Earning my Wings: My First Flight

That's me above with Cherokee Cruiser PA 28-140 (2+2), N8387C at
Chico Municipal Airport in May, 1978

2009 marks the 30th year since I earned my Private Pilot's wings at Gansner Field, Quincy, California in Plumas County with Tom Rahn, my instructor and Johnnie Miller, CEO of a crop duster business and Certified Flight Examiner.

My inaugural flight was at Chico Municipal Airport (CIC) on my birthday May 24, 1978. I flew Cherokee Cruiser 140 N8387C (November 387 Charlie). My logbook simply records: 1.5 hrs, dual, up Deer Creek.

My instructor is the first of many instructors I will have over the course of the years. He is tall, lean and fair haired. He boasts that his other students include TV Soap Opera stars who have moved to Chico from New York. He introduces me to Teal Nichols, a good looking well built blond lady. (Teal is a member of a group of 14 adults and 15 children who left New York in 1961 to avoid the fallout from a nuclear holocaust in the east, which never happened). I later learn that he is building time for his commercial license and that his real motivation is flying large jets.

An aerial view of Lassen Peak, locale of my first dual flight

Deer Creek is a scenic route that that follows Route 32 as it winds upward from Chico to Chester (near Mt. Lassen National Park, scene of a 1914-1915 volcano). The average altitude of the terrain is 3000 feet so we fly at 5500 feet The California terrain is awesome and Lassen Peak is stark dominant!

We logged 1.5 hours. As pilot in command, my instructor controlled all aspects of the flight from the initial check and visual inspection of mechanical systems, propellor, fuel tanks, oil level,
pitot tube, ailerons, flaps etc of the plane while still tied down, followed by firing up the engine, checking the basic instruments, magnetos, electrical readings, tuning radios, then radio communication to the tower requesting permission to taxi into position to hold and then tower command to take off. It was a sunny, clear day with little wind and my first takeoff is awesome: first pushing the throttle full forward to accelerate to lift off speed with rotation at 70-80 knots and then climbing out at 90 knots until we reach flight attitude.

Total cost $49. A great introduction to flight

Look for my next post in this series: The Cherokee Cruiser as The Time Machine and then followed by a blog on earning my wings .