CHRIS BILLOWES OUT FLYING
Today, 5th July 2008, I was finally booked in to take my flying lesson, a birthday present from all the staff at T.A.
It was a beautiful day, but quite a heavy crosswind over the runway at Barkarby Flygplats made me shake more than I would have normally done.
My instructor, who´s name was Michael, led me out to his Cesna and gave me a run down of the controls. He explained that the engine had a whopping 160 hk!!! and that this would be plenty to get up to our cruising speed of 105 knots and an altitude of 1500 feet.
I was offered to take William and Lena for a spin, but we decided that it might not be such a good idea, as I was going to actually fly the thing.
After saying my last goodbyes to Willy, I climed into the Left Hand seat, you know, where the captain sits, and started her up. (Of course my instructor told me what to do!) We then headed off north into the crosswind, before doing a left turn giving me a great view of IKEA, where Lena and William were spending all my money! It was pretty windy up here, even so my instructor just sat with his arms folded, letting me get on with the flying. We did a right turn which then took us over Täby Centrum, and continued out towards Waxholm, climing to 1500 feet.
It was really beautiful up here, but I was still pretty anxious at the controls. I asked my instructor about other planes in the area, but he just said he couldn´t see any so not to worry too much. Great!! After about 25 minutes in the air, we made our final turn for landing, with Michael doing the flying, he obviously didn´t trust me to land the Cesna.
So now we were down on the ground in one piece, and I could stop praying! All of a sudden I realised it had been great fun.
Really, many thanks all my staff for this great experience.
AND NOW PUTTING IT ALL INTO PRACTICE!!
Flying a World War 2 Stuka....
