A deal came across on Groupon several months ago for an introductory flight lesson. I tried (pretty hard, I think) to talk myself out of buying one, but I couldn't do it. Learning to fly is something I've wanted to do for a long, long time. How could I possibly turn down a great deal to do something like that?!
The flight was from Talkeetna Airport, so I had decided when I bought the Groupon that I'd like to do the lesson during the winter since I'd already seen that area from the air in the summer and fall. I almost let the Groupon expire (oops!!), but thankfully I caught it in time and I had a day I could fit it in. The weather was just perfect... clear blue skies and almost no wind. Not to mention 0 degrees F in the middle of the day. :) It could have been much colder!
What I expected from this experience was this: I'd be sitting next to the instructor and he'd do most of the flying while talking to me about what he's doing along the way. Perhaps he'd let me try a couple things during the lesson before taking the controls back. I was pretty excited for this scenario because I love flying, seeing the lay of the land from the air, and learning about all things related to flying. This scenario would make me a very happy person!
Well, this isn't exactly how it went. At all. My first clue that maybe I didn't completely understand what this would be was when I was in the office of the company waiting for the previous lesson to end. I was talking to the office manager there, saying sarcastically how terrible it was to have to look at Denali the whole drive to Talkeetna. She agreed and talked about how great it is to see it while flying, and then she told me that if I want to take any pictures while I'm up there I can ask the instructor to take the controls for a moment while I grab a couple shots. I honestly didn't think much about what she said at the time though!
So the previous student and the instructor return, and then the instructor starts asking me about my experience with small planes, flying, etc. We walked out to the plane and the first thing I notice is that it's not side-by-side seating... it's front and back! Still, I figured I'd be in the back seat. The instructor starts going over the safety briefing and showing me all the equipment on the dashboard and stuff. Then he says, "I need you to at least know what's what here because I will not be able to reach them from the back seat. If I tell you to do something, you'll know what I'm talking about." Uh... what?!
And with that, I got settled in the front seat (trying not to get anymore nervous than I already was) and we went through the checks, I started the engine, and we started taxiing to the runway. Not we... I. We had to wait for a plane that had just landed to get off the runway before we could take off, but once he moved, I was instructed to gently give it some gas and take off. Ha... suddenly, I was flying! We practiced keeping the plane level, turning left and right, going up and down, and "simple" things like that. It was gorgeous flying around the Susitna Valley!
In the end, the amount of flying I did was the inverse of what I expected. I did at least 90% of the flying, with the instructor just briefly taking the controls to show me a couple things. I even got to land the plane (after the instructor got us lined up) and taxied back to our parking spot! Crazy crazy day compared to what I was expecting. I got a student pilot log book with my hour of flying time and take off/landing logged, and then I was on my way back home.
I was able to take a couple quick photos while we were "coming in low over the river" on our way back to the Talkeetna Airport (the instructor was clearly in control at this point, never fear!), and this one below is my favorite one despite (because of?) its askew angle. You can see the (mostly frozen) Susitna River that we're flying over as well as Denali in the upper left corner of the photo. This photo is taken at about 3pm... just before sunset in early December up here. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day and a more rewarding experience! The instructor had a great sense of how much leeway to give the student before either saying something helpful or taking over. Too bad I don't live closer to this airport so I could take more lessons from him!
The plane I just flew... I think I'm still a bit in disbelief!
'Til next time...
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