My field trip with ATU!

by David

I'm a fairly new student with Aviation Training Unlimited.

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go on a "field trip" with some of my classmates and instructor.

It was an awesome experience and I wanted to share it with all of you.

First of all, I love the fact that I am getting a true education here!

My instructor and support study group are so focused on ensuring I have an in-depth understanding of the concepts I'm learning about.

I've had the opportunity to learn in the classroom, in my study group, and with "hands-on" application like we did on Saturday.

We went out to visit a pilot/mechanic who has several airplanes, a couple of hangers, and his own grass landing strip!

One of my classmates who has his own plane needed some work done on it, so he flew it out there Saturday morning.

We all got to watch and help the mechanic as he disassembled various components of the plane, changed the oil, did compression checks on the cylinders, and various other tasks.

The previous week our class had covered the airplane power-plant section in our textbooks.

It was incredibly helpful to see that airplane with its cowling off.

We were able to apply what we read about in the book to a real life plane!

We got to see how the carburetor heat worked, the duel spark-plugs we read about, and everything else.

It was an excellent learning experience, to say the least. (:

We also got to look at (or drool over) the various other airplanes that were around.

Then to top it all off, a gentleman there was kind enough to give us all a ride in his ultra light plane!

That was cool!

I think I got a bit more out of that experience that the others - I've been fascinated by, and have studied ultra lights since I was nine years old, and that was the first time I have ever had a chance to ride in one!

I looked at many, many different flight schools before I decided on ATU, and I'm sure I wouldn't have had that experience anywhere else!!