Freedom to Fly.

My world got shaken in my late twenties, in a good way, the day my friends bought me a surprise birthday present. They drove me to the North Gold Coast area, in Queensland Australia. And showed me this vintage aeroplane they called a Tiger Moth. It was a two-seater, with the piolt in the back seat, and I was getting put in the front seat. 

I was super excited, everyone knew I loved to fly. It was a small old vintage plane, from around the 1930's, it had like double wings, top and bottom, and a propeller on the front. Red and white in colour. So I put my googles on, so the wind would not get in my eyes. And then climbed onto the bottom wing, into the front seat, tightened my seat belt, and the pilot behind started the motor.

Off we go, feeling the wheels on the ground as we roll away, lifting up, higher and higher. It was exhilarating, my adrenalin was high. I was loving it, over the deep oceans of the East Coast, and the pilot talks to me through a vintage talking device. He asks if I am ready for the aerobatics, and I said definitely.

So he flys very high, then spirals down towards the ocean, I feel a little scared, but loving at the same time. Then he starts flying higher again, and we start the aerobatics. We turn upside down, I checked my seatbelt, I was in an open air seat. My eyes were wide, my heart was pounding, and the pilot asks if I'm okay, and do I want more. I was severely excited and freaked too. I yell out to do more.

But as we are upside-down, the motor cuts out, I then remember the pilot mentioning that will happen, because the gas tank needs to be the right way up to work. And it should start up once we turn back upright. So we are flying upside down, very frightening and exciting. I can see things differently from this angle. He spins the plane back up, and I do not hear the motor starting up again, as it should.

I panic, I start thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I hear the pilot trying to start the motor, over and over, fear sets in. I think of the movies I had seen to think of a plan, like Indiana Jones Adventure movies. Hundreds of thoughts rush through my mind. Like if we fall into the ocean, could I swim to shore, avoid sharks and drowning, this is the worst feeling, and I am stuck here.

But then, after a minute but seemed like hours, the motor splutters and starts reving up. My pounding heart starts to relax a little. My eyes that were stretched wide open, close for a second. Mr Pilot asks again, and I say I'm okay, give me more. So he starts rolling, spinning, diving, flying all over the place.

Yes, I was scared, but a good kind of scared. It was awesome, my atoms in all of my body had been shaken and woken up. I started to get used to it now. I didn't want to get off. I was enjoying it in an adrenaline type of way. I saw birds flying around the plane. The view was spectacular.

As we landed, a little bumpy which was fun, we came to a stop. I needed help climbing out and of the wing of the plane, as I was very dizzy after all that. It was the best thing I have ever done, I was alive, this flying feeling stuck with me for about a week. But I will never forget it, the feeling was freeing