One thing I am always willing to do is to learn how to do something new. Whether it is how to play guitar, how to install things around the house or even something useless like how to play Rock Band, I am always up to learn something new. Because let’s face it, there is a lot that I don’t know. I don’t even know what I don’t know. You know?
In an effort to continue to learn new stuff I have set my sites on mastering the skies. I have started taking flying lessons. Alexis made reference to this endeavor in her Super Bowl blog. So here is the story of my first flight with an instructor.
There is a small, mostly corporate, airport near out house. Lear jets for corporate big-wigs fly in and out of this airport (Addison) as well as weekend warriors and small plane owners. For a small airport, it is one of the busiest in the country. Alexis and I always hear small aircraft buzzing around overhead.
I got there early Sunday morning, around 7 am. This was to be my first flight in a Cessna 172. The main purpose of this flight was not necessarily to teach, but to get the student hooked so the flight school could suck you in and keep taking your money. I’m guessing by the looks of their large and new fleet of planes that they were good at getting you hooked. The flight plan for the day was simple; I was to do all of the flying. That may not sound too bad if you have lots of experience flying, but my flying experience is limited to seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked positions.
The instructor readied the plane to taxiing and we climbed in. You are wondering if I am going to tell you about his instructions or lessons before we got in, well there were pretty much none. We get in and he stats the propeller. Then he tells me it is my job to taxi out to the run way, but he would talk to the tower for us. He tells me not to touch the yoke (steering wheel) but to use the pedals on the floor to steer the plane, so I do. As we approach the runway he gives me some last minute advice on how quickly to climb and at what speed to pull back on the yoke to lift us off. With no time to argue, or tell him he was an idiot for letting someone he just met fly, we started to build speed and charge down the runway. Once we hit 55 knots, I started to pull up; and then started to fly!!! We took off and headed east.
We had to stay below a certain altitude due to DFW airport being about 20 miles away. We climbed to 2000 feet. Everything looked familiar so at least I would have known what I was crashing into. But there was no crashing to be done today. As we flew he then took the time to explain what the instruments were that were in front of me; how to use them and what they did. Good things to know. We climbed to about 3000 feet and we were then out of DFW’s range so we were free to do whatever. We flew over some local lakes and continued to climb. We got up to about 5000 feet, which I did all by myself, he was just sitting in the seat next to me. It was very nice and much easier than I thought it would be.
In an effort to continue to learn new stuff I have set my sites on mastering the skies. I have started taking flying lessons. Alexis made reference to this endeavor in her Super Bowl blog. So here is the story of my first flight with an instructor.
There is a small, mostly corporate, airport near out house. Lear jets for corporate big-wigs fly in and out of this airport (Addison) as well as weekend warriors and small plane owners. For a small airport, it is one of the busiest in the country. Alexis and I always hear small aircraft buzzing around overhead.
I got there early Sunday morning, around 7 am. This was to be my first flight in a Cessna 172. The main purpose of this flight was not necessarily to teach, but to get the student hooked so the flight school could suck you in and keep taking your money. I’m guessing by the looks of their large and new fleet of planes that they were good at getting you hooked. The flight plan for the day was simple; I was to do all of the flying. That may not sound too bad if you have lots of experience flying, but my flying experience is limited to seat backs and tray tables in their upright and locked positions.
The instructor readied the plane to taxiing and we climbed in. You are wondering if I am going to tell you about his instructions or lessons before we got in, well there were pretty much none. We get in and he stats the propeller. Then he tells me it is my job to taxi out to the run way, but he would talk to the tower for us. He tells me not to touch the yoke (steering wheel) but to use the pedals on the floor to steer the plane, so I do. As we approach the runway he gives me some last minute advice on how quickly to climb and at what speed to pull back on the yoke to lift us off. With no time to argue, or tell him he was an idiot for letting someone he just met fly, we started to build speed and charge down the runway. Once we hit 55 knots, I started to pull up; and then started to fly!!! We took off and headed east.
We had to stay below a certain altitude due to DFW airport being about 20 miles away. We climbed to 2000 feet. Everything looked familiar so at least I would have known what I was crashing into. But there was no crashing to be done today. As we flew he then took the time to explain what the instruments were that were in front of me; how to use them and what they did. Good things to know. We climbed to about 3000 feet and we were then out of DFW’s range so we were free to do whatever. We flew over some local lakes and continued to climb. We got up to about 5000 feet, which I did all by myself, he was just sitting in the seat next to me. It was very nice and much easier than I thought it would be.
The flying part seemed to be easy. The instructor suggested we try gliding. I didn’t really know what he meant until he idled the plane, which basically shut off the propeller and we started to glide. Gliding seems like a peaceful and relaxing task. No. Not for rookies. It’s terrifying. With the propeller not propelling the plane anymore we start fall. He is relaxed in his delivery of instructions, but there was quite a bit of urgency in my execution of his instructions. The feeling of a freefall in an airplane is not that pleasant. However, with his calm instructions I was able to make the plane glide, instead of fall. We were even able to climb and descend as we wanted to. While I was able to control the plane, I was still terrified and not at ease until he got the propeller cranked up again. I guess the scariest part was not knowing how to get the propeller going again incase he suddenly died. Gliding and landing on my first flight were definitely not things I could master in case of such an emergency. But I got through that unscathed and I deffinately learned from it.
After the gliding we continued to fly. We climbed back up and had a smooth uneventful return to Addison.
For the landing, he gave me instructions on where to go and how to approach the runway. I did all of the descent into the airport. Under power, descending is not bad at all. I lined up the plane for our final descent and got us to about 100 feet above the ground. Then, in the interest of both our lives, he took over and landed to plane smoothly; thanks of course, to my magnificent approach.
It was a great flight and it is something that I will for sure pursue, hopefully! A pilots license can take over a year to get, or as little as 6 months. I will probably be closer to a year since I can’t fly all the time (it’s expensive). It will take a while, but as long as I keep it on my mind, keep up with the studying, and do well when I actually do fly it is something that I will be able to do for years to come.
2 comments:
Dude! You cut yourself off! How was the gliding?
Brett, the way you described your first flying experience I felt that I was in the plane with you I was even scared for myself. good luck sonny
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