The beginnings...

For starters...
Plane: mainly a Cessna-152 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cessna_152   I flew on a C-172 for awhile because the 152 underwent it's 100-hour inspection
Where: Charlottesville Airport (CHO)  Charlottesville Flight Center http://www.flycfc.net/
Who: I fly, Tom (instructor) holds on for dear life in the co-pilot seat

Starting out was pretty darn easy.  I've wanted to fly my entire life, and my dad did the best thing ever for me and got me up into a plane this past summer.  Right then, I knew I needed to do this for myself, but the timing of doing over the summer was terrible with my 9-5 internship and living near "Class-Stupid"/"Class-FighterJets" airspace (what everyone down here calls the no-fly zone around DC).  Since this is my last year in college, and I had a friend completing his at Cville Flight Center, I decided to take the plunge.  One of the better decisions of my life...

So, one beautiful Saturday afternoon, I took a trip up to Charlottesville Airport (CHO) to visit the guys/ladies at Charlottesville Flight Center, asked them about the whole plan, and set up an introductory flight.  Fast forward a few days, I was hooked after the first flight.  I got to fly quite a bit, and apparently I had some basic skill to me, so I set up a schedule and got all my stuff ordered to begin.
After my first flight, I got everything to start my training.  Since I'm in lab/class during their ground school, I got a DVD kit for all of my ground school.  I basically self-study and my instructor (Tom) goes over the stuff and answers any questions and holds mini-quizzes for me (often in the air too, makes you become a quick thinker).  The first few flights were short, and it seemed like this was going to take forever.  I would meet with my instructor for about two hours, but by the time he went over ground basics and we did a pre-flight inspection on the airplane, I'd only get 0.5-0.8 hours of flight time in.  However, I quickly became more confident in basic flying skills and less time was spent on the ground, more time in the air practicing everything.

Much like learning how to drive, I had many mishaps and good learning experiences during my basic training days.  Forgot to engage the breaks once before starting the engine, knocking my head off from lowered flaps, forgetting to put flaps at 30deg before landing, not to mention my first landings were more like slammings.  And learning to land..hah, what an adventure.  First time, I slammed that poor thing into the ground.  Second time I nearly took the nose wheel off.  Third, a bit better.  I hit a nice bump though when I was just starting to learn to land, when they switched me from the 152 to the 172 due to the 152 undergoing it's 100-hour tear-apart.  Now, in simple terms, if you were to compare the two machines to cars, 152=Civic 172=Corvette.  The 172 is so much more smooth in flight, seemless in gliding, and quite a bit faster.  However, it likes to fly...not land.  Landing that thing seemed like trying to land a flying washing machine.  I was yanking back on the yoke so hard my bicep hurt (you keep one hand on the throttle, one on the yoke).  It seemed like I was just getting to the point of zero "slams" when I got to go back to the 152.  Getting back into the 152, it was almost beautiful seeing how easy it can be to land a plane.  The 152 is a piece of cake now...

The biggest obstacle in the beginning was wrapping my head around the idea of flying.  Once I realized that I may make a mistake and my instructor is there to help correct them and keep me safe and sound, I began to build up the confidence and actually learned from my mistakes rather than freaking out.  And trust me, when you're barreling at 70knots airspeed, headfirst into a runway (to land, you point down until about 15feet off the runway, pull back to level out, you drop speed immediately and descend while you go into the landing "flare", or nose up, landing position), for the first time, you freak out.    But once I got it all down, I finally learned to REALLY enjoy flying.  At the same time, my instructor began planning to let me loose on my own...wuh-oh!