This past weekend I was given the opportunity (thanks to a co-worker) to go flying in a 1977 Cessna 182. Now, I’ve flown in a small plane before, but I was about 14-years-old at the time. I don’t remember the model, but my family and I called it the “Red Baron” due to its color. It was a bright red plane my uncle owned with some of his friends. We took off from the Flying Cloud airport in Minnesota to embark on an aerial tour of the Twin Cities.
When I was younger I absolutely loved flying; the best part of each family vacation was getting to travel by plane. I always demanded the window seat because I loved watching the earth get smaller as we took off and becoming life-size again as we landed. However, until this past weekend, I hadn’t been in an airplane in nearly a decade. Needless to say, I was a little nervous.
I got to sit in the co-pilot seat so I had a very good view of everything the pilot, Ken, was doing, very little of which made any sense to me. Ken had the good grace to walk me through the takeoff process and what all of the instruments did, though. As we began to takeoff and the plane roared down the runway, I felt a little on edge; even though I have a basic understanding the physics behind flight, I’m still amazed that something that weighs more than a bird can sustain itself in the air.
While watching the runway and the earth slowly fall away, I began to remember that feeling I loved so much when I was little. My friend in the back seat commented over the headsets that he felt like a little kid again. The pilot responded, “I feel like that every time I fly.” I felt like a little kid again too; my fear completely abated and I enjoyed watching the plane make turns on autopilot. The entire experience made me feel giddy, and on top of that, I learned a few things about how to actually fly a plane (not that I’m ready to fly one myself, mind you, I didn’t learn that much).
After we landed we helped the pilot put his plane in the hanger and I shook his hand, thanking him. Not only did Ken teach me quite a lot, but I also had the chance to remember how it felt to fly, how freeing and beautiful it is to see the world from that high up, and the simple childlike joy that comes from doing something you don’t get to do every day.
– Leah Harrower, JETPUBS Inc.