30x30: Fly an Airplane

Well, I flew an airplane! My parent's got me the lesson and flight for Christmas, and my daddy and I went this past Sunday. This was one of the items I thought would be one of the hardest to accomplish without a lot of training. It turns out, flying a plane is like driving a really old and stubborn car that travels up and down as well as forwards and backwards. I felt like I was in our old 90s Tempo again.

We had no ground class, and went straight out to the plane. We went through the pre-flight check, which is really complicated. The inside dashboard looked like a mix of organ parts and dials with many knobs and old school switches and buttons. Our instructor kept in contact with the tower, and they gave her the number designation for our plane so that they could keep track of us. I learned how to steer with my feet, using the floor petals to control the plane on the ground. It almost felt like a bicycle, leaning one way and then the other to get the plane to move in a straight line. Then we taxied down the run way, I pushed the throttle all the way in, and when we got up to 60 mph, I lifted us off the ground. It was incredible!

I was wobbly at first, trying to wrap my head around what I was doing and how high I was and that I was flying a plane. Once I got used to it, though, it was like driving a car. Granted a car that tilted when you turned, but still a car. It felt like the plane wanted to be in the air. I did have a harder time steering than I expected because, unlike a car, you don't have to fight wind currents to get the flaps on your wings to move.

 

Unfortunately, I got airsick, and so I didn't get to fly home or land for fear of throwing up, but I did it! I flew a plane!

I think I liked the hot air balloon better, because it was peaceful and I didn't have to steer, and you really got the sense of flying like a bird might fly. The closed cockpit in the plane gave you a certain detachment from it all. Perhaps when I have more money and a car, I will attempt to fly a WWI plane with an open cockpit. A Fokker bi-plane or maybe a Sopwith Camel!

But I have flown a plane, and experienced what many of my heroes have experienced, like Beryl Markham and Amelia Earhardt.

And Young Indiana Jones, Charles Nungesser, Raoul Lufbery, Anthony Fokker, Baron Von Richthofen, and Snoopy.

This is the whole reason why I wanted to do this in the first place: Young Indiana Jones and the Attack of the Hawkmen. Talk about access points for history.