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Flight 4 map

PAO -> PAO

Aircraft: 2002 Cessna Skyhawk (Tail #: 972TA)
Flight hours: 1.3
CFI: Garrett Krosse
Cockpit voice recording (via Black Box app):

These recordings are no longer available

Flight and Lesson Summary

Sunday morning flight with lots of air traffic and a left 270 departure to practice slow flight over the coast. Also, my first radio call to Palo Alto Ground.

Flight and Lesson Notes

I’m glad I’m doing my flight training in the Bay Area. I’ve been told (and it’s very apparent from the first couple of lessons) that it will take quite a few more hours than the minimum required to be signed off to take my test ride.

In addition to a high absolute number of airplanes flying at any given time in the Bay Area, there are a ton of airspace restrictions and corresponding ATC procedures to learn that will put me in a good place to confidently navigate different types of airports / airspace on cross-country flights in the future.

I definitely see a benefit in learning these procedures upfront versus doing the majority of my training at an uncontrolled airport and feeling timid around the procedure for landing at tower-controlled airports for the rest of my years flying.

  • Slow flight is one of the coolest flying sensations so far (though I’m really looking forward to stalls).

  • Flew over the ocean for the first time during this flight – your brain definitely fights you on this at first, but shortly after realizing I had some nice spacing between myself and the fish below, I found myself wanting to fly up to Vancouver all while hugging the coast.