- For most people, sky's the limit,
but for aviators like me, sky's my home.
(dramatic music)
- [Sam] Ooh!
Oh, my God!
- [Tex] Good thing it wasn't a murder hornet.
- [Tex] To the left around here.
- [Sam] Oh, my controls?
What happened?
(muffled radio sounds)
- Go around. Let's go around.
Okay, full power.
- [Sam] Oh, this is cool, there's a cross-runway
right in the middle.
Oh I'm in a big airport, hey! - [Tex] Man, look at that.
- Oh, a little Sam in a big airport.
- [Tex] Add a little bit of right.
- It's okay. My controls? - Yeah.
- [Sam] Oh, nice.
- Good job.
- Good. - Nice.
- Hey, guys, so I recently started to learn how
to fly and become a pilot.
I'm currently doing my private pilot certificate here,
at the Sling Pilot Academy in Torrance, California.
So I started my love of aviation as a plane-spotter,
as a photographer, as a videographer.
Then I became making vlogs flying thousands of flights
as a backseat passenger, enjoying that moment in the air.
I just couldn't believe the next progression for myself
is actually becoming a pilot, and I'm finally doing it.
And now if I pull up the elevator,
you can see the elevator moving while I'm holding it here.
Everything looks good, so I'm ready for my flight.
Are you ready? Follow me!
So the plane I'm sitting in and learning to fly
is called "Sling 2".
It's actually a trainer aircraft, perfect for two people
to fly: me and my instructor.
It's pretty advanced, and the cockpit here is very easy.
It has this Garmin touchscreen display, EFS display,
it also has auto-pilots, and GPS.
In Sling, you use the stick to fly, which is pretty easy.
It's an aeroplane I fell in love with last time,
when they gave me a demo flight.
We flew over to the graveyard in Mohave and Victorville,
if you remember the vlog I made.
I had such an enjoyable time in that aeroplane,
and I told myself,
"I got to come here to learn to fly a plane myself,
"to be a pilot."
(aeroplane whirring)
- [Radio] Clear for takeoff.
- [Tex] Line up to the runway better.
We're all lined up, let's go.
Full power, maintain centre line.
So repeat that, right.
I'm going to let go of the right rudder.
Maintain centre line, so more right rudder.
More right rudder. There you go.
Rotate. There you go.
72 knots.
- [Sam] Roger.
- [Tex] Just a very gradual line.
- [Sam] Yup.
- [Tex] Nice hand on throttle - [Sam] Yup.
Oh, my God.
While we're filming this bee just came in, oh, my God.
Okay let me just--
- Yeah, you take the controls.
Holy smokes, okay.
Oh, oh, oh, all right, take controls,
I'm going to try to put him in this 'cause it's all we got.
- Okay, early turn for noise abatement?
- Yep.
- [Sam] Wait, wait, wait, don't do anything now.
Just leave it, just leave it.
I will stabilise, okay?
- [Tex] Okay.
So on a down, I'm going to get him.
Oh, I don't know where he went.
- He's behind you somewhere. - Let's not worry now.
I don't know how he got in here.
- If you want I can take controls
- [Tex] And you try. - [Sam] You take controls, yep
- [Tex] He's behind you right here.
You want to land or you want to try and catch him?
- [Sam] Let's go back to land. - [Tex] Okay.
We're 8610, can we actually get a full-stop turn
on a right, please.
- I'll try to land and--
(radio crackling)
- [Tex] We'll try and get off at hotel.
- I'm feeling good at the moment.
- It's going to shoot us up but that's okay
'cause we're going to get a lot of sink right here.
- [Sam] Sure, sure.
- [Tex] Just keep that pitch,
maybe a little bit of power back, just a tiny tiny bit.
Hold the pitch, you're pitching up a little bit.
Hold it, you're pitching up.
- [Sam] Okay. - [Tex] There we go.
Now, start to-- easy on the flare, very easy.
- [Sam] Whoa, whoa. - [Tex] Okay, my controls?
All right, you flared, just a little bit of a pop.
- No, it was a bit of a-- (radio crackling)
- Ooh, there it is.
There it goes.
- Did you see it?
- Yeah it flew out. - Okay.
- I'm sorry about that, we had a wasp in our cabin.
Didn't mean to break noise abatement.
- [Radio] No, no problem.
Did he sting anyone?
- Thankfully, no.
Got close, though.
- [Radio] Good thing it wasn't a murder hornet.
- We'll do this one together.
- We'll pitch up. - Yup.
- And just like the flare, as your plane gets slower,
you're going to have to add more back pressure.
Hold that 10 degrees, right?
Put a bit of left to her, there you go.
- [Sam] There's the stall.
- [Tex] There you go.
10 degrees, look outside, now hold that.
- Hold that, yup.
- Hold that, like we're looking down the runway.
- Yup, holding. - Looking outside,
there you go, nice.
(beep)
- Hoo, let's recover, all right, and we'll try that again.
Hold that, don't let it go up or down.
- [Sam] Oh, this time I'm getting it!
I'm holding, I'm fighting.
- [Tex] Little bit of left rudder.
- [Sam] Whoa, whoa. - [Tex] My controls?
- I don't know why I tripped it so much.
- Yeah so that was one of the wings stalling.
And 'cause we were in a stall position,
and it started to tip over 'cause one of the wings stalled,
so we almost got in a spin, there.
But it's okay, don't worry.
It's okay, I was right there,
I know you had it.
- Ooh! - Ooh!
- [Sam] Fantastic. - [Tex] Very nice.
Much better.
So we're going to practise steep turns today
'cause that's really going to help with your turns,
and your control in turns.
- [Sam] Sure.
- [Tex] And your pattern in general.
Hold the nose on that spot on the horizon.
So let's just keep that turn coming.
