Solomon has written up his first flight experience. It's a pretty good description of what an introductory flight is like. I include it verbatim:
EXACTLY 6 months ago, July 10 2008, I met an acquaintance of mine, Terry, who is a mysteriously cool pilot. There were rumors going around that if you got on Terry's good side enough, he might take you flying. Well, that was all I needed to hear. That evening, at a circus performance, in a small building in the rural area of Pahoa, Hawaii, sat the man himself. He had been elusive to the small band of over-eager teenagers who have been trying to get airplane rides for some time now. Finally my chance to get on his “good” side was here! I approached with caution, hoping he wouldn’t get a whiff of a teenager approaching, and disappear in a puff of blue smoke. But he stayed firmly attached to his seat, to my great satisfaction. I extended a slightly clammy palm in greeting. He responded more openly than my imagination had expected. “Hey!” What a great start! “I uh, heard you give airplane rides, and uh, I was wondering…” “Sure, son! In fact, I am a flight instructor, and I own a plane, so since we are neighbors, I'll give you a discount. Here, take my card!” Wow! I sure hit the jackpot! “Wow, mister, thank you!” The words then broke through the silence, “so tell me…” and a rather large stream of questions filled a newly-found friend's ear, about airplanes. Half an hour later, I once again thanked Terry the instructor and new friend, and began to devise a plan to break the news of my new obsession to my parents, who have so far heard very little of my secret desire to fly.
When I got home, I broke the news rather abruptly to my parents, “I wanna fly and be a professional pilot, and this guy I met is going to give me lessons and take me flying next week! Isn’t that cool?” Of course silence ensued. Then, after a long, deep pause, my father broke the deafening silence with, “What?” I quickly retorted, “please dad, I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and this is my opportunity, it's so cool, and I’ll pay for it all by myself! It's only $5000 or so!” Please, dad, please, please? He gave one of those looks to mom, like, “what a son you bore me,” and some more silence occurred. Then, father finally found his speech, and came to the conclusion, “no way son! Are you crazy? 5000 dollars? Flying with someone I don’t know? Airplanes are so dangerous, and uh, no!”
Well, there it was. Dad's decree. But decrees were meant to be broken, and dads were meant to be annoyed into letting the kids do what they want. So, first thing in the morning, Sidewinders, Fire! Here comes the reformation! “And God hath wrought His vengeance upon the land, and for sixty days, and sixty nights…” By mid morning, dad was breaking down, I could tell. Rational thinking, of course, is the thing to do, before coming up with rash decisions which might ruin my life forever. Pretty good argument, right? Well, my parents thought so too, so I promised I would research all the facts about aviation, and talk about it with Terry more before making plans. After all, I might not like to fly. Okay, reasonable enough. So I arranged a talk with Terry, more in depth, about the whole prospect.
After coming to the conclusion that I still wanted to fly, more nagging with my parents earned me a ‘just one time, to see if you like it’ flight, and next Thursday, I found myself in the car with my parents, speeding at a mile a minute towards my first experience aloft!
My heart gave a sudden leap when I saw the plane for the first time. It was sitting there, with its freshly waxed paint finish of red and sparkling, spotless white, shooting the brilliant sun’s glare through the cool morning air. She had painted on her side N41282 in big, bold black lettering. Its wings were cold to the touch, and very firm. As I walked around it, touching it, I marveled in how well it was built. Its clean lines were made for speed. This was my first time touching a really cool plane like this. I suddenly became aware of Terry, who was standing to one side with a funny look on his face, with his hands clasped in front of him. He asked me if I was done yet, in a voice like you ask a kid in a petting zoo. I nodded. “Now let's see inside!” he said in a gleeful voice. We both clambered into the cockpit, and I was immediately taken up with staring at all the really cool dials. There seemed like millions of them (later I learned there were only ten). He said, “while you are here, I'll preflight the airplane. Enjoy!” OK! For the next 15 minutes, I permanently burned all the dials into my mind. To this day, I see that picture from that moment, clear as it really is!
The clouds were steadily moving out of the area as the morning progressed, and at the point I noticed them, they were beautiful, puffy little clouds, and there were great big sunray fingers coming from behind a large, plump cloud.
I had read a large book about aviation several days before, in preparation for this epic flight so I knew some terms, to the surprise of Terry, who didn’t know about the book. “Should we check the ATIS?” I said over the intercom. Terry quickly responded, “did you ever get instruction before?” “No, why?” Terry just waved his hand.
The engine started with a low roar, and then quieted down a little. The door, which was open a bit to keep it cool in the cockpit, shut with a shudder after the powerful wind the prop made started swirling around the plane. Sshhhk! And the radio was on. Suddenly, all the dials I was so fascinated with meant something! Terry, who was acting very professional by now, started explaining all of them, showing proper operation zones for each. “Here is where the engine RPM is read, and here, the needle is in the green for the oil pressure. Fuel, left tank, right tank…” He switched on a few more things, and then when the whole cockpit was glowing and blinking, and needles were indicating, he made the radio call. Terry said, “Hilo tower, [theatrical pause] warrior 41282, at Air Service Hawaii, taxi for takeoff with Hotel.” Skshhh Bweep. “Skshhh, Cherokee 41282, Hilo tower, Squawk 0535, taxi to runway 8 via Charlie and Alpha.” Then, with fire speed talk, Terry read back the instructions with ease, and radio silence confirmed read back correct. As we started moving, as per instructions, he glanced over at me, expecting to see me with a blank, awed expression, but seeing none, he was unsatisfied. He again asked me whether I have had any training, and again I replied “never ever!” Little did he know I had just finished reading the ’radio communications’ section in the book several hours earlier that morning.
