Come Fly With Me...
Well that was a blast!
Saturday morning at 10:30am I was at Moorrabbin Aviation Services ready to launch into the skies. But first, I had some basic aviation instruction in the classroom as provided by my instructor Reinhard (also known as Ryan). He went through the basics of attitude, pitch, altitude, airspeed, ailerons, elevators, rudders, and demonstrated the instruments on a large poster of the Warrior dashboard. Because I'd flown in Microsoft Simulator I had a good idea of all this stuff already, but it was good to hear him clarify it anyway.
Then we went out to the plan and he showed me how to do the pre-flight check. This is a thorough going over of the plane, checking the flaps, bolts, elevators, engine mounts, propellors... basically ensuring that we'll have a safe flight and nothing will drop off! I hopped in and steered the plane while he pushed it out onto the tarmac, and then the fuelling truck arrived and it was filled up to the brim with avgas. Donning our headphones we then set off in a slow taxi to the runway, with me steering (while on the ground, steering is done with your feet via the nose gear, not with your hands). We got clearance to take off, and he floored it. I had the yoke during takeoff and he told me when to pull back. I eased back on the wheel (quite a long way in the end) and the nose lifted up and... we took off! I kept the plane as level as I could whilst maintaining the climb -- it was an amazing feeling. For the next twenty minutes or so he showed me how to use attitude to maintain altitude, to climb or to descend, as well as the importance of not 'chasing the instruments'. I basically did around 80% of the flying up there, with him telling me where to go (bank left here, head out to the coast, okay you can roll out now) and it was wicked fun! I got a great view of everything from 2000 feet up! I lined us up for landing and after descending for a while he took over for the hard part -- landing! All in all it was a fantastic experience and so much fun!
Will I undertake my pilot's licence? At this stage I think ... No. As much as I really want to (it's so much fun and really interesting) it's also very expensive. To get my pilot's license for VFR conditions will take me around 60 hours of flight time and about $15,000. That's a not-insignificant amount of change! I think it would be better to pay off my car and credit card instead :)
However, I definitely want to do it at some stage in my life -- just when I haven't got quite so many bills owing! For anyone wanting to know what it feels like to fly an airplane, please check out one of the local flying schools in your area. Ask for a 'Trial Instructional Flight', and at the school I went to it was only $88. That's pretty darn reasonable!
Saturday morning at 10:30am I was at Moorrabbin Aviation Services ready to launch into the skies. But first, I had some basic aviation instruction in the classroom as provided by my instructor Reinhard (also known as Ryan). He went through the basics of attitude, pitch, altitude, airspeed, ailerons, elevators, rudders, and demonstrated the instruments on a large poster of the Warrior dashboard. Because I'd flown in Microsoft Simulator I had a good idea of all this stuff already, but it was good to hear him clarify it anyway.
Then we went out to the plan and he showed me how to do the pre-flight check. This is a thorough going over of the plane, checking the flaps, bolts, elevators, engine mounts, propellors... basically ensuring that we'll have a safe flight and nothing will drop off! I hopped in and steered the plane while he pushed it out onto the tarmac, and then the fuelling truck arrived and it was filled up to the brim with avgas. Donning our headphones we then set off in a slow taxi to the runway, with me steering (while on the ground, steering is done with your feet via the nose gear, not with your hands). We got clearance to take off, and he floored it. I had the yoke during takeoff and he told me when to pull back. I eased back on the wheel (quite a long way in the end) and the nose lifted up and... we took off! I kept the plane as level as I could whilst maintaining the climb -- it was an amazing feeling. For the next twenty minutes or so he showed me how to use attitude to maintain altitude, to climb or to descend, as well as the importance of not 'chasing the instruments'. I basically did around 80% of the flying up there, with him telling me where to go (bank left here, head out to the coast, okay you can roll out now) and it was wicked fun! I got a great view of everything from 2000 feet up! I lined us up for landing and after descending for a while he took over for the hard part -- landing! All in all it was a fantastic experience and so much fun!
Will I undertake my pilot's licence? At this stage I think ... No. As much as I really want to (it's so much fun and really interesting) it's also very expensive. To get my pilot's license for VFR conditions will take me around 60 hours of flight time and about $15,000. That's a not-insignificant amount of change! I think it would be better to pay off my car and credit card instead :)
However, I definitely want to do it at some stage in my life -- just when I haven't got quite so many bills owing! For anyone wanting to know what it feels like to fly an airplane, please check out one of the local flying schools in your area. Ask for a 'Trial Instructional Flight', and at the school I went to it was only $88. That's pretty darn reasonable!
posted by Scott at 9:43 am
4 Comments:
Cool man! That description brought back the memories of when Kerri and I were taken up into the sky by our friend Holger. He went through the whole expensive process, to finally get his license, and then waste it all by returning to Germany! He says it's a lot harder to get a permit in Germany - even though he already has an aussie license.
We went for a flight starting from Bankstown, to the far Northern Beaches, down the coast then a few loops around Sydney Harbour (awesome!), then right down toward Wollongong, out west to the very dry Warragamba Dam, then over the old Fleurs Radio Telescope at Kemps Creek, then finally back home via Prospect Reservior. I can see how one can become addicted to flying, although i personally don't have the stomach for it - i was very very unwell by the end :-)
Glad you had a good time though!
Well, I'm not sure even I would have the stomach for it after such a long flight! Mine was only 30 minutes, so I've no idea if I would go green after an hour or so!
I was lucky enough to get to go with holger on an acrobatic flight - now that was awesome! Not for weak stomachs though:-)
We did loops and rolls, the best has to be a spin - go to to 6000 feet, stall the plane (this means stop the engine!), plumet 2-3000 feet while you spin nose down, remember to pull out and kickstart the engine after 5sec. A buzz!
I only got scared when he tried to make me steer; you can pilot scott, i am happy as passenger!
Er, I'm not so sure about that acrobatic stuff! I think I'd prefer to stick to less.... stomach-churning moves :)
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