Yesterday, I had the opportunity to go hands-on flying a small powered plane because I was in C.A.P which is pretty cool. It was my first flight as well. Jumping right in, yesterday, I arrived at my town's local airport at around one o' clock ready in my uniform and all. Only me and my so-called friend. Santori (female) showed up (other guy couldn't make it however). We prepared the plane for take-off, blah blah blah, went over the main parts of a plane and everything. The pilot was actually one of the Majors from our squadron so I felt pretty keen and safe with this guy. Turns out I forgot my sunglasses and the sun was really shining that day and I missed the opportunity to take some high-quality pictures for you guys to see. Apparently, this is a stock photo of the plane I flew in
http://www.capmembers.com/media/cms/aircraft_management_image_327E0D911A9DA.jpg.
Santori, who rolled along came absolutely prepared. Decked out camera and sunglasses ready to roll while I looked like a homeless guy who apparently came to just tag along. I got the opportunity to fly first since the other girl already had her first flight. I live near Lansing in Illinois so our first stop was to fly over Cedar Lake for my first lesson. My pilot went over this; "if you're
not liking it,
just tell me". Essentially, he said that because their goal was to make sure we're having fun. Couldn't care less, I need to impress the ladies. Got in on the co-pilot's seat (I still got to control the plane), Santoril got in the back, put on my headset, and we were ready. Plane started to move. 5 minutes later we were on the other side of the runway about to takeoff. Plane bumped and the wheels lifted off.
That's when I started to
REALLY regret this. Plane shot up and I was terrified, started to sweat bad. I didn't show my nerviness publicly though. The bad part is when we started to cross over into what I like to call "turbulence screws you area". The plane started to shake badly, I felt nauseous every 3 seconds when the plane started to bump and wiggle. Fortunately, we made it out of there and into the skies. I looked down and man, was the view spectacular. Saw my school, the town's water tower, and overall miles of barren land. The cars driving by looked like ants. It was awesome. Pilot went over the controls with me: going right, going left, going up, and going down. Trust me, the controls are
EXTREMELY sensitive. All you needed to do to turn was to do a gentle push on the yoke. Wearing the headset made me look awesome. There were a couple of radiocalls here and there from our proximity. Chatting on the radio was awesome.
Flew near Cedar Lake and it was possibly the biggest lake I've ever seen near my town. Heck, it was pretty large, I saw plenty of boats on there. It was shaped like an 8. The pilot told us that in the last few weeks when the lake was frozen, they had dirt-bike races on the lake which gave us a chuckle. Flew over to Gary, IN. Pilot took over the controls to land. That's when he started to "snake" which made me had a headache. We landed in the airport after being accepted by an operator from the control tower. Switched seats so Santori could take her lesson (one hour). We flew all the way to Michigan City (over Lake Michigan) which was awesome. Got a glimpse of Chicago when we were flying. The biggest problems was when we were returning. The area I lived in, on the coast of Lake Michigan, it's a pretty industrial place (lots of factories). I now forever hate the backseats of small aircraft. Apparently, I got
MORE sick in the back than I did in the
FRONT of the plane. Santori turned the plane 180° so we could head back. However, it wasn't just a GENTLE turn, it was a HARD turn. Pilot and Santori thought it was fun, but for me, it wasn't AT ALL. I got so nauseous, I thought I was going to blow, so I quickly looked at the floor which seemingly made it
WORSE. Pilot told me to quickly look outside since it's somehow better than looking inside. Gee, he was correct.
About 30 minutes later, we made it back to our town's airport. We were in the air for a good 2 hours. I was SO relieved to be on the ground because I thought I was going to vomit on the plane after Santori's bull**** which made me sick for the remainder of the day. Hopped out of the plane. Our female major went over to take pictures. Got my certificate for completing my first flight (it was a pretty niche certificate) and we took pictures. Mom picked me up afterwards and I basically just told my family about the whole experience. Though, it wasn't okay for me. I had a BAD headache for the rest of the day. Which fortunately, didn't end badly.
tl:dr
Had a fear of heights, flew in plane, tried to impress girl, got nauseous, ended up being sick for the rest of the day.
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