First Flight

Well, just got back from going flying. Plane was a little Gazelle. Much
smaller than I thought once I got up close.barely enough room inide for 2
people, but once strapped in, and settled, plenty really. Space in the back
for up to 10kg of stuff. Total fuel capacity was 20 litres in each wing.
Sky was fairly overcast, but no rain. Cloud base was 2500 feet.
Never having been in such a small craft before, (smallest ever for me was an
MD80 from Paris to Copenhagen!), I was concerned I would either be scared of
the height with such little to hold me in, or that I would feel sick. As we
taxiied and took off, I was surprised that I felt absolutely no fear at all.
We flew round the training area and then did some circling over the house
where the wife and kids were waiting whilst we were up. My pilot (a First
Officer for Cathay Pacific) got me handling the controls a lot of the time!
He did the pedals, and I did the rest. Great stuff. Then we did a bit more
general flying around the training area, followed by a couple more circles
over the house. The second lot of circles were what got me. I got dizzy, and
started to feel sick!
We got up to 2500feet, which was just at the bottom of the clouds.
Next he asked if I wanted to do some touch and go's. "Sure!" I said.
He then said "I'll do the first one to se what the surface winds are doing,
and you can do the next one!"
"Holy ****!" I thought to myself.
He does one, and around we go again. He gets me to turn onto the crosswind,
then downwind, then base, and finally onto final. I brought it around quite
nicely, but then started over correcting as we got closer to the threshold.
I also got a little low, so he put the power back on, and we went around
again. The next time round, he did it again, and whilst we were on finals,
there was one aircraft that had just done his touch and go, then a second
a/c that was just touching down and was about to put the power back on, when
he lost all power, and was forced to make a decision to abort the take off,
and landed on the brakes and made a sharp right hand turn. He flipped the
little Jabiru straight up onto it's nose, then hard back down on it's
wheels, smacking the tail on the ground. We were about to do the touch part
of our touch and go at the time, and had to abort at the last minute as a
result! We saw the pilot get out of the craft as we flew over, so he was
unhurt. By the time we completed the next circuit, he had pushed his plane
off the runway, and had a crowd of helpers to inspect the damage. We did our
touch and go, (my pilot did it, not me), and did one more quick jaunt around
the training area, before landing. was an excellent experience, and has
confirmed my desire to begin flight training.
The Jabiru that crashed had a badly damaged propellor, a crinkled wing,
damaged nose wheel, and I'd imagine, structural damage to the tail section.
The engine appeared to be pushed a few inches to one side too. The owner
guessed at around AUS$15,000 repair bill.

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Crash Lander

Crash Lander wrote:

was an excellent experience, and has
confirmed my desire to begin flight training.

Wow, that is one narrow aircraft. You must have been rubbin' shoulders
with the instructor the entire flight. Congrats on your first lesson!
--
Peter

"Peter R." wrote in message
...
Crash Lander wrote:

was an excellent experience, and has
confirmed my desire to begin flight training.

Wow, that is one narrow aircraft. You must have been rubbin' shoulders
with the instructor the entire flight. Congrats on your first lesson!
--
Peter

Hi Peter. Wasn't a lesson as such, rather a flight with a guy I know. He's
not a flight instructor (anymore, but used to be!)
There doesn't look like there's much room inside, but I'm five foot eleven
and a bit, and I had no trouble.
My first proper lesson will be in about a month I reakon.
Crash Lander

Crash Lander wrote:

Hi Peter. Wasn't a lesson as such, rather a flight with a guy I know. He's
not a flight instructor (anymore, but used to be!)

Oh, sorry 'bout that. Somewhere along the way I thought it was a lesson.
Congrats on the flight anyhow and start those lessons!

--
Peter