Flight

It was the kind of nervous like the mornings at PCS, where Kendra and I would agree that it "may be the day we get maimed, seriously injured, or killed." Irrational yes, but it could have happened.

This is what the kids at PCS probably think.

So it was the same kind of anxiety. Climbing into a plane with a stranger...a woman instructor...I mean, I am a "woman", but can you be slightly mysoginstic and a women at the same time? I'd feel much safer flying with a man. What if this lady is like some of the eccentric women I've had to work with?

As I sat in the lobby of the flight school, the Fixed Base Operator (FBO) chatted with the secretary about a crash.

"Just this morning, the instructor survived, he was able to roll out before it burst into the flames. He's pretty banged up but said it was intentional. The student drove the plane into the ground. They're saying it was an act of t**rorism."

"That wasn't here?" I asked incredulously. Honestly not a good topic of conversation with someone taking an initial flight to overhear.

"Oh I don't know, but I saw the headline." He replied, I quickly googled the date and plane crashes. Thankgoodness it wasn't this airport. I'd leave right then and there if it was. 

connecticut-plane-crash-possibly-intentional/ Here is a link to see the news report.

Victoria walked in, I sized her up immediately like I do to everyone. Ecto-Mesomorph, kyphotic, heavy heal strike on right foot-making her gate irregular, bomber-esque jacket. She shook my hand and started talking really fast about how the propeller was a little loose, but "we should be fine, we don't have time to fix it-I have another girl coming in after you, It's like the day of women pilots, we'll just have to come in really slow, it's just a little loose. We'll be fine." She kept reassuring me.

We headed over to the plane, she started showing me all the buttons and knobs (pronounced Ka-nobs, JK knobs lol). She was going really fast. It looked exactly like this.

I hoisted myself into the captains side of the plane fumbled with the seat belt, while Victoria ran through the checklist. And told me where the brakes, and pedals were. You use the pedals to steer (taxi), breaks (obviously to break). I still couldn't get the seat belt on. Victoria had to help click me in---Ok it was a complex seat belt.

"Oh, did I leave the wheel chocks in?" She asked me. 

"Um, yeah, I saw that you did, but didn't want to say anything-cause maybe a someone was going to get them." She told me to hold the breaks while she moved them, hopping out of the plane.

I held those breaks like my life depended on it. I held them so hard my quads started to burn. I felt like the equivalent of a 5 year old sitting in the drivers seat of a car- except I was 25 sitting at the helm of a plane-And this plane wasn't going anywhere, not while I was holding the breaks.

"Ok, you taxi us out. Make sure you don't hit that plane next to us. Oh and you are in charge of the flight today, so you taxi us out and once we're up its up to you." I wasn't expecting that, and it made me want to NOT fly...I thought this was just going to be a visual learning experience...not kinesthetic.

I pulled a knob flooding the engines with gasoline, and turned the plane on per her instructions.

My hands instinctively went up to the yoke (looks like a steering wheel). "Don't steer with that, steer with your feet." Oh right. I gave it a little throttle and we moved forward- me steering with my feet-swerving. My hands drifted back toward the yoke, and she brushed my hands away. "Don't steer with that, your feet." She repeated, "line up with that line." 

I lined us up. Victoria told me to put the throttle all the way in. We hadn't gone over how enthusiastically I should handle the controls so I slowly and gently, with much hesitation, pushed the throttle in as Victoria pulled the yoke back and we were aloft. 

Victoria, told me to keep ascending but keep the horizon in view and fly towards a factory with large smoke stacks, saying were going to stay north of the stacks, but I could fly where I pleased. Then she started laughing saying she once flew with an old man who flew all the way to Rome and he just looked awful...admitting he had held his breath the whole way (she pointed to a city in the distance.) 

"I'm ok." And I never get sweaty palms, but I wiped my sweaty hands on my jeans.

She instructed me to level off by decreasing power on the throttle and pushing the yoke down a little. I was cruising. "Do you ever get nervous?" I asked. With our litigious society and the crash this morning, I had been wondering.) "I didn't sign anything, and you don't even know me." 

"It's all part of being an instructor." She replied. "And I knew you were safe. Try turning the plane." Once again I was not sure of how vigorously I should handle the controls, so as gently and meticulously as possible I turned the plane ever so slightly."

"Wow, that was a nice 10 degree turn." She said sarcastically. (10 degrees in a plane going 80 knots felt like a lot.)

Protractor to give you a sense of 10 degrees

Attitude Indicator- Turning Indicator

I tried a couple more 10 degree turns, right and left till I felt comfortable with them, all while Victoria chatting about speeds and airspace. She upped the ante and told me to make a 30 degree turn but I forgot to watch the attitude indicator as I was turning.

"Whoa, that was a 45 degree turn, you don't do that till the final exam." I was surprised by the mistake and meticulously returned to flying straight.

I looked out the window and reveled in the moment that I was flying a plane, and I had no idea how I got up here, but I thought I was doing a pretty good job, probably the best student she's ever 

seen...JK.

I had no idea how I got up here.

She wanted to show me how slow we could fly and stay aloft, and instructed me to flip on the flaps. I by accident flipped two flaps at the same time but she fixed it and corrected my mistake.

We decreased to 20 knots and it was much more difficult to fly. She asked if I liked flying faster. "Yes, it's easier and smoother."

Ascending and increasing our speed we flew around some more, and Victoria pointed to a lake in the distance indicating to fly around the lake to line us up to land.

Reminding me that the propeller was loose, we came in very slowly, and Victoria landed the plane. She had me taxi right into the hanger, so the plane could be repaired. I hopped out, regained my land legs, and thanked her.

I had to spend the rest of my day at tumbling club and the dance studio, walking around with the secret I had successfully flown a plane and it had gone really well.