I trained in Stockholm with an instructor who was a bit of a legend. Name was Gunnar Degramo. He had 55.000hrs at the time and was the highest time pilot in Sweden ever. Old barnstormer and bush float pilot. Great guy, but certainly old school and didn’t mince words when you messed up. I remember you had to ply him with a bottle of Whiskey once in awhile to keep him sweet. One day, at Skå-Edeby airfield, a small grass field, he stepped out and I was on my own. And of course it was unforgettable. I’ve sadly misplaced a lot of photos form that time, but I know there were a few of me after the solo. Hope I can find them one day.
Here is Gunnar in an old ad. I love the DDR or Soviet Union inspired fashion.
Here is one of the two PA38s I flew during my training 21 years ago
The other one was LN-VYC.
I still remember how disappointed I was when the first lesson was postponed because of weather. The cloud base was too low.
This is the plane I did my first solo in, after hurricane Ike destroyed the hangar it was parked in :-(
In better days:
Mine was in a C150F out of Luton Airport, which had 2 grass strips in those days in addition to the main runway. We had to climb on top of a thin cloud layer to do the first lesson (effects of controls), the instructor then demonstrated the technique for descending through a cloud layer in a C150 – full 40deg flap, trim full aft and close the throttle – then let go of the controls. It stabilised in a low speed spiral dive. I was very impressed with it all.
That C150 (GATRK) is still going strong according to GINFO. I wonder what percentage of pilots did their first lesson in a C150?
Here’s me on my first…
… and second …
… lessons.
Sadly BGBA is no longer with us – and I was not responsible for the demise either!
My first lesson was actually a demo flight as I had asked into the price of an aircraft but had not had any lessions before that.
Got half an hour in this:
… and I was hooked. Ended up buying this with 2 friends and did my PPL on it:
My first lesson was in this one:
My first solo on the same:
Trained in it until the school I was flying with went bust.
Ted.P wrote:
I wonder what percentage of pilots did their first lesson in a C150?
Yours truly is one of them, but it was only for several hours, and then the club went into hiatus due to airfield closure, so I had to switch to a much more serious machine:
Ted.P wrote:
I wonder what percentage of pilots did their first lesson in a C150?
My first lesson in a powered aeroplane was in a C152 (if that counts as well…). But during my PPL training I flew a few hours in a C150 – an aerobat with a stronger engine. One of our instructors was a real big guy and those extra horsepowers were absolutely required when he was on board, so this plane was more or less reserved for him and his students.
