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| Flying High! | |||||||||||||||
| "That is 60 degrees!! i think should not be more than 30 degrees.. " said my instructor when i leaned my flight to its left making 60 degrees to the horizontal. And all it happened at the mind-blowing height of 2500 feet on my training flight on Cessna 152. | |||||||||||||||
| Yes, it was the most unforgettable moment of my life. I was a free bird in the sky wondering everywhere over London at the speed of my thoughts. And this is no imagination, no dream... I actually flew the airplane for 30 Minutes at Staple ford flying club, London on Sunday 20th May 2001 at 4:00 PM. | |||||||||||||||
| Seating in the aeroplane was a long cherished dream of mine. But I didn't ever dreamt that I'll fly an airplane! I thought it was just impossible and needs extensive (and expensive) training and hell lot of tests. But actually it is very simple here. Just book your flight time on the net and be present at the airport half an hour before your take off. Pay the fees to the authority and thats it! Sounds interesting, isn't it? | |||||||||||||||
| Mr Allen, my instructor first told me all about the emergency situations, conclusion was there is no escape!... Then he gave me information about the flight, sort of technical information. Then the actual flying instructions; like how to use the throttle (accelerator), Foot pedals and the control stick. Then the basics of operations such as pitch roll and yaw. These are basically the movements of the aircraft. Then he told me about the take-off and landing details. | |||||||||||||||
| With a bit fear and tons of enthusiasm, I got into my plane and tied-up the seat belts. The control panel was looking very complex (dirty would be appropriate!). Then we put the headphones. Now i was communicating with the instructor through microphone only. I found it very difficult to understand their accent in that noisy situation. I was fully concentrating to understand what he was saying, but then some message would come from the radio control station and i could not get his instructions. So I started ignoring him and flying on my own. It was wonderful to look London city from the sky! I flew over the Main city and the view was much better than what we see from our regular flights on the fast track. The sky was clear and it was fortunately sunny day. | |||||||||||||||
| "Its time to land ", said my instructor as the time was over by then. So I descended my flight and waited for the green signal from the radio control room. Soon I got my Landing signal and the parking number. And I started descending to the runway. It was thrill to see the ground coming closer and i am unable to express my feelings that I had when I actually landed the flight safely. It was time to say bye to sky. | |||||||||||||||
| "Good job! " said my instructor! | |||||||||||||||
| Regards, | |||||||||||||||
| Rahul | |||||||||||||||
| (Wednesday 23rd May 2001/London) | |||||||||||||||
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