We talked about what he was doing on the preflight, checking the instruments, interior, exterior, fuel and oil. Then we fired up the 1999 C172 Skyhawk SP.

I got to steer the plane on the taxiway. Just like a newby, I couldn't keep it on the line. I just did zig zags. We did the run up into the wind and took off on runway 16 with a crosswind from 210 at 10 kts.

We climbed to 2500 feet and he gave me the controls and told me to fly wherever I wanted to. I turned to 135 and saw the Baltimore skyline and Liberty Reservoir, near my house. Prior to entering the Balt/DC ADIZ, I turned West toward Frederick while we passed over the extended centerline. He had me tell him when we were over centerline so he could make sure my vision was OK. Then we turned North and worked our way onto the 45 for downwind 16. He landed the 172.

We spent 0.6 hours in the air and it was enjoyable for the most part. After doing flight simulator for over a year, the hardest thing to get used to was the effort necessary to move the controls. There's barely any effort required on my CH flight yoke/rudders. Also, the wind was bouncing us around and that required a lot of correction to maintain altitude and heading. He complimented me on my flying and asked if I had flown before. I had not. However, I was very familiar with the controls and made sure to only use my left hand and to use rudder to stay coordinated.