nolatom
Contributor
My sweet wife gave me a "flying adventure" coupon for a local airport outfit, who does teaching and certifying and fun flights. This was a half-hour flight on a Cessna 172, out of Lakefront Airport in New Orleans to points east toward Mississippi, a couple of large circles, then back west toward the city before turning north to land.
The pilot put me in the left seat, and let me take it once he'd climbed though about 700 feet, eventually levellng off at about 1800, and then descending gradually and turning to line up the runway, he didn't take over til about 400 feet, so I must not have stunk too bad.
I sail and teach sailing, so much of it--lift, airfoil, pitch, yaw, compass, was familiar. But I was thinking about parallels with diving:
Foreign environment in which we were not meant to exist.
Listen to the briefing, speak up with questions
Trust your equipment
Trust your instruments
Listen to your instructor (it wasn't a lesson, but anyway)
Easy does it, don't "overdo or overcorrect"
The wind (like the current) affects what you do and how you plan it.
If you do it like the book/instructor says, it's safe--if you don't, it's not..
Enjoy the beautiful view and how different it is than on land
It was really cool
It's boring back on land
I can't afford to do this all the time, though it would be nice..
I've only done this twice now (last time was 40 years ago with a friend/pilot, similar aircraft). I'm glad scuba is cheaper.
The pilot put me in the left seat, and let me take it once he'd climbed though about 700 feet, eventually levellng off at about 1800, and then descending gradually and turning to line up the runway, he didn't take over til about 400 feet, so I must not have stunk too bad.
I sail and teach sailing, so much of it--lift, airfoil, pitch, yaw, compass, was familiar. But I was thinking about parallels with diving:
Foreign environment in which we were not meant to exist.
Listen to the briefing, speak up with questions
Trust your equipment
Trust your instruments
Listen to your instructor (it wasn't a lesson, but anyway)
Easy does it, don't "overdo or overcorrect"
The wind (like the current) affects what you do and how you plan it.
If you do it like the book/instructor says, it's safe--if you don't, it's not..
Enjoy the beautiful view and how different it is than on land
It was really cool
It's boring back on land
I can't afford to do this all the time, though it would be nice..
I've only done this twice now (last time was 40 years ago with a friend/pilot, similar aircraft). I'm glad scuba is cheaper.