Just had to share a story with a group of people who would probably appreciate it :)
I recently had my 33rd birthday and my wife surprised me with a 45 minute sightseeing plane ride in our local county. I have always been saying that I wanted to be in a plane sometime in my life and have played with flight sims and such over the years. I’ve also said one of my bucket list items was to fly a plane. The wife kept this a secret until we were pulling into the airport. Good job her :)
So we pull in and start speaking to the pilot. I let him know I’ve never been in a plane and have always wanted to (really has been a dream of mine). So he shows us the controls and safety systems and such, and proceeds to (jokingly I thought) ask me if I wanted to fly since he has flown 4 times that day already. He then shows me things like how the throttle control and foot pedal work to taxi the Cessna to the runway. This was the start of my day of perfection.
After we get to the runway, he lets me know that keeping the plane centered in the runway can be tricky but there is only VERY light wind, so he’ll take care of the rudder, but lets me throttle up the plane and take the plane off. What a rush :) Of course at this point, I have a permanent smile glued to my face that I’m quite sure I still haven’t lost.
I then spent the next 45 minutes flying a plane around our local county. He had me climb to 2900ish feet and throttle the plane back. We did some banked turns around some local land marks and such. I went to Lake Erie and followed the coast for a bit to one of our local beaches. I can’t even describe the wonderful sensation of flying a plane for the first time, though I’m sure many of you remember.
So it comes time to come back and I say “So I hear landing is the hardest part of flying” expecting him to agree and take over controls. He asks if I want to bring it in and if I want to try the paved or grass runway. I say grass and he proceeds to call out my route to take to line up for the runway. He shows me how to extend the flaps and I do that 3 times over a minute or so. There is a small cross wind, so he shows me where to aim for the plane to track straight to the runway. Really if truly felt like I was doing a flight. I was probably about 5 seconds before touchdown and the actual pilot more or less took full control and ensured a smooth touchdown but still had me doing things like pulling back while we slowed and taxing back. I was filled with adrenaline and a smile that wouldn’t go away. I had spent the better part of an hour flying a plane.
Now of course my brain won’t stop there. After this small flight, it is quite obvious that my long term life planning has to include some kind of flying. Before this, I thought flying once in my life would be sufficient to satisfy a bucket list item, but it was truly a life altering experience. In researching requirements for a recreational license it appears more and more that this pilot gave me close to the equivalent to a familiarization flight. Unfortunately it seems life’s expenses will likely prohibit me from actively pursuing this hobby for at least a decade when the kids are out of the house, but I couldn’t be more glad to have had this experience.
To those of you still flying in 10 years, hope to join you in the skies!!
Steve.
