Up until recently, I had a casual interest in flying. Yes, I have always been interested in flying somewhat, but never really to the point where I considered getting my license. I just chalked it up to one of those unattainable goals in life. The bucket list item that doesn't get crossed out. That all changed in the summer of 2008. I was in my second of two years on the way to getting my Executive MBA from Baylor University, so I was quite busy. My birthday came along and I had been talking about flying occasionally, and my wife picked up on that. For my 37th birthday, she got me a 1 hour intro flight at Step Up Aviation out of Austin Bergstrom International (KAUS). I was shocked and excited to go on this discovery flight, but having a busy schedule at that point, I was not able to go up until the fall.
The day finally came and I drove down to KAUS for the flight. I walked out to the hangar and was shocked to see the "airplane" that we would be flying that day. It was a light sport aircraft (LSA) Tecnam Bravo that had an empty weight of 750 lbs. This thing was tiny and without saying it, I was thinking "We're going to go up in THAT?". Needless to say, I was already conscientious of the "danger" that lay ahead of me. On that note, I think practically every person, brave or not, will have some negative thoughts about going up in a small airplane for the first time. So, I didn't feel bad about being a little worried about our flight that day.
So, we had a tiny airplane. I asked to see the engine, thinking it would be a massive powerplant and give me some confidence. What I saw was little more than a lawnmower engine, I thought, but nevertheless, I convinced myself that the engineers and designers knew what they were doing and it had to be airworthy. The other item to mention that day is that it was extremely windy. I think the winds were 19 gusting to 27 or so. We were sitting in the plane doing a pre-flight check and the wind was buffeting us around so badly I was wondering if the thing would tip over. I've since found out that Step Up has implemented a new policy where they will not fly an intro flight if the wind is over a certain speed. Good idea...
After we started the plane, the instructor contacted ATC and the next thing I knew we were taxiing to our runway. I travel for business several times a year and I fly out of KAUS. It is a mid-sized airport that can handle big planes. It was surreal being in the left seat and taxiing to a gigantic runway that I'd only seen from the air while in a MD80. I had a real problem, as many beginning pilots do, of "steering" the plane on the taxiway with my feet only. I kept wanting to steer with the stick but that didn't work. With me steering, we weaved our way to the runway, did our run up, and contacted tower for clearance. I noticed that ATC kept referring to us as "experimental N141 Alpha Golf". I asked the Instructor why experimental and he told me about the airplane was in a new class of aircraft knows as LSA, and that ATC only called them experimental because there was no official classification yet. Great. I'm in a tiny experimental airplane. My confidence was not high.
ATC had us hold short for "landing aircraft" so I looked to the left ant there is a 737 on final approach and it landed right in front of us. Again - surreal. We taxied out to the giant runway. Knowing nothing about how to fly, I was both thrilled and nervous when I set full throttle, pulled back on the stick and we were airborne. The instructor worked the rudder pedals the whole time.
The wind was terrible that day and we were being tossed around like crazy, which did not sit with me as a first-timer. I was becoming very anxious; something that I normally do not do. I am usually a very calm and even-keel person, but this day would get the best of me. Our plan for the day was to climb to 2500 feet and fly to San Marcos, look around and fly back to Austin. During our climb out, ATC came on and diverted us mid-field to clear for more landing aircraft coming in behind us. Seems the little plane was too slow to get out of the way for the big boys. We made a 30 degree bank to the right and a little more anxiety set in. As we got higher, the turbulence got worse and so did my anxiety. The small aircraft was an over-wing design and with it being so small, I felt like I could simply fall out. More anxiety.
After about 10 minutes of climbing and being tossed around like a ragdoll, I decided that I had had enough. I asked the instructor to cut it short and return to KAUS. He was surprised but later told me that he understood because it was way too windy for us to go up and that we shouldn't have done so that day. Thanks. After he reconfirmed that I wanted to end the flight, he said "I have the plane" which I gladly let him take. At this point, I realized that I had had a deathgrip on the stick and I was in a full sweat. He made a sharp left turn and we headed in a downwind right pattern to make a landing on 17L. During that decent, the bumpiness subsided, as you can imagine on a downwind, and I relaxed a bit. I felt like I had let myself down by not staying up but I knew there would be another day. I still wanted to be back on terra firma. We landed and I got the heck out of there.
Needless to say, my first flight experience could have been better. The good part was when I got in my truck after the flight, I already wanted to go back up. I now know that at that point, I was hooked.
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