| Smooth Take Off
The takeoff was very much like any other with the exception of being much closer to the environment in the little airplane. I always enjoy the feeling as a plane lifts off and becomes airborne. Once in the air, we made a turn while banking to the right as we headed out over the Santa Cruz Mountains. With us flying at a relatively low altitude, the scenery below was fun to watch as it slipped by.
John waves as the plane begins rolling |
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A view of the airfield as we fly around it |
My view as we fly over the Santa Cruz mountains |
The mountains, at their highest, are less than 3000 feet. As a result of a low ceiling at 5,000 feet, our flight path took us at an altitude close to the mountains as we flew just below the clouds. Our route took us out to the Pacific Ocean just south of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse where we turned left and followed the coast south toward the City of Santa Cruz. This had been a really fun ride so far. I would quickly learn that I wasn’t just going for a ride.
We head south toward Santa Cruz |
Shortly after turning south, I was told to “take the stick” as Fred held his hands in the air to get me to take control of the plane. As I grabbed the stick, I Immediately understood a saying I had heard for many years, “Flying by the seat of your pants.” I was very impressed with just how fast the slightest move of the stick could be felt as the plane moved instantly with no delay. I truly was feeling motion-feedback in the seat of my pants. This was quite a surprise because I thought that I was just “going for a ride” in this great little aircraft. However, it was about to get better than I could have imagined.
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Flying by the seat of my pants |
After getting a feel for the flight characteristics, Fred took control back saying, “Now I’ll demonstrate a barrel roll.” I listened to the explanation of what it took to do a barrel roll. Two of the requirements included getting the plane above 5,000 feet at over 200 miles per hour. It took only a few minutes until we reached those levels at which time the plane made a very fast roll to the right giving me an adrenaline rush. The roll over seemed to take place in slow motion, it was great. What came next was totally unexpected. Fred said something like, “Now that you know how it’s done, you do it.”
| NOTE: As you can imagine, I was too busy to take any photos while doing barrel rolls |
I was very excited as I took the stick and pulled back on it to get us back up to “Barrel-roll altitude.” Once we were there, I put the aircraft into a barrel-roll and experienced a slow motion feeling again. However, this time I had the presence of mind to look around during the slow motion. What I saw was amazing to me, I looked up to see the ocean and down to see the sky. This effect was caused by the motion of the plane pushing me down in the seat making it feel as if “down” was always toward the bottom of the airplane. I was in a very excited state when Fred said, “Do another one.”
I went through the motions again with another experience as before. I know that what was so very exciting for me is just “Ho-hum stuff” for experienced pilots. As the adrenalin wore off, Fred said that I could fly us back up the coast to the lighthouse. Just before we arrived there, Fred took over and turned back toward Moffett Field. Below there were a few small, private vineyards near the homes of people living in the mountains. We flew over a quarry, in the mountains, that I had never seen before.
Homes and private vineyards |
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A view of a quarry I was seeing for the first time |
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