beech Sport. I passed on my first ride. I now have 675 hours as a pilot. Thanks for your friendship. Keep taking pictures, I have always said an airplane in flight is a piece of art. No artist can paint those pictures.
--Jarry Lautenschlager


	Entry #17 June 12th, 2010 • The Bare NeCessnaties

If you've been following along from the beginning you might remember that I suspected I might have a hard time learning to fly and, well... I have! So, I've decided to try a bit of downshifting, to the Cessna 172. Twin Cities Aviation has both the Cirrus and Cessna aircraft, as well as a Piper or two, so it should be no problem from that standpoint. I know, the biggest pilot training center in the country uses Cirrus aircraft exclusively. It's the right aircraft for many folks, especially those who plan to go on to more advanced flying. But for me, I think it might be best to start with a regular bicycle, before getting on the ten-speed.


			Of course, shifting planes in midstream is not an ideal way to learn to fly, but I hope the slow-flying 172 will be more my style. Still, there are many things about the Cirrus that I miss and I'm sure I will fly it again when I've got the basics mastered. Basics like steam gauges.
	Every pilot should know how to use them. But I have to say I really miss the Cirrus when I look over on the right side of the cockpit and don't see a map of where the heck I am, nearby traffic, and the nearest airports! Flying the Cessna will mean working on basic pilotage and charts.

FMFT's simulator can simulate steam gauges, so I'll be able to work on my skills and still "fly" the Cirrus SR-20. I'm very happy about that, and there is plenty for me to learn on rainy days in there. I need a lot of practice working the radios and talking to the tower while keeping a plane in the air at the same time. The simulator should let me do that quite effectively. I'll be reporting on more differences, and my progress in Skyhawk 208SP, in future entries. But for now, it's safe to say that I'm on a new leg of this quest to learn to fly.


		For my instructor's birthday, I arranged with my pals in T-6 Thunder to get us both up in the air on one of their practice flights. I met up with Gary Applebaum at Crystal Airport as he was pushing the prop through a few revolutions. As we took off and headed for Flying Cloud to meet up with the other fliers, it felt great to be back in a T-6, and back in my position as photographer, rather than pilot. Still, everything about the airplane makes more sense to me now. I'm learning!
	Pictured clockwise from the far left: Bruce Obermann, John Bormes, Karl Knisley, Gary Applebaum, Chris Dunn, Paul Ehlen and with map, Bruce Olson. Today's flight would be a practice run of a performance T-6 Thunder will fly on another day. Below, is Knisely's plane. Three T-6's share this large hangar... it's heaven to me.


We did section take-offs, which I love for obvious reasons. From a piloting standpoint, the idea of taking off in formation seems really tricky, but they do it all the time. In wartime, it was used to get planes up in the air faster. John Bormes was my cameraship pilot.
			John Bormes was my cameraship pilot. Thanks John! Has has a new FBO statrting at the Aberdeen, North Dakota Airport, called Hangar 9.
		Chris had a blast, even after all of the hours he's flown, this was his first warbird experience.
	After the flights were over, Chris and I had a chance to sit in Applebaum's hangar and hear some flying stories. Of special interest to me were his own efforts to learn to fly in the Cessna and his struggles with talking to the tower. He flew out of Midway in Chicago!! Now, those are just old stories to him. These things can be learned. What seems like a big deal to me now will be conquered. Then I'll have old flying stories to tell as well.