10 days of total immersion – intense!

A few weeks back, I decided that the next step in my pilot training should be ten days of total immersion. Ten days of flying every day, for a few hours each day.

Mark Wages and me yesterday. Mark is a Cirrus instructor who is giving me 10 days of intense training

The problem with my plan was that Bo, my flight instructor, is just not available for that kind of time commitment.

I needed to turn my training up a notch – push my way through to the next level of competency. I needed to begin the last leg of the work toward being able to fly my airplane by myself. It’s the beginning of June, the weather is great, and in a couple of weeks we are headed to Maine for the summer. I saw a window of opportunity.

All I needed was an instructor who knew the Cirrus and could commit to that kind of time.

So I found Mark Wages. Mark is a young (by age) flight instructor who used to work at the Cirrus factory doing what they call transition training for new owners. Mark now lives in North Carolina, and he does exactly what I was looking for – work with people like me at their home locations. You might call it freelance flight instruction. The cool thing about Mark is that he knows my plane, and he is one of the most experienced instructors out there when it comes to teaching people to fly a Cirrus. So last Sunday I picked Mark up at Manchester Airport and we’ve been flying every day since.

Our days have ranged from days like Friday (19 landings at 2 airports – Keene and Concord) to days where we did a bunch of cross country work, landing at 5 different airports. We’ve done some simulated instrument work (flying by the instruments without reference to any visual cues outside the airplane). We’ve done slow flight, power-on and power-off stalls (the plane does not

Yesterday was Keene Aviation Day at the airport - and over 6500 people showed up to watch acrobatic acts and sky jumpers and see a wide variety of airplanes on display

want to stall, you really have to push it to stop flying). And yesterday, we practiced power-off landings, learning how to land the airplane if the airplane loses power – fun!

Every teacher – of flying or anything for that matter – has a different style. But Mark’s approach is working great for me, and I am making huge strides. The “Cirrus way” of teaching is that there is a technique, a process, a by-the-book way to fly the airplane. Frankly, it’s a structured process which I have been needing – and I am thriving with it.

For instance, we’ve broken down the pattern work for doing landings into lots of small steps, which add up to setting the plane softly on the ground. And my cross-country execution is easier and better. For instance, a small but useful suggestion from Mark was that I overfly a “new to me” airport before I set up for the landing so that I can see the runways, the wind sock, and prepare myself for a well-executed landing.

The next step is to prepare me to solo in my plane.

N464CD was on display yesterday at Keene Aviation Day - when this kid is 20 maybe he'll remember when he first got turned on to aviation

I’ve already soloed (last December) in a Cessna 172, but the Cirrus is a different, faster, more electronically complicated plane. We’re now half way through our time together and  last night, Mark and I talked about the next and last 5 days of our training and our goals for what we want to achieve. So far, the weather’s held out and we’ve gotten some great flying days in. So far, this has been a great experience. In the course of 10 days, my piloting skills are improving dramatically.

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