As the day progressed further the clouds had cleared, so as we moved out into the runway in preparation for takeoff, we were headed into spotlessly deep blue sky. What beautiful flying weather! Terry pointed to a dial I should watch. And the pointer moved quickly past 30, 40, 50, 60, and even quicker through 70, and then all of a sudden I felt a peculiar sensation. I looked out, and confirmed the amazing fact that we were flying! The feeling of disconnecting yourself from the binds and constraints of the world of the land, and jumping into the world of the bird, the eagle, the free expanse of sky and space, where you can go anywhere and do anything, is one of the most incredible and rewarding experiences anyone can have.
“Well Solomon,” Terry said, “your flight controls. Take us over to the right there.” He motioned for me to take the yoke. As I squeezed onto the handles with my mighty strangle grip, two handed, and carefully began to move it to the right, it seemed we had encountered some light turbulence. But the plane began to follow, so I thought nothing of it. I was flying! I looked over to Terry's wheel, and he didn't have his hands on it. I truly was flying! The ride continued to be a bit bumpy, but I thought it was normal. Then with an extra large jerk, the turbulence got to be a bit much. I opened my mouth to ask Terry about it, when he spoke first.
“Excellent, Solomon very smooth. But you don’t have to be so careful with the control like that. Here, let me show you something.” Oh boy, I thought, famous last words, but contrary to my paranoid fantasies, as he took the controls from me, the plane didn’t start scary spirals with the engine screaming out of control but instead instantly smoothed out, and the moderate turbulence ceased! “How did you do that?” I looked over in awe at Terry. He met my gaze, and his face slowly turned into an impish smirk. He saw the awe I transmitted. This is what he was wanting. He replied, “notice the thumb.” With his free hand, he pointed carelessly at his magical thumb, which was resting on the yoke, and was flying the plane all by itself! “Be gentle on the controls, and they will be gentle back. Of course, don’t be scared of them either.” And to punctuate his point, he quickly pulled, pushed, and turned from side to side the wheel, causing the plane to nearly invert, “and don't strangle the handles, but let them breathe.” I copied his magical thumb trick, and believe it or not, it worked! There was no more turbulence, and the airplane approached the smooth flying that it did with Terry!
Fifty minutes more of flying exciting turns, climbs, descents, and just getting a feel for the plane, and we were on a 2 mile right base for runway 3, at 500 feet, and descending. Tower called, and said, “Cherokee 41282, Hilo tower, wind 170 at 7, cleared to land, runway 3.” Terry was about to respond, but I said, “uh uh! I’ll take this please!” Mimicking his earlier radio responses, I said, “cleared to land, runway 3, 41282.” I looked over to Terry for his nod of approval, and he nodded. Good! I’m getting the hang of it!
I was thoroughly surprised when we were on final for the landing, at 300 feet high, when Terry let go of the controls! I think he was testing my coolness under fire, because he looked over to me, with an expression like he didn’t know what to do. I almost started freaking out, but I instinctively grabbed the controls. Terry apparently approved of my split second thinking, because he instantly lost the perplexed look, and began to verbally guide me in for the landing. “Okay, good! I would cut power now, since we’re a bit high and fast. No, no! Don’t pull up. Keep the nose down. Always keep the nose down.” I became somewhat worried for his sanity when he said, “ok now fly the plane into the ground.” But when he guided me in for the flare, and told me to gently pull up, anxiety melded into elation when we were skimming the ground at 70 miles an hour, and one wheel gently touched, followed closely by another, followed by the nose wheel several seconds after. It was quite a first landing!
We taxied off the runway, via Charlie, to the parking spot, and as the plane swung around into position for parking, Terry flipped everything off, then shut down the engine. We got out. He asked me, “howdya like it?” I responded with great excitement “I loved it so much!” Terry then told me about how there is a flying “high,” which I will be intoxicated with for several days, and it will act like caffeine. As he was explaining this phenomenon to me, I slowly became aware of the effect in myself. My palms were communicating a sense of cool moistness to the air, yet they were not moist! I felt particularly clear headed, energized, and alert. Except for a small cut on my toe, I felt the best I could remember.
My chain of thoughts were broken by my cell phone ringing. I had been standing on the side of the plane, as Terry was tying the plane down, I was staring at my palms, and enjoying this new sense. I answered the phone, and it was my dad, who was on his way over to the airport to pick me up. “So, son. How was the flight, son? Did you really enjoy it as much as you had hoped you would?” “Absolutely, dad, and it was so cool! We flew all over with clouds nearby, and we were going 150 miles an hour, and I flew the whole time!” “Well, that sounds like fun. Tell me, son, do you still want to get your license, and go through all it takes to become a pilot?” It didn’t take me long to respond to that! I yelled YES so loud, dad said, “are you okay, Solomon? What happened?” I said, “I just made up my mind to continue one of the most awesome things I have ever done!” “Okay, Solomon, if you like it that much, then we're behind you. I'm glad you’re having fun. We'll be there in fifteen minutes.” As I hung up, my heart jumped up and down in excitement.
As I ran over to Terry to tell him the good news, I thought of the bright, shiny wings I would wear as an FAA certified Private Pilot. But a lot was to be learned between now and then, and I needed to make 5000 dollars. I'm up to the challenge, I thought, BRING IT ON!