{"id":155,"date":"2013-11-21T22:18:09","date_gmt":"2013-11-22T03:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jalyhe.wordpress.com\/?p=155"},"modified":"2020-11-02T04:24:49","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T04:24:49","slug":"fly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/?p=155","title":{"rendered":"Fly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou are going to be the pilot today.\u201d Mike deadpanned.<\/p>\n

\"P1070128\"<\/a>
This is no simulator.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cOK\u2026 I\u2019ve taken the ground school, you know.\u201d I said matter-of-factedly, pretending to not notice his attempt at humor.
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

After ascertaining when and where I took the ground school (where one learns all the theoretical knowledge of flying without taking to the sky), Mike was apparently not reassured. It had been so many years that the answer caused me more pain and consternation because it dated me as that much older than him than because the course material must have been outdated by now, or that I might have forgotten most of it already. I volunteered that my then girlfriend, now wife, forbade me from going any further than that. And I regretted it immediately. By this time he must have formed a pretty determinedly negative opinion of me, having no balls in addition to no sense of humor. Fortunately I was not on a charm mission to please him.<\/p>\n

I was at Island Aviation because of a gift certificate for my birthday from my sisters, and because after this many years my wife had decided she could stomach the idea of my taking a small-airplane flight now. And she was there to see me do it. Among her questions was \u201chow high are you going to fly?\u201d \u201cA couple of thousand feet.\u201d Mike, my instructor of the day, answered her directly. But I knew her better. \u201cActually height is our friend. It\u2019s the ground that\u2019s dangerous.\u201d She seemed to understand, so I gave no explanation.<\/p>\n

\"Approx.<\/a>
Approximate flight path<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mike had gone through the preflight check already, he told me. But he went around the airplane with me and asked me about the different control surfaces. I did all right with ailerons and flaps, and even elevators, but not so well with the rudder. Those damned years! Or maybe I should blame the failing memory due to my age.<\/p>\n

Inside the cockpit I was given a brief overview of the instruments. No tests this time. Some instruments look more familiar than others, but the most important ones are all directly recognizable. After all, other than the flight school, I had much experience on the Microsoft Flight Simulator, which I didn\u2019t mention to Mike. It might count negatively. It\u2019s interesting to notice that the instruments were easy to calibrate, but also easy to get out of whack. During his short demonstration, Mike had to repeatedly calibrate the attitude and altitude gauges, as they seemed to be jiggled by mischievous cherubs behind the instrument panel. That I didn\u2019t mind. The less fancifulness, the less likely things could go inexplicably wrong.
\nMike pointed out the throttle to me; and I correctly identified the trim wheel. But when I asked him about the radios, he was alarmed. \u201cI\u2019ll take care of the radios,\u201d he said. That was totally cool with me. I didn\u2019t have a clue how to communicate with Air Traffic Control (ATC) any way; nor ground control, for that matter. But I did have my own headset, which brought me an incessant stream of chatter, much more than I imagined possible for a small airport like the Islip\/McArthur.<\/p>\n

\"P1070125\"
Don’t try to clean your screen–that dirty stuff was on the airplane’s windshield.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One other thing I didn\u2019t get to learn in the flight school or practice on the MS Simulator is the pedals. They control the wheels and brakes while on the ground, and the rudder in the air. Mike let me try to taxi the airplane, which turned out to be very difficult to do\u2014I just couldn\u2019t get it to go along a straight line as I wished, or turn around at will. Fortunately we weren\u2019t on the ground that long.<\/p>\n

Taking off was surprisingly easy. Mike pushed the throttle to full, and I waited for the plane to hit 110 knots before pulling up its nose, all the while letting Mike work the pedals to align our Cessna with the runway. Within a couple of seconds, and before I could get used to this new attitude (of the plane), we were lifted off the ground, seemingly swept up by a puff by the big bad wolf. The sensation was definitely not the same as a passenger jet plane, but probably more like a raptor taking flight. With wind pockets hitting our wings at random, we soared upwards along a jittery slope, with my innards going up or down, left or right for no apparent reason. Now I assure you that I can drive a car very straight on the ground; and unlike the pedals, the control yoke didn\u2019t feel hard to handle, so this did not reflect my abilities. I looked to my right. Mike was a model of nonchalant and unconcern; which could only mean one thing\u2014I just had to get used to this sensation. In a few minutes we reached our cruising altitude, 2000 feet, for this part of the flight. Mike helped me to set the trim, and the plane could practically fly itself\u2014only I was more comfortable clutching the yoke tightly in my hands.<\/p>\n

