Flying an Airplane

Posted by Marci on Aug 16, 2011 in | 2 comments

Most of my life I’ve felt grounded by gravity. As a child, I would climb trees just to be off the ground, and I wanted to fly – to see the world from a bird’s eye view. I longed to know what it felt like to float on the wind currents. Maybe this is the reason that many of my dreams include flying: skydiving, hang gliding, figure skating (when I glide across the ice it feels like flying), and flying an airplane.

If I was going to fly a plane it had to be in a spectacular way. This entire journey is about settling for nothing less than magnificence in life, so I decided to take my first flying lesson in San Francisco out at Hayward airport. I figured if I didn’t enjoy flying a plane at least I would get a scenic view of the bay.

I never expected to be nervous, but as my instructor did the safety check on the tiny airplane I felt my heart racing. Was this tiny plane really meant to fly? How bumpy was this ride going to be? And did I really want to take control of an airplane? What if I did everything wrong?

Luckily my instructor Jason Pachall had more confidence in his ability than I had in mine. He put me at ease, helped me taxi the plane and in moments I was doing my own take-off. As we climbed altitude I could see San Franciso off in the distance. The fog was rolling in and as we made our way around the city, the tall buildings and the Golden Gate Bridge disappeared under white puffy clouds.

As we flew, Jason taught me how to control my speed with the angle of the plane’s nose. I quickly realized that the plane could almost fly itself once the flaps were set. With the gentle touch of my fingertips I could guide the plane. If I gave too much force then I had to correct with more force and it became a battle of sorts. Hmmm, somewhere there’s a life lesson in that statement.

We flew over Sausalito and the fun began. Jason let me bank the plane in a sharp turn. As I felt the wing tip down on one side and the plane turn I realized how much fun it would be to try a barrel spin – but those aren’t allowed on your initial flight. Then Jason taught me how to do a 360 degree turn and once again I was in love with controlling the little plane.

Flying an airplane was almost meditative. I could see the bay below, listen to the hum of the propeller, and for just a little while I could be above the world.

Getting my pilot’s license isn’t a high priority right now with everything else I’m going after, but I do see pilot training in my future.

To try a flight you can contact my instructor at jason.pachall@gmail.com