Justin Verstijnen on Flight Blog | Justin Verstijnen

Flight Lesson 7

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lesson 1.7 – Stalls Dates: 03-11-2025 · 30-01-2026 · 27-03-2026 · 03-04-2026

Introduction

This page contains all my notes for Lesson 1.7 – Stalls.

This was one of the hardest lessons so far, mainly due to the weather conditions in late 2025 and early 2026. The lesson was cancelled about five times, and on two occasions we were already airborne but had to abort because the weather deteriorated beyond the forecast.

Flight Lesson 6

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lesson 1.6 – Slow Flight Date: 13-10-2025 & 20-10-2025

Introduction

One of the harder lessons so far: slow flight.
The purpose of this lesson is to fly as slowly as possible while remaining safely airborne in the Cessna 172.

The first time we flew this lesson, it did not go as planned. I lost too much altitude and controlling the aircraft was difficult, especially because the exercise had to be maintained for an extended period of time. For this reason, I had to retake the lesson.

Flight Lesson 5

Fri, 26 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lesson 1.5 – Airwork 3 Date: 26-09-2025

Introduction

In this lesson we performed several airwork exercises, preceded by theory briefings.
The focus was on aircraft control, procedures, and situational awareness.

Exercises covered:

Basic climbing and descending to a specific altitude
Memory items for emergency scenarios (QRH)
Taxi briefing
Take‑off briefing
Normal turns (30° bank)
Steep turns (45° bank)

Basic climbing and descending to a specific altitude

In cruise flight, we typically fly around 95 knots (175 km/h).
When climbing or descending to a new altitude, we must do this efficiently and precisely, avoiding overshooting or undershooting the target altitude.

Flight Lesson 4

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lesson 1.4 – Airwork 2 Date: 02-09-2025

Introduction

We started by reviewing previous material and then went deeper into the theory of nose attitude.
During the flight we practiced slow flight, throttle effects on nose attitude, gliding, and trimming.

First, we discussed some theory.

At take-off, we use different speeds for different phases:

Vr – Rotation speed
- In a Cessna 172: ~55 knots (102 km/h)
Vx – Best angle of climb (maximum altitude gain for distance)

Flight Lesson 3

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lesson 1.3 – Airwork 1 Date: 22-08-2025

In this flight, I learned how to perform the preflight inspection myself by doing the walk‑around using a structured checklist.
In this first checklist item, we look for reasons not to fly.
In IT terms, this can be compared to a physical risk assessment.

I had to repeat this with more steps and will do this every lesson to fully master the procedure.

Flight Lesson 2

Fri, 08 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lesson 1.2 – Effect of controls Date: 08-08-2025

Introduction

In this lesson, we went more into the technical limitations of the Cessna 172 aircraft. Also we did some slow-flight exercises to be somewhat ahead of schedule and we had some spare time.

Limitations

The most important limitations of the Cessna 172 aircraft are:

Maximum take-off weight (2300 LBs / 1.043 KG)
Maximum Indicated Airspeed (IAS) of 140 kts (260 km/u) while flapless
Maximum Indicated Airspeed (IAS) of 85 kts (157 km/u) while full flaps
(check the white arc for allowed flap speed on the airspeed indicator)
Minimum landing distance
Minimum take-off distance

To make sure we don’t exceed these limitations, we need to take several precautions.
For weight, we perform a mass and balance calculation.
For airspeed, we ensure during flight that we remain well below 140 knots.

Flight Lesson 1

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lesson 1.1 - Basics Date: 25-07-2025

Introduction

In my first flight lesson for my Private Pilot Lesson, I have been introduced to multiple aspects of flying. In the past, around 3 years before this first PPL lesson, I did a trial lesson where I only controlled the plane at around 2.500 feet, but only controlled the yoke, rudder pedals and trims.

This lesson it was the first time after around 300 hours of Microsoft Flight Simulator where I controlled the plane for the full flight except the landing phase. In the PPL learning curve, you will perform this after around 8–9 lessons when doing take-off and landing/circuit exercises.

