Fam Flight #2, Takeoff #1

I booked a second familiarization flight with Flight School #2. There was nothing highly analytic about it - it turns out that I know the husband of the owner quite well. They have new aircraft, not 34 year old Cessnas. And they hangar their aircraft every evening, which is really going to matter when the winter arrives and there is overnight precip, and student#1 gets to remove the accumulation on any aircraft left outside.

But I had not flown with the other instructor, and so I booked the second fam flight.

My capabilities have progressed since the last flight. I did the pre-flight inspection, and I asked about what and why and interactions (all instructors can fly, I wanted to see how this instructor instructs). Very sharing, but also very perceptive to the level of my interrogation, he gives the right level of detail.

I did the checklists and the start. After my clumsiness taxiing last time I asked him to do the taxi from the apron to the run-up area (no sense bending anything in a crowded area). I then did all the driving and stickwork from that point onwards, including backtracking to the end of the runway, the takeoff, all flying, and aligning for the landing (I would have followed through and done the landing, and he was willing, but I didn't feel that I had stabilized the approach well enough so I asked him to take control at about 150'). He did the landing, I did the run-out and all taxiing until power-off.

All the checklists, pre, post and during, were mine - item by item I wanted to know what we were checking, what it was supposed to be, and any inter-relationships.

And I got the Transport Canada student flight manual. I'm committed.