A couple of months ago I took the plunge. Having found a local flying school based at Shoreham Airport I did some research on YouTube of people's experiences with the different aircraft they had, to see which looked easiest to fly. I fancied a go in their Cessna 152 as it had a high-wing so would give good visibility if we flew over where I live, as I hoped we would do.
Here's a YouTube video of someone doing their first solo in a Cessna 152 to give you a sense of the aircraft on the ground and in flight...
The Cessna 152 is a 2-seater aircraft. It has a high-wing, simple/clear controls, and is probably one of the smallest and safest planes you can fly. Here's how it looks from the outside and in the cockpit...
I booked a 1-hour experience flight for a July Saturday afternoon. The weather was warm, sunny, and a gentle breeze with a few clouds at 3,800 ft - see METAR data below.
Here's a chart of the airfield if you are interested in seeing all the technical detail...
My Flying Instructor (FI for short) met me in the flying school reception in the beautiful Art Deco-style terminal, and walked me out to our aircraft which was on the Apron. I sat in the left-hand ("captain's") seat and the FI sat in the right hand seat. This aircraft has a very narrow cabin so we were very close to each other.
I wanted to take a video of the experience, so took along a new GoPro with window mount. However as there was already a GoPro mount on the windscreen I opted to use that instead. That turned out to be a big mistake. Firstly a GoPro on the windscreen shows nothing of you flying, just the view outside. Secondly the existing mount positioned my camera on its side. As I hadn't used the camera before I didn't know. Doh!
The FI started the engine and did pre-flight checks, checked the ATIS (airfield information such as which runways are in use), contacted the tower, and got permission to taxi via taxiway Kilo to hold short of Runway 20. In the holding area he did a run-up test where engine speed is increased with the brakes on to ensure temperatures and pressures look good (see video of lady doing solo above at around 4:50 for her run-up), and that both magentos (which generate electricity for engine ignition) were working properly.
After watching a couple of aircraft land in front of us it was time for us to depart with the FI in control of the aircraft. The takeoff roll was smooth and soon we were airborne, turning left quite quickly to head NE towards the beautiful south downs. I asked him if we could fly over the village of Plumpton where I live which is situated just north of the downs between Burgess Hill and Lewes. After a few minutes of flight we reached 2,000 ft and the FI leveled off the aircraft. He gave me control and from that time I pretty much had control of the aircraft until we got back near to Shoreham to land.
On the way over the downs the FI asked me to gently try each of the controls to roll, pitch and yaw the aircraft. I can't say I was relaxed. The warm air and hilly downs made for a very choppy flight. I was quite scared to be honest, my palms were wet and I was gripping the controls far too tightly. It felt like we were hanging by a thread and could drop at any moment. Essentially the fear of heights I mentioned earlier was unnerving me.
Nevertheless, I flew over to Plumpton, which was easy to spot due to our prominent racecourse. After flying a loop around the village the FI asked me to head over to Lewes, which was easy to spot given its location in the River Ouse valley. From there he asked me to fly out to sea over Newhaven Harbour, which was again a simple navigation task because the River Ouse flows from Lewes to join the sea at Newhaven.
Out over the sea the FI took control and showed me what happens if you take your hands off some of the controls and do a few maneuvers to see what the effect was on aircraft attitude. The most scary of these was using the rudder with hands off the flying controls. The aircraft yawed but also started to roll and drop the nose, so we were soon on a shallow but increasing spinning dive. He brought the aircraft back under control (I think the corrective action was push stick forward, apply opposite rudder) and once we were back at 2,000 ft he gave control back to me. I'm glad we did these maneuvers as it gave me more confidence in the control a pilot has over an aircraft, but they did nothing for my nerves!
Here's a quick clip of the "dive" maneuver. Sorry the camera is on it's side - won't make that mistake again!
The FI asked me if I wanted to fly along the coast back to Shoreham or back inland. Due to the warmth of the day there was quite a haze over the sea, to the point where it was hard to see a definite horizon. Instead the sky seemed to merge with the sea. Can you see that from the video above? Given my lack of confidence in a good horizon, and still feeling quite uneasy I said I wanted to fly back over land, even though I knew it would be more bumpy. I flew back over Newhaven, Lewes, Plumpton, Ditchling, across the A27 and passed control back to the FI.
Whilst over Plumpton my FI stuck his elbow out of the aircraft side window. This cause the aircraft to yaw due to the extra drag. He asked me to do the same thing. After making very sure that I was undoing the window latch not the door latch (!) I did as he suggested. The aircraft flew more straight but I was quite scared of the extra noise and buffeting. After a minute or two he asked me to close the window and I just couldn't - flying with my left hand whilst reaching across and fumbling with the window catch with my right hand just didn't work. You can see the size of the window and the location of the fastening catch in the lady's first solo video at the top of the blog. I asked the FI to take control, sorted the catch, and took control again. I think this was an exercise to try to help me relax and get over my fear but it didn't work :(
As we neared Shoreham the FI checked the Shoreham ATIS again to see which runway was now active and get latest barometric pressure, asked to enter the traffic pattern, and did a really lovely landing on Runway 20. We taxied back across the grass and parked outside the terminal building.
A few closing points...
- The flying school and my FI seem really good. I'm very pleased that I chose to fly at Shoreham and with them. I had full confidence in my FI all the time, and he was very warm and friendly. He tried to help me get over my nerves but it just didn't work.
- I didn't have a good feeling about the Cessna 152. Maybe it was the warm weather and buffeting air, maybe just first-flight nerves. It just felt like some of the more scary roller-coasters I have been on (such as Stealth at Thorpe Park) but without the reassuring roller-coaster tracks.
- I realised that if I was really going to do more flying I had to conquer my fear, and that meant booking another flight and perhaps trying a different aircraft. I'm so glad I did this - see my next blog.
Here's the chart of our flight...
Weather...
- METAR EGKA 261450Z 22009KT 9999 FEW038 25/19 Q1015
- At 14:50 GMT on 26th (July) wind 220 degrees at 9 kt (good for Runway 20) visibility 10+ km with a few clouds at 3,800 ft. Temp 25 degrees, dew point 19 degrees. Barometric pressure 1015 hPa.
Blood sugar readings...
> 2 hours before flight: 6.2
< 30 mins before flight: 6.1
Landing: I didn't test before landing as I wasn't doing the flying for that part of the flight
Flying hours...
This flight: 1h 0m
Accumulated: 1h 0m
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