PPL Theory - Principles of Flight (POF)

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For a live overview of my flight lessons, visit: https://flighttools.justinverstijnen.nl/flightlessontracker

This page can contain a collection of personal notes, steps to remember, finished and unfinished content. Please excuse brevity.

Do not use specific information given like fuel flow, landing/take-off distances for your flights. Always refer to the POH of your exact plane for flight preparation. My information is just for references that I used.

Lift

Lift is a component that keeps a plane in the air. This is the upward force that fights the gravity/weight of the plane. It works basically as the wind flows over and under the wing. As the air over the wing goes faster and under goes slower, it will combine at the end of the wing.

PPL Theory - Aircraft General Knowledge (AGK)

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This page contains all notes of the Aircraft Genreral Knowledge course.

The airframe (14)

The frame of a plane

Monocoque: A construction method where the external skin of the aircraft carries almost all of the loads. There is little or no internal framework. It’s lightweight but can be less tolerant to damage, since the skin itself is the main structure.
- Outside supports all forces
- Comparable with a can of coke
Semi-monocoque: A more common design in modern aircraft. The external skin still carries loads, but it’s reinforced by an internal structure (frames, stringers, bulkheads). This makes the structure stronger, more damage-tolerant, and easier to repair than pure monocoque.
- Inside supports half of the forces and outside half of the forces
Truss contruction: This method will support all forces on the inside of the plane. Here the outside could be any material, like leather or vinyl.
- Inside supports all of the forces

The wings (14)

We could have two types of wings:

PPL Theory - Meteorology (MET)

Sun, 06 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For a live overview of my flight lessons, visit: https://flighttools.justinverstijnen.nl/flightlessontracker

This page can contain a collection of personal notes, steps to remember, finished and unfinished content. Please excuse brevity.

The atmosphere (1)

The atmosphere is the layer around the earth, which is around 100 to 200km from the ground up. Worldwide, we use the International Standard Atmosphere which is a mean set of conditions which will be somewhat different depending on the weather conditions, location etc. This is a mean of the conditions at 45 degrees north latitude.

PPL Theory - Human Performance & Limitations (HPL)

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Exam passed on April 4 2026.

For a live overview of my flight lessons, visit: https://flighttools.justinverstijnen.nl/flightlessontracker

This page can contain a collection of personal notes, steps to remember, finished and unfinished content. Please excuse brevity.

Breath and effect of low blood pressure (1)

In aviation, we are mostly in environments of low air pressure. As we go further up in the air, the pressure goes down. This will have some effects on humans, where we could have hypoxia and barotrauma.

PPL Theory – Law and Operational Procedures (LAW)

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This page contains all notes of the Aviation Law course.

Exam passed on February 9 2026.

For a live overview of my flight lessons, visit: https://flighttools.justinverstijnen.nl/flightlessontracker

This page can contain a collection of personal notes, steps to remember, finished and unfinished content. Please excuse brevity.

PPL Theory - Communication (COM)

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Exam passed on January 26 2026.

For a live overview of my flight lessons, visit: https://flighttools.justinverstijnen.nl/flightlessontracker

This page can contain a collection of personal notes, steps to remember, finished and unfinished content. Please excuse brevity.

Introduction

This page contains only some theoretical additions to this page: https://justinverstijnen.nl/flight-rt-course-notes/

PPL Theory - Navigation (NAV)

Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Exam passed on December 14 2025.

For a live overview of my flight lessons, visit: https://flighttools.justinverstijnen.nl/flightlessontracker

This page can contain a collection of personal notes, steps to remember, finished and unfinished content. Please excuse brevity.

Flight RT Course notes

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For a live overview of my flight lessons, visit: https://flighttools.justinverstijnen.nl/flightlessontracker

This page can contain a collection of personal notes, steps to remember, finished and unfinished content. Please excuse brevity.

This page contains the notes I wrote down while following the Radio-telephony VFR course. I have completed the VFR Radio Telephony rating on November 14 in 2025.

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