After my move from North Carolina to Oregon in November 2010, I scheduled today my first flight lesson for Private Pilot Certificate with Willamette Aviationlocated at Aurora State Airport (KUAO - Elevation 200 ft), Aurora, OR. In the morning, I had my medical tests and obtained my Third Class Medical Certificate from an FAA approved Aviation Medical Examiner (AME), a requirement for pursuing my Private Pilot.
Flight Instructor Dick Oman gave me the preflight briefing and we both conducted the preflight check on the Diamond Aircraft DA-20 C1 Eclipse. It has a continental engine with a 115 HP, low wing and T-tail configuration. The stick is in the middle of each seat and the thrust lever and the fuel mixture lever are in the middle of the two seats. The brakes are on top of the rudder pedals. There was a good crosswind with winds from 160 degrees at 11 knots, gusting to 19 knots. The sky was overcast with clouds at 6,000 ft and scattered clouds above. I taxied to the RWY 17 and performed pre-takeoff check including a 360 rotation for traffic check.
Diamond Aircraft DA-20 C1 Eclipse
At the runway, I rotated the plane after reaching 45 knots applying full-power. Being my first time in the DA-20 aircraft, I was a little off the center line and after climbing at 75 knots, the aircraft drifted to the right blown with the wind. Dick crabbed the plane for wind-correction and I continued to climb to 1500 ft. I departed the traffic pattern to the SW with the radio call, "Aurora Traffic, Diamond 556-Delta-Charlie departing traffic to the southwest, Aurora". I continued to climb at 110 knots and leveled at 4,000 ft.
Dick asked me to perform a steep turn to 360 degrees to the left and right. I picked a small lake below as my visual checkpoint and did my left 360 turn at an angle of 45 degrees and after leveling the wing did my right 360 steep turn, but this time I lost 300 ft of altitude. Dick asked me to look at the horizon outside and try to keep the needle in the artificial horizon within the range. I tried it again with more control. Dick asked me to fly straight towards the City of McMinnville. I flew the plane at 110 knots (2100 RPM) with trim set. The low-wing and the fighter jet like canopy provided a spectacular view of the Willamette river and valley below and the Eola-Amity Hills in the west.
At 4,500 ft, Dick asked me to perform a power-off stall and recovery. I reduced the power to 1,500 RPM and put landing flaps at 78 knots. I continued to raise the nose to reduce the speed and induce a stall. The stall warning came about 12 knots above the stall speed. I kept the plane level with aileron control and right rudder. At the inception of the stall, I lowered the nose and applied full-power. The DA-20 aircraft does not want to stall and did a dive as I lowered the nose steeply to gain speed. Slight nose down is enough to break the stall. I performed the power-off stall and recovery again. I did a 180 degree turn and started to fly the plane towards the KUAO airport.
A Pilatus PC-12 was practicing ILS approach from 10 miles North and I piloted the plane to the right of the airport from the South, along the way descending to the pattern altitude of 1,200 ft. I turned to the base too early from the downwind and did a go-around due to being too high. I did my second traffic pattern - left crosswind at 900 ft and downwind at 1,200 ft. I reduced the power to idle at abeam RWY 17 and at an airspeed of 78 knots put the landing flaps. I turned base and the final leg at 600 ft. I landed the plane with a little wind correction from Dick to keep the aircraft touch down at the center line. That completed my first flight in a Diamond DA-20 C1 Eclipse and my first flight lesson towards my Private Pilot Certificate. I taxied the plane with more control over the brake pedals. I then parked the plane and tied it down. Dick signed my logbook with my first 1.1 hours of dual time in the DA-20 aircraft and gave a post-flight brief. I have scheduled my next lesson on 1/1/2011.
