I went through the checklist to do the preflight with my instructor checking me today. I almost missed the tie-down on the left wing after we got into the plane.

My instructor had me taxi the plane and I kept it in a straight line by focusing far down the taxiway. When we got to the run-up area, and positioned the nose into the wind, I did the run-up checklist. He then had me make my first radio call, "Carroll County Traffic, Cessna 976SP taking runway 16, departing to the North, Carroll County." All those FS2002 sessions with the studentpilot.com guys helped a lot. My instructor asked if I was sure I've never flown before. :-)

He had me keep my right foot on the rudder pedal in order to maintain coordination. I kept the plane yawed to the right in order to counteract the left-yawing tendency due to P-factor. Once we got to 2500 feet, he had me follow Rt 140 towards Taneytown. I maintained a crab into the wind to keep on course. We got to the practice area and did some climbs, descents, normal turns, etc. The 15 and 30 degree turns were OK, but the 45 degree turns didn't make me feel very good. Click here for my post regarding this phenomenon to the StudentPilot.com forum.

Back to the field, we did a spiraling descent around 4 barns which were just East of DMW. This is where he wants me to get in the habit of descending to pattern altitude. We flew over to Cranberry Pond in order to set up for the 45 degree entry to downwind 16. He landed and I taxied a little and followed the shut down procedures. I'm ready for the next lesson!

Fuel information: