Like many others, I would love the luxury of going city to city across the nation flying in private airplanes. Rollin’ like Air Force One wherever you want, whenever you want, while avoiding the heavy traffic you have to deal with at main public airports. One of the best ways to prepare for this adventure is to start learning to fly!
Last week I got my first taste of being a pilot. After doing some research, I found the ideal opportunity that would give me a chance to fly without all the strings attached like a contract, previous experience or without expensive fees. I took their offer for the introductory flight (cost exactly $69) and was in the air within 30 minutes after I arrived. It was a great day to fly that day. A few days before we were hit with several inches of snow and ice and the day after I flew, a rainstorm came in. So we couldn’t ask for better timing.
The pilot instructor was a nice guy. He worked as a commercial pilot for many years and retired from TWA. As I met him in his cozy office overlooking the runway, he gave me a brief overview of how airplanes work by demonstrating maneuvers with a toy model plane he had in his hands. This was an interesting approach and somewhat helpful since I am a total beginner at flying. After about 15 minutes of learning the basic types of maneuvers you can do in an airplane, he lead me to another room where we looked at an aerial map of where we were and where we were going to go and then out to the runway!
The plane was a tiny aircraft (for lack of more sophisticated terminology) and could hold a pilot and passenger and maybe a few other items in the cargo area in the back. I remember the pilot instructor told me about the airplane (all I remember is that it was a Cessna) and he described the horse power, but all I was thinking was about was how him and I were going to be thousands of feet in the air in the matter of minutes.
The airplane’s total height was maybe 6 ft tall and maybe, maybe 15 ft long. I felt like it was a flashback from the Wright Brothers as he instructed me to take one side of the wing while he had the other so we could push it over to the gas pump to fill it up. A young man came out about that time to assist as the instructor showed me around the plane, noting all the parts he had mentioned to me previously in the toy model plane conversation.
After several minutes, we crawled inside. I was on the left side, he was on the right. I carefully unzipped the leather case for the headset and put it on. He instructed me that you don’t put the headset over both ears, only one. So I adjusted the headset and plugged in the units to the headset jacks in the plane. After a couple safety procedures, he inserted the key and started her up!
The controls and steering (the yolk) seemed identical from his seat comparing it to my seat. It appeared as if this type of plane is supposed to be used for training new pilots because it had similar features as a car might have in teaching teenagers how to drive (noting the foot pedals on the passenger side, etc). He instructed that you don’t steer a plane on ground as you do a car—you steer the plane using the foot pedals. So we went several feet forward as I was trying to learn the steering and keeping a balance as we accelerated around the runway track. After I got that down pretty good, we stopped and he instructed that the steering wheel in a plane is called a ‘yolk’. The yolk is how you steer (in a lot of ways) once you’re in the air. “Got it,” I said as I heard myself through the headphones of the head unit. He pulled a lever on the dash board and the engine started roaring. He mentioned a couple other instructions, and we started moving again. I was applying the knowledge of keeping the foot pedals even as we were picking up speed when all of a sudden, he said, “Pull back on the yolk a little bit towards you”. I did and all of a sudden we were lifting off the ground just like that! “Not too much now, take it back nice easy,” I heard the instructor say over the headset.
It was the best take-off that I’ve ever seen and I could look every direction and see the sky and the land forms getting smaller and smaller. Once in the air, the instructor mentioned that I could play around with the steering of the yolk and told me different land forms to aim for (like a lake, for instance). We circled around in the city and I even got a chance to get a birds-eye view of my workplace from the sky. He noted all the gauges and what they’re used for. After about 30 minutes he instructed to go head back to the airport and radioed something to the station that we were coming in.
The landing was the scariest part for me. It all happened so fast. We were coming down and all I remember him saying is keep your eyes on the end of the runway ahead. The landing was an initial bump and bounce and I could see how that could turn out ugly if you’re not careful. We were landing, but we were also going incredibly fast, when the instructor told me “Pull back the yolk again”. So I did. And once again, I was taking off into the air. We circled around and did this once more and each time I did get better at the take-off and landing.
Once we were done, I helped the instructor tie-down the plane with a series of ropes attached to the ground (this is done in case of strong winds so it doesn’t move the aircraft). He told me some more about the pilot business and encouraged me to take-on private lessons with him. The instructor also mentioned that with me being a musician, there are several overlaps and that flying a plane would be a similar state of mind.
I was thrilled to have gone up and have that new experience under my belt and it was only mid-morning! We both walked back in the main station and I handed over my credit card to pay for the trip. I passed on the offer of buying the flying log book, but I’m definitely considering going with this company for more private flying lessons!
Soon I’ll update on what it takes to be a pilot and of course, updates of taking flying lessons!
