Commitment!

Over the last two weeks, I've had a few lessons and have focused on flying the plane straight and level, doing turns, and on taxiing. I've learned about climbing and descending as well. To initiate a climb, you have to give the plane full power, which I am reluctant to do, it seems, because it's scary. I am also a bit nervous about descending because you have to pull the power back - also scary because you start going down, which is the point but it's still scary.

What frightens me is taking control, having control of so much power. It's such a commitment! I have never felt such a sense of responsibility (even though my instructor is right beside me). I have to develop the confidence to take the responsibility and to tell the plane what I want it to do.

There's nothing like take-off to make you feel the rush of power! I did my first one today. Leading up to this, I have learned that the plane requires a lot of right rudder pedal on take-off to compensate for all of the forces that want to turn it to the left. All ready for this then, I hammered in that right rudder when it was time to take off - except that it was right brake instead (rudder is the bottom of the pedal, brake is the top). So instead of roaring down the runway, we did a full donut. My instructor said that was a first for him. We lined up again. I advanced the throttle. Full power! Right rudder! Runway rushing by! Pull back! Up we went!

Climbing out over the lake

It's a commitment to fly a plane but take-off is the ultimate commitment. There is a short window where you can back out of it, but, for the most part, once that throttle goes in, you are all in! You have to be brave and sure and ready to dive into that commitment and everything that comes after it.

This is a great life lesson for me: If you're going to do anything transcendent, you have to go for it!

And so it begins....

My dad is a pilot and so I grew up around small planes. I had my first airplane ride in the winter of 1965, when I was two years old. Over the years, I spent hundreds of hours in the air with him. A few years ago, he sold his last plane without telling me and when I found out, I cried and cried. A huge part of my life was over.

My dad owned that last plane with a partner, who has since built himself a lovely little RV7. In June, he took me for a ride in it.

As it happened, we had climbed into that little plane in front of the hangar of a flight school. After the ride, I went inside to inquire about how much flying lessons would cost. About a month later, my dad's former airplane partner gave me an aviation headset, which my dad delivered to me, along with a fresh pilot's logbook that my dad had never used. The message seemed pretty clear at that point: I had to learn to fly. After years of being my dad's passenger, it was finally dawning on me that I could be the pilot!

So, last Wednesday, I walked into that flight school for my first ground school class and today, I logged my first flight as a student pilot. It was an out-of-body experience! Terrifying! I mean, I have been in a Cessna for many, many flights but I never had to fly it! Sure, I had taken the controls here and there but it was never my responsibility to try to do it right! My instructor did everything but once we were up, I had to take the controls and fly it straight and level. It was hard and stressful! But, truth be told, it was also wonderful and awesome and fun and I know I was right where I want to be.

I have embarked on something amazing, something that is going to change my life. I know it.