Before School Came the Real Test

When I was 16 years old my father's friend invited me to go flying with him in his Cessna 150 - like the one pictured to the left.

I was quite involved in my Microsoft Flight Simulator at the time, again wondering how this cyber-airplane can remain in thin air inside a computer. I was gaining quite an interest in aviation then, and was excited at the opportunity to go flying. Like many people, I didn't realize at the time how small a Cessna 150 really is. Picture the interior of your average automobile cut in about half, and you've got the cockpit of a 150.

Needless to say, you can feel everything the heavens have to offer in the 150 like you felt the road in a cheap and dirty Horsey Horseless (look that up). I'll be honest with you, I don't remember much of that flight. I remember there was a rush, I remember that during take-off something wasn't working quite right, and Mr. Pilot had to turn what I thought was the ignition switch to the what I thought was the on-off, on-off positions a few times. I remember having a bird's-eye view of the city, and I think that's what stuck with me most.

Fast forward ten years to January 2010. My interest in aviation has peaked to levels that were starting to concern me, my girlfriend thought I had objectophilia, and I was on the brink of pursuing a career in aviation. I decided it was time to go up in a Cessna 150 again to see how I really felt about it. Would it be the same rush I felt as when I was 16, or would it be the rush of soiling my pants that I'd experience? It was the real test that every aspiring pilot needs to go through, to see if they even like flying.

I'm sure the pilot that took me up was thankful that it wasn't the latter rush. The flight was incredible. I got to fly the airplane for about twenty minutes. Up, down, all around. I got to do some steep turns, which are 45 degree angle turns. That's relatively steep turns. In fact, the load factor (or G-force as some know it), is 1.4x. That is, you feel 1.4 times as heavy as you would on the ground, which was a whole different rush within itself. All in all it was an eye-opening experience. I was hooked.

From there on I applied to ground school, of which you need to complete 45 hours as part of your Private Pilot License. I'll tell you a little bit about ground school in another post.

As a side note, if you have any interest at all in experiencing what it's like to fly in a small Cessna 150, every small airport usually has what's called an introduction flight. For around $85 (Canadian) you can feel what it's like to fly an airplane.