Both seats up front were equipped with flight controls. Mike gestured for me to take the one on the left. Student pilots start out in the left seat, reserved for the pilot in command, from the very beginning. The second set of controls is provided for an instructor or a co-pilot.

Mike explained the various instruments on the panel in front of us. There was the altimeter and the airspeed indicator. What wings need to produce lift is airspeed or the speed of the plane relative to the air surrounding it. If the air is moving in the same direction as the plane, that's called a tailwind. The opposite is a headwind. Both affect groundspeed, which is airspeed plus or minus the wind component. There was also a heading indicator (a fancy, gyro-stabilized compass); something called an artificial horizon, a turn coordinator, and a vertical speed indicator. For today's flight, we'd focus primarily on the airspeed indicator and the altimeter and spend most of the time looking out the windows both for the view and to avoid other airplanes.

After completing the pre-engine-start checklist, Mike told me to yell "clear" to warn anyone nearby that the engine was about to start. I turned the key and the four-cylinder, Lycoming engine roared to life. We tuned one of the two VHF radios to 121.7 Megahertz (MHz), the frequency for ground control at Hanscom, while listening to a repetitive broadcast called the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) on the second, tuned to 124.6 MHz. The ATIS for that hour, coded "Foxtrot," told us the wind was light and variable, the sky condition was clear, the visibility was greater than six miles, the altimeter setting (equal to the local barometric pressure) was 30.12" Hg, and the active runway in use was runway 29. (The "29" -- pronounced "Two Niner" -- meant the runway was oriented within a few degrees of 290 magnetic, or northwest. Runway 11 -- "One One" -- was the same piece of pavement; simply the opposite direction.) The ATIS provided what seemed like an overwhelming amount of information at the time, so I determined just to place myself in Mike's expert hands.

When we were ready, Mike pointed to the radio's hand microphone and told me what to say. "Hanscom Ground, Cessna Seven Three Four Yankee Alpha, on the West Ramp, ready to taxi, with Foxtrot." The reply was immediate, "Cessna Four Yankee Alpha, Hanscom Ground, taxi to Runway Two Niner." And with that, we were off.

Turning either way as we taxied was a little strange. To my surprise, turning the control wheel (the "yoke") accomplished nothing, as it simply moved the ailerons up and down. I learned that all turns on the ground are accomplished with your feet, by pushing on the respective rudder pedals. Still, the urge to use the yoke as a steering wheel was hard to overcome at first.

When we neared the end of the departure runway, we pulled off to the side to complete our pre-takeoff checklist. This included checking the operation of the electric flaps and running the engine up almost to full power for several seconds with the brakes engaged.