Chocs Away Ginger |
As a gift for my 40th birthday Steve & Liz very kindly paid for me to have a thirty minute flying lesson from Caernarfon airport. I really didn't know what to expect. Was it going to be classroom bound session covering the principles of aerodynamics, or was I actually going to get my hands on the uh ... wheel? (or is it called a joystick?) As it turned out I was allowed to go all the way and it was such a thrill ! |
We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to complete a membership form which probably had some disclaimer about crashing in the small print somewhere. Steve had to fill one in as well because he was coming along for the ride as the official photographer. |
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It was apparently a very new (six months old) Piper Warrior III light aircraft and whilst it may have felt tiny it certainly wasn't the smallest plane on the block. After our pre-flight checks of making sure all the gadgets were working and that the elastic band was tightly wound the pilot then turned the ignition. The propeller blade spluttered to life then blurred out of view. To the untrained ear it sounded only slightly more powerful than a lawn mower engine! |
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We taxied down the runway waving to our loved ones gathered to watch us take off. Now this would not have been a good time to crash, not that there ever is a "good time" but now most definetly wouldn't have been. As we turned onto the runway, he flipped his flaps, pushed the throttle up to max, and off we went hurtling down the strip at a tremendous speed. He pulled back on his stick and up up and away we went. Within no time we had climbed to 1200 ft where we levelled off and he turned down the revs. I thought for a moment we were going to stall and plummet to the earth like a swotted fly but I guess he knew what he was doing. So we started our pleasure flight over the Menai Straits, travelling along at a sedate 120mph! |
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After we flew over the two bridges we heard on the radio that we should be aware of other traffic in the sky above Felin Heli. "That's not good. We're over Felin Heli" said our pilot. Another plane and six microlites were up here somewhere so most of the return journey was spent keeping an eye out for them. (Incoming. Two o'clock.) |
To the untrained pilot the method used appeared to be a frantic scramble at pulling levers, flapping flaps, crossing fingers, everything but throw the anchor out the window. "Sierra, Hotdog, Idiot, Tango" ! We did eventually slow down enough to perform a nifty handbrake turn and taxi off the runway. The whole experience was absolutely superb and if time & money wasn't an object I could easily find myself going for a pilot's licence! |