Veni Vidi Volavi
I came, I saw, I flew (away)
I got to fly at 6:30 PM today. We flew to Roanoke, Virginia to practice takeoffs and landings. It was exhilarating!
One of the most exciting things tonight was when the controller told us that we had to do a short landing. (So a jet could take off; they had a release time.) Roger did a sharp side slip of the plane immediately down on the runway. (I’m not explaining it very well. I sure wish you could have seen it.) After we were down, the controller said, “NICELY DONE” (with awe in his voice). Nicely done? It was downright AWESOME! That was fun! Let’s do it again!
I did 13 takeoffs and landings. After shaking off my nervousness of being at a bigger airport, bigger city, with bigger planes (you did get “bigger”, right?), I thought I was settling down and doing okay. Well, until Roger had to explain the ins and outs of some things that I did wrong and how to correct them. And, no, I don’t want to talk about it. It’s my story. I had fun, learned lots, and will definitely be playing the whole evening over and over in my head!
Things learned this evening:
-Don’t cut corners when you’re flying in pattern. Keep the corners sharp.
-When you’re landing, keep the runway numbers in clear view. Keep the nose down until it’s time to land, then level the nose. Then you flare out, pull the yoke back ever so slowly.
-When taking back off, pull up the flaps, push in the carburetor, push in the throttle, wait for the plane to get to speed, then you pull back the yoke. You’re now airborne. (Never, ever, ever, pull the throttle out when you’re taking off.)
– Pick out landmarks as you’re flying your destination. ALWAYS be aware of where you are and the terrain.
– I spent a lifetime trying not to feel the world around me so I could pretend it was good. You can’t do that when flying. All of your senses have to come alive. Nice thing discovered: the world is BEAUTIFUL.
Johnny Depp had it right, “You can close your eyes to the things you don’t want to see, but you can’t close your heart to the things you don’t want to feel.”
-And, you always, always need to REALLY listen to your flight instructor. After all, he was the one that did the amazing short landing. (Okay, my level of respect went up many notches.)
There is freedom waiting for you, on the breezes of the sky.
And you ask, “what if I fall?”
Oh, but my darling
What if you fly?
-Erin Hanson
(Flight to, runways at, beautiful scenery around Roanoke. I promise to label them tomorrow.)
