I almost called off the flight, since the pilot called on my birthday and said he needed to reschedule for the next day, but I’m glad we went ahead with it because it was awesome! I even got to have Lillian with me in the plane, and she enjoyed the flight.
When Barbara told me it was a ‘Be a Pilot’ flight, I assumed that meant we’d go up in a little plane and I’d get to control it for a while, then we’d return to the airport. You know, one of those flights where you get to feel like you flew a plane without really doing any of the important parts.
That was not what this flight was. I walked around the aircraft with my instructor (Dane, I think was his name) for the pre-flight checks and went to get into the co-pilot’s seat – at which point I was told to go to the other side and get in the pilot’s seat. That was my first clue this would be a little more involved than I originally thought.
Once we settle in, I’m told how to set the mixture and the choke and I start the engine. Then I find out I need to practice taxiing, because I didn’t do so well with that in my opinion. After taxiing to the end of the runway and waiting for clearance, I bring us out onto the runway and take off. That’s right, up to this point my instructor has made radio calls and helped a little with my pathetic taxiing – everything else was me!
So, I’m flying a plane now. The instructor is showing me how to trim the horizontal stabilizer so I don’t have to pull back so much to continue our climb to 1500ft. I’m executing 30-45 degree bank turns to bring us out over the beach and head toward the designated training area a few minutes flight East of the airport. Once we’re parallel to the training area, I make a left turn into the designated airspace and get to fly a few more turns before its time to head back.
Again, the instructor is just talking to me and making radio calls – I’m doing all the work of flying the plane (or enough of it that I’m not noticing whatever he may be doing). The ‘Be a Pilot’ name is definitely accurate!
When we start heading back, I tell the instructor I’ll be hands-off for the landing. He tells me I’ll be landing the plane, but he’ll help. I actually did a decent job of landing, considering I really didn’t like pointing a plane I was in towards the ground at what felt like a high rate of speed and descent. This is the only part of the flight where I notice my instructor really helping out. Once we’re on the ground, I’m back in control of the aircraft and I have to taxi us back to the parking spot (which I did better than the taxi out, so at least I improved a little).
Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience that I would recommend to anyone who likes flying. It was only about 45 minutes, but it felt both shorter and much longer. Definitely something I’d do again!