*Flight on March 26, 2011*
You can imagine how one would feel going into something like this. Your gonna be trying to impress your instructor with your extensive knowledge of Flight Simulator X =D, while not being all too sure of what to really expect in the flight. Well, I certainly didn't expect what was going to happen to me during my flight lesson at Toronto's City Center Billy Bishop Airport.
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| Billy Bishop Toronto City Center Airport. |
It was a nice day, scattered puffy white cumulus clouds with light winds. The flight school was in a relaxed attitude. He asked us some friendly aviation questions and invited us to join him as he preformed the walk around of the aircraft. It was a classic, but old, Cessna 172. In fact he even said when he saw our puzzled looks, that "even though the plane may not look like much, all the mechanics were sound". After the pop quiz I got on what each part of the inspection is for and what it means, we finally got the chance to get in an feel the cockpit first hand. Don't get me wrong, but that thing was tiny. Were people smaller in the '60s?! I found my legs nearing my chest and my friend in the back in any awkward position he could find to try to get more comfortable.
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| An idea of what my old Cessna 172 looked like. |
After a struggle to get the engine running...lol...(hey it's like old people, take a little longer to start up in the morning...besides the fact that this thing is supposed to keep us safe 2000 feet in the air doing steep turns and practicing in some dense airspace near the CN Tower and downtown Toronto...)we get this airworthy tricycle to the foot of the runway. Just a side note, I hope you never experience what it is like to be taxing down at beginners pace with angry passenger turboprops speeding on by in all direction. So we finally taxi out to the last taxiway hold point before the runway, just like my first flight lesson. The plane is rumbling and squeaking, but doing okay. There is a porter airline Q400 series plane coming in to land but my instructor wants to sneak in a takeoff before him. This is not a good idea to do without Air Traffic Control's permission. Halfway to the runway, we get a rejecting denial of our takeoff request and have to do the undignified maneuver of turning around on a runway with a passenger turboprop hardly a minute away from landing and getting ever larger on the horizon.
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| The Porter Airlines Q400 I encountered (bigger up close when you taxi on by in a tiny piston engine Cessna 172) |
But we got off in time, and after an embarrassing confirmation from the Tower that we could finally take off, we were ready. Throttles up...speed increasing and the casual voice of my instructor saying that we will be doing a ground effect takeoff instead of "normal procedure". For those of you who don't know what a ground effect takeoff is, it is basically using the ground to build up more speed by taking off but instead of pulling up, staying above the runway by only a few feet. This give you the extra speed on takeoff that you need to pull up sharply and experience some heavy g force. It is important you don;t go beyond the aircraft's capabilities and stall.
So there I am, in the left hand seat, watching as the end of the runway nears even though we have't pulled up yet when suddenly the plane banks, nose lifts, and I feel like I am a much heavier than normal. I don't care about the instruments or out speed or the plane anymore, I just look out at the seemingly 45 degree attitude the plane seems to be at. Yet within a couple of seconds we are at 1500 feet, or so it seemed. What a wild takeoff!
In fact, here is the link to the video (just below), I will be uploading the rest of this flight lesson (including weightlessness) as well later on. Notice how the g force makes the camera drop...LOL. Those old Cessnas sure are built to last.
MY CRAZY TAKEOFF <<<Click for link to video
http://www.youtube.com/user/iJustFlyDammit - Official YouTube channel
http://www.facebook.com/pages/IJustFlyDammit/159148500819430 - Official Facebook page
And now...a completely random and unrelated but sick picture of a plane, cuz that's how I roll. =D
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| GO JET GO! |
