Hello all,
I just want to share in my excitement of taking my first trial flight. Twas a birthday present to myself and Oh how I enjoyed it!
I have been up in various types over the years, but I have only ever had very minimal input on the controls. That all changed on the 28th of July, my birthday.
My instructor was a young Spaniard named David and a very nice bloke he was too. We did 20 minutes of familiarization before the prop was fired into action.
The
Piper Archer Cherokee was steered to the runway by way of the rudder pedals and yes, by me! Parked at the end of the runway, hand brake on, throttle cranked to 2500RPM I figure, well, this is where he takes over.... nothing like it! He said, Handbrake off, look for 75 to 80 knots then gently pull back on the yoke.... Tearing down the runway, adrenaline pumping, senses maxed out, we reach the 75 knots the wee plane feels light on the controls and it is then that he tells me to "pull back!".... and pull back I did! Ever so gently and with the craft yawing ever so slightly to the left! Bump, bump....Weeeeeeee! We're airborne and I'm in (I used the term loosely) CONTROL!!!! We steadily climb @ around 80 knots. Small input to the stick and rudder were used to keep the horizon horizontal. Up we sailed to the permitted altitude of 2500 feet. David trimmed the controls, asked me where I reside, Enfield I replied and he said, "well, Enfield is over there, go fly it!" So off we went, Enfield bound. The little plane bumped along on unseen air pockets, but before you could say HELP!!!! We were over Enfield. Try as I might do you think I could find my neighborhood from high up? Not a chance. I think I was so wrapped up in flying the thing that everything else just became a blur. With a circuit of Enfield complete, David points to the South West and to a large body of water and said "head back over there, back to base." Which I did. 5 miles out and my turn at the controls comes to an end. David takes over for the final descent, approach and landing and all three were carried out with aplomb. The last 1000 feet felt like I was riding an express elevator... It felt like pure magic. Love it!!
Will I be going up again? You try and stop me!!!!
Von Biggles