Once we got over the coast, right about Heckscher State Park, we were out of ATC zone. Mike told me to turn to the east. I execute a mild bank, and he asked me to put a little \u201cback pressure\u201d on the yoke, to maintain altitude\u2014strictly speaking, it\u2019s probably more like we executed the turn, as I was working the yoke only, and didn\u2019t even think about the pedals. (Having no pedals for the MS Simulator, I always left it in its \u201cauto-rudder\u201d mode. And coordinating the rudder with the yoke to make a turn is akin to driving a manual shift car.) Coming out of the turn, I tried to reach my camera on the back seat, and found it nearly impossible. The cabin being that much smaller than the inside of a Geo Metro, (and the plane probably lighter than the Metro too) I had to lean my upper body way forward so that my right arm can swing around without hitting Mike’s face with my elbow.<\/p>\n

Along the coast we went, looking over Long Island and Fire Island below us. Some of the signature places I was able to recognize, but far fewer than what Mike could. Most importantly, he pointed out the various airports. In an emergency, we\u2019d have to pick the nearest airport to land, I secretly tell myself. We went as far as Riverhead before turning up north and then back west along the north coast of Long Island, carefully flying around the airspace of Calverton airport, where sky divers might be dropping down from above our altitude. I executed smooth and wide turns, a smooth ascend to 3000 feet, and a smooth descend to 1000. I\u2019m just not a dare devil. Not only I didn\u2019t have the desire for steep banks or dives, my guts wouldn\u2019t have taken it nicely either.\"P1070126\"<\/p>\n

Before heading back to the Islip airport, Mike wanted me to fly over our house. But when I got to within about 5 miles, he realized that we were about to enter the ATC zone. He took over the controls, wheeled us around in tight loops, while talking with Islip control tower on the radio. I felt uncomfortable, and Mike saw it. I told him I was a little air sick. The air traffic controller sent us in via a flight path that was to the east of our house, but eventually passed over my work place.<\/p>\n

When we were coming down to land, I again wasn\u2019t aggressive enough on pushing the yoke forward, and had to be reminded where we\u2019d like to hit the runway. Mike took over the controls when we got closer to the ground, as the wind tugged more strongly on our airplane. Flaps down, nose up, we let the plane kiss the runway where it wanted. It felt so good to be on the ground at last.<\/p>\n

In the end, although I didn\u2019t enjoy the experience completely, I was glad that I had the opportunity. Maybe flying was never in me, but I wouldn\u2019t have known it beforehand. It\u2019s very different from driving. Also prone to car-sickness, I almost never felt sick driving a car. When I am in the driver\u2019s seat, I try to be gentle on the gas and brake pedals, and road is predictable, exactly in the way the air is not. I don\u2019t know whether I could have overcome air-sickness if I persisted. But at this stage of my life, there are many other things that call for my time and energy. There is no regret giving up flying.<\/p>\n

I am grateful to my sisters and my wife for giving me this opportunity. And I am grateful for this country\u2014not only there was no concept of general aviation at the time when I left China, I don\u2019t think it is an option even today. You learn to fly if and only if that is your job. But here, I fly because I want to. And that is priceless.<\/p>\n

\"P1040455\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cYou are going to be the pilot today.\u201d Mike deadpanned. \u201cOK\u2026 I\u2019ve taken the ground school, you know.\u201d I said matter-of-factedly, pretending to not notice his attempt at humor. After ascertaining when and where I took the ground school (where one learns all the theoretical knowledge of flying without taking to the sky), Mike was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155\/revisions\/450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.jaly.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}