Let's go to 45 degrees, and hold this altitude.
Take it up, put it back on the horizon line.
Much, much better, now let's level up our altitude.
Alrighty, let's try one on the left.
- [Sam] All right.
Yeah, my nose went down a bit.
- [Tex] There you go, catch it.
(upbeat music)
So we're going to do it right now and departure to Long Beach.
- [Sam] What happened?
- We might not be able to take this plane.
'Cause it's loosening.
We'll go in the pattern, and if it doesn't stay, we'll see.
So let's go, I'll hold it for now.
- [Sam] Sling A62,
requesting a right down-wind departure.
- [Radio] Sling A62, right down-wind departure is approved,
clear for take off.
- We're changing plane, then?
- Yeah, we might change the plane.
- Okay.
Follow the centre line, full power.
55, rotate.
- [Tex] There you go, much better on the centre line.
Picture that 72.
- [Sam] Nice. - [Tex] Yup,
let's keep pitching down for 72, though.
- There you go. - Oh, there was a bit of wing,
no?
- [Tex] Yup.
- [Sam] I always expect the unexpected.
- Right? - Yeah.
- [Sam] I can do one pattern and come back then.
Yeah, it's good.
We'll see.
- [Tex] It's slowly itching over there, though.
- [Sam] You keep an eye, keep an eye okay?
Let's go Long Beach and see how it goes?
- [Tex] Yup.
So now we'll head towards Long Beach,
which is right here, you see it?
- [Sam] Okay.
- [Tex] The big airfield right there,
so just head towards there.
We're going to enter at a 45 degree into the downwind.
45 degree entry into the downwind.
- So we kind of go there and then 45
comes into downwind, right?
- Yup. Watch, so your nose is dropping a little bit,
pull back, use some trim if you need it.
- Okay, is it final clear? - Do you see it?
- Collapse two. - Collapse two.
- There you go.
- And our turn.
- [Sam] Okay, full flaps down.
Oh, this is cool, there's a cross-runway
right in the middle.
- So I wouldn't put on your flaring, don't flare early.
Now flare power idle.
Right rudder.
Nice, not bad.
- [Sam] Oh I'm in a big airport, hey!
- [Tex] Hey, look at that!
- [Sam] Little Sam in a big airport.
- Getting excited to see all of the passenger flights
and commercial jets.
Long Beach tower, Sling A62, holding short of 26 left,
request for a left cross-wind departure.
- [Tex] Maintain centre line, maintain centre line.
Right rudder, right rudder, right rudder.
There you go, I'm helping you on that right rudder.
- I don't know why this one needs to be more right.
It should be pulled up right?
- [Tex] Yeah but not too much, not too much.
- Okay, got you.
- There you go, small adjustments,
we're always making small adjustments.
- [Sam] Okay, neutral?
- My controls.
- [Sam] It popped up.
- [Tex] No worries, you just bounced a little bit.
So then when we were coming in kind of fast,
and then when we flared, we didn't flare enough,
so you kind of hit the mains, and it was kind of hard,
and then we popped up again,
and then that's when I took control
and I just added full power to get us kind of going.
And I put the nose down level so that we could just
get back down again and land.
Like I said, for some reason you just tense up.
- When I get closer to ground, I panic.
- Yeah, you tense up, which is fine.
You know, we're still breaking that habit.
- [Tex] Maintaining centre line, air speed alive,
rotating at 55.
There's 55, stick slowly coming back.
Nice job on centre line, maybe a little bit of rudder.
Very nice, good job, good takeoff.
Now pitch for that 72.
- [Sam] Pitching for 72.
- Pitch down for 72.
Very nice, good takeoff.
- [Sam] Yeah, I like this one today.
(radio speaking)
- [Tex] Okay, so we're still high, right?
- [Sam] Yup.
- So we're just going to do a little slip.
- Do a left slip?
- [Tex] Yup, left tank, left foot.
There we go, we're going to bring her down.
See how I'm staying centre line?
Using A-lines to control,
holding my pitch, though, same pitch the whole time.
I'm going to slowly release the rudder.
Coming in.
And now I'm going to start to flare. See that?
- [Sam] Oh, yeah.
- [Tex] And hold that nose there, hold the nose there,
hold the nose there.
See?
Okay, flaps one.
- [Sam] Flaps fall.
- Maintain centre line, full power, let's go again.
- [Sam] It's too high. - [Tex] Okay,
flaps three first.
There you go, nice.
- And do left rudder?
- All the way? - Do it together. There we go.
And then add a little bit of right.
- [Tex] There we go. - [Sam] Right rudder?
- [Tex] In a second, in a second.
Now right rudders, nice and slow.
There you go. Now continue landing.
And look all the way down the runway.
All the way down the runway.
You're good, don't freeze up.
There you go.
Stand flaps three on final.
- The speed-- - So this is where
we'll go around.
So let's go around.
So full power.
Collapse one.
- [Sam] Flare?
- [Tex] A little too late on the flare there.
There you go.
- Okay, I will concentrate.
- [Tex] Pull out for speed a little bit.
And then now we'll even it out.
There you go, look out where you want to land,
where you want to land, all the way down the runway.
- [Sam] Oh, yeah, now flare. - [Tex] Yeah.
And just start that flare. There you go, very good catch,
I felt that, that was you, good job.
- [Sam] I didn't flare enough.
Oh, nice!
- Good job!
- I did it. - Nice!
- Flying is just so much fun for me,
I enjoy every moment up in the sky,
flying this aeroplane,
and learn how to multi-task,
using all the tools available,
working on the radio skills.
If I can do it, you guys can do it.
There's a really cool offer.
A 1000 dollar off and a free introductory flight
at Sling Pilot Academy, here.
I will see you guys in my next episode,
hopefully, I'll be geared up for my solo ride.