How I Learned To Fly A Plane In One Easy Lesson

To be honest, it really isn't that difficult to fly a plane. In fact as a very good friend of mine once told me, as long as you hit your take off speed and pull back on the joy stick, it will fly. It wants to fly, that is what it has been designed and built to do.

On the day of my first and only lesson I turned up at Manchester International Airport on one of its busiest days. In a small hangar near the perimeter fence I met my teacher, a guy called David. We spent ten minutes walking round the small Cessna checking nothing was missing or broken and before I knew it I was climbing aboard. David immediately told me to belt up, put the headphones on and do whatever he told me to do.

"Ok, so bring the revs up....that's it....now follow that taxi-way over there on the right."

I could hardly believe that already he was letting me operate the controls. In no more than a minute we reached the end of the runway and David told me to stop.

It seemed like no sooner had we come to a stop that we were given clearance to take off. "Chop chop." crackled the ATC voice in my ears. In other words "Get a bloody move on before something big weighing 300 tons appears behind you."

The next thing I know, having brought the engine up to speed, we are hurtling down the runway at a hell of a lick. "Pull back on the joystick when I tell you to." said David confidently. A matter of seconds later I heard David call out "Ok, pull back on the stick now." I did as I was told and blow me, up she came, we were off.

As we were gaining altitude David started to point out well known things and places on the ground. "Right, that down there is the M6 Motorway, let's follow that awhile until we are well clear of the area around the airport.

The next thing I hear is David asking me where I live and I tell him. He asks me if I know the Manchester area well enough to head in the direction of my home town, which I did, and we do a right turn to head to the south of the city.

For the best part of about forty five minutes we fly around having the time of my life before heading back to the airport. It's amazing how quickly you can get around an area when you travel as the crow flies with no traffic or speed restrictions to worry about.

In very little time David told me to hand control over to him due to the fact that landing is quite a bit more complicated than getting off the ground and flying around. One of the biggest problems encountered during landing is crosswinds, they are complicated and they take no prisoners. Sure enough it was quite blowy and I was happy for the experienced hands that now held the joystick. We were slipping through the air at an angle as we moved forward towards the runway.

In no time at all we were back safely on the ground and taxi-ing back to the hangar. I have to say, the flight was the best birthday present my wife had ever bought me. Ahhhh, those were the days.

Of course, I was well and truly hooked and really wanted to take up a course of lessons. Sadly it was, and probably still is, really quite expensive. However, I haven't completely given up on the idea. I can still dream about it and maybe one day I will find a way to make it happen.