Come fly away with me..
For Christmas, my wife bought me a discovery flight package from Premiere Aviation.
My first thought was - we're in a recession, I'm thinking of ways to keep my business going and here is this teaser that will cost me thousands of dollars in the long run. I really didn't want to look at a gift that way, my wife was only trying to come up with something unique and special and she knew I always wanted to learn to fly. The gift certificate sat on my desk looking at me for 2 months before I did something about it. I made the call and setup an appointment.
I was paired up with flight instructor Brandon Reed and it didn't take long to realize this was one of those rare people who really enjoyed what they did for a living. Whenever I meet one of these rare people, their enthusiasm is infectious and it makes me more productive - at least for a short period of time. How many people do you know who actually likes going to work? On a side note, just to show how small the planet really is, notice Ed Murray on the same page. Ed was vice president at a company called Trillion Digital Communications where he hired me to do some Linux programming for them. Long story short, the company was eaten by it's "sister" company located out in Austin, Texas. It shouldn't have happened and a bunch of people, some of which I consider friends, lost their jobs.
Back to the original story. The discovery flight basically takes you up in a plane and lets you fly around for a bit. You can talk all day about flying, read all the articles, see all the pictures, but you don't know if you're going to like it until you actually do it. Very similar to swimming, how do you know you like to swim without getting in the water? Reading about swimming in a brochure is not going to give you the sensation of buoyancy. The aircraft assigned to me was a 2006 model Diamond DA-40 G-1000 with the glass cockpit.
We climb in, buckle up, start the preflight checklist, and Brandon talked about how you absolutely cannot stall this aircraft and how great it is to fly. However, when it came time to actually crank it up, it absolutely would not fire up. Apparently this particular model is subject to contact corrosion that will interfere with grounding system. So my first contact with a personal airplane was very much like my first contact with my car - I had to put it in the shop.
Nearby was our backup plane, a 2006 Cessna 172S G-1000 with the glass cockpit.
This plane is for the advanced students who want to be instrument rated licensed. I always considered myself an overachiever so switching to the more difficult plane was fine with me. However, my friend Ryan, had a good laugh as while my plane was new with a digital dash - his was old and half the indicators didn't work.
This plane did start and we proceeded to taxi on to the runway. The sensation of leaving the ground is very much like a commercial flight but much more amplified. You feel the air pressure change around the plane much like you feel the texture of the road via your tires. We performed a straight climb until we reached 1500 feet and then climbed once again to 3500 feet before doing any turns. Doing anything only requires the slightest of moves on the stick. Just like a slight move on a steering wheel while traveling at interstate speeds will perform a lane change, the slightest move on the stick will start a turn. Everything else is micro-moves to keep the plane in a straight line just like you must make constant corrections to keep your car in your lane on the interstate. My wife was in the back seat with the camera taking pictures the whole time. This is what Bessemer looks like at 3500 feet:
Some of my students should recognize the parking lot in the bottom center of this picture. Also displayed in the picture is one of my customer's real estate development park.
I had a blast.. More than a blast actually. Flying that plane around triggered one of those life altering moments. I had a silly grin on my face for hours after the fact and I really can't wait to go back up and do it all again. It really was one of the best days of my life and to top it off I was able to share it with my wife. Now my priorities are: How can I keep my business going? Oh yeah, how can I sneak in paying for a pilot license while doing that?
