A Flying Lesson

Christmas and the New Year have us think about those resolutions for the future. My resolution for the year was to be more "adventurous". You can define that many ways, but I see it as learning new things and breaking out of the cocoon of everyday life. My chance came early when right around Christmas a Groupon came out offering an introductory flight and ground school class at the airport for $70. I thought about it off and on for about a week and finally used some of my Christmas money from mom and dad and bought the Groupon. I put it in the folder and didn't do much about it for a bit. I wanted to wait until spring and it didn't expire until June. I called in mid-March and set a date, went out and found out the flight was cancelled because of the wildfires reducing visibility. Another date was set and the day was perfect, so off I went. Once you check in, you meet your instructor. Mine was a young man named Jesse. You head to the plane and he gives you a 30 min or so rundown on how it works----the dials, the controls, all of it. It's a lot to take in.

Apparently, they only use the old dials now as a backup. Everything else is computerized. I did understand where the really important stuff was and what I was supposed to be looking for. Jesse took a pic of me with my headphones on--that's how we would communicate in the air, through the mics and the headphones. In the pic, though, we are still on the ground, as he had to get out of the plane to get a good shot. Plane is little and Kathy is not! Thanks goodness Jesse is skinny because it gets tight in there when the doors are shut!

Once he went through everything and I was comfortable with what we were going to do, he did the preflight check, taxied to the runway, and off we went. It's really somewhat difficult to see out the front as the nose of the plane has to be up, so you are just looking at the sky (if you aren't, then something is wrong). We did a quick turn to the left and were flying over Gainesville. It's easy to see why it's called "Tree City" when you see it from above. He let me take over and we headed to the football stadium area. When you fly, you have to concentrate on keeping the nose up and heading in the right direction, even when the wind is pushing you around. I would be doing fine for a bit, then I would go "no, no, no" as something would happen and I would have to pull back up again. No panic though. He took over while I took a pic from above.

Then I got the controls back, headed towards the lake and Jesse told me to start lowering the altitude a bit on the way there (about 500 feet), so when we got near the lake we could make a left and line up with the runway. I actually did that part pretty well. He took over for the landing of course, and then we were down. It seemed to have taken no time at all, but we were in the air over half an hour. As we taxied back to our spot, I certainly felt I had been adventurous and had gotten my money's worth. One happy flyer...

As we were walking back inside to sign some paperwork, Jesse said that I seemed to be the kind of person his grandma would hang out with. I laughed and asked her name. Turns out it's Madine. So yes, I know his grandma(s), and hang out with them. Too funny, it's really such a small world. Would I do it again? In a heartbeat! Would I take more lessons? If I could afford it, I probably would. This will have to do for now, but it will always be a great memory.