Flew a plane today! (with pics)

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Adz

Soldato
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I've always been a nervous flyer so I thought, on my 21st birthday, I'd conquer my fear by going up in a rickety old 1970s aircraft with an agricultural engine :p.

I booked the 'trial lesson' package with a local flying school a couple of months ago and set off bright and early this morning for Shoreham.

5 minutes in, fear of flying 100% gone. When you're in control/sitting next to the person who is it's an entirely different experience to airline flight.

We took off from Shoreham airport and the instructor let me try some basic turns, climbing, descending, etc. All brilliant fun. We then landed at Sandown airport on the Isle of Wight, had a cup of tea and took off again. A few more turns, in between cloud clusters which was fun then back down to land at Shoreham. With a few pointers I was allowed to fly most of the approach (until 150ft) myself, lining up with the runway and keeping the rate of descent as the instructor dealt with the throttle + flaps.

For anyone who's interested, flying a light aircraft is nothing at all like Flight Simulator! Just keeping it on course in mild turbulance seemed to require constant adjustments... unless I was doing something wrong (likely!).

At £141/hour for instruction in the PA28 (with a minimum 45 hours for the license) it's far from being a cheap hobby but it's definitely something I'm going to continue with. Easily the best fun I've had in ages and with no alcohol required.

Thanks to Scuzi and anyone else who has posted similar threads on this forum for inspiring me to finally try this.

Sorry about the crappy pics, there wasn't really much time for snaps whilst we were in the air.

On the airfield on the IOW.

outside.jpg


Cockpit felt rather cramped! This was a 4 seater plane. Apparently the 2 seat Cessna training planes are even smaller still.

cockpit.jpg


Guages... attitude, altitude, heading, vertical speed. Just like flight sim :D.

instruments.jpg
 
Tut tut, the instructor couldn't even maintain 79Kts in the climb ;)

Congratulations! :D It's a great feeling isn't it? I did the same as yourself, just went for a trial lesson and managed to catch the bug.

Good luck with it and if you ever need any advice or help with anything just shout.
 
Scuzi said:
Tut tut, the instructor couldn't even maintain 79Kts in the climb ;)
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He did have an interesting back story. Having always wanted to fly, he finally left his job as a project manager, sold his house and payed his way through his PPL, CPL and ratings in Florida in 2003 before coming to work as a flying instructor. He's now got his 737 rating and is off to Easyjet in 6 months! That's a success story if ever I heard one.

Scuzi said:
Good luck with it and if you ever need any advice or help with anything just shout.
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Thanks :). Lesson #2 in a week hopefully. I'm going to have to try to work out how to fit this into my schedule.
 
Congrats and welcome to the club! Once you get bitten by the flying bug that can be it haha.

Sounds like you had a good flight though, don't worry about any trouble with holding it straight and level, that comes with practise, just like learning to drive! After a while you just fly it unconciously, which frees up your brain to be thinking about other things (lookout, navigating, RT, what your going to have to eat at the pub when you get back ;) )

There's quite a few people who fly on the boards, at some point we should have a Ocuk fly-in hehe.
 
Blinkz said:
After a while you just fly it unconciously, which frees up your brain to be thinking about other things (lookout, navigating, RT, what your going to have to eat at the pub when you get back ;) )
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Don't you mean fly it subconsciously. Flying unconscious is not recommended.
 
Hi there

If there anywhere in the northwest/midlands that offer flying lessons/trial as it is something I'd certainly like to try. :)
 
Blinkz said:
Sounds like you had a good flight though, don't worry about any trouble with holding it straight and level, that comes with practise, just like learning to drive! After a while you just fly it unconciously, which frees up your brain to be thinking about other things (lookout, navigating, RT, what your going to have to eat at the pub when you get back ;) )
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Above the clouds it was a piece of cake, it was once we started descending that it seemed to want to snake about.

I'm quite a keen driver but after this, the drive home seemed so dull. I'm sure the novelty will wear off eventually but until then :D :D :D.
 
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Lysander said:
Don't you mean fly it subconsciously. Flying unconscious is not recommended.
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well that all depends on how good a pilot you are.......I can fly unconciously...... :eek: :D


ok ok, busted. yup my bad, sub-consciously flying :D



Gibbo, there are loads of clubs all round the country which offer trial flights, just google your local airfield and am sure there will be a local flying club!
 
Gibbo said:
Hi there

If there anywhere in the northwest/midlands that offer flying lessons/trial as it is something I'd certainly like to try. :)
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Hmm. PPL & aircraft or a new car? ;)

Learning to fly is also on my to-do list. However a PPL is a bit too expensive, so I'm considering a micro-light or for the ultimate in cheapness, para-motoring!
 
If you want to fly but can't afford it then gliding is always an option. It is much cheaper then powered flying but uses exactly the same skills as flying. A glider is controlled in exactly the same way as a powered aircraft, it just doesn't have an engine so you need to be much better at understanding the weather ;)
 
Tomsk said:
Hmm. PPL & aircraft or a new car? ;)

Learning to fly is also on my to-do list. However a PPL is a bit too expensive, so I'm considering a micro-light or for the ultimate in cheapness, para-motoring!
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Hi there

Well having 1-2 hours flying a month won't change my life style but it will be a fun thing to do and something interesting to learn. :)

To do the trial flight are there any requirements to do beforehand like exams or medicals etc?
 
Cuchulain said:
They've taped over the hat switch! Now you're gonna have to use Space Bar and your mouse to look around!
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lol, I saw that but immediately thought "Hows he going to fire the guns?" :confused:
 
Gibbo said:
To do the trial flight are there any requirements to do beforehand like exams or medicals etc?
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Zero. Might be wise to take some photographic ID but I was in the plane within 5 minutes of turning up.
 
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