Flying over Kent

Feb 3

John was awake early because this was to be the day he accompanied Alan on his first actual flying lesson over at Manston (Kent International Airport). Manston was an RAF fighter base in WW2 and was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe. So John considered it an honour to fly out of there.

The two arrived at 10am ready for the lesson at 10:30. Unfortunately, someone at the flight school had not told the flight instructor about the lesson and he had to come from home. John talked with one of the club members while Alan read a training book as they awaited the instructor.

The instructor arrived shortly before 11am and he took Alan in for a preflight briefing. When they came out the instructor said to John that he could wait inside while they did the walkaround. However, John wanted to see the walkaround because they were going in a four seater Piper Warrior which is a low wing airplane while John has only flown high wing Cessnas. So he went out with them.

He watched the walkaround and noticed te similarities and differences from the way he had been trained to do his walkarounds. Soon, it was time to get inside and buckled up. Alan took the pilot's seat and John found it surprisingly hard to be a passenger. Every ounce of his being wanted to take the controls. The instruments and controls were very nicely appointed in the aircraft but the back seat was not the most comfortable.

It wasn't long before they were taxiing out to the runway and taking off. The day was heavily overcast and that made it a very smooth ride indeed. They took off to the weat on runaway 28 and proceeded in a southweasterly direction.

Alan learned the effects of the controls - ailerons, elevators, and rudder at different airspeeds on bank, pitch, and yaw. He learned the secondary controls of engine level and flaps and the necessity of trimming the aircraft.

John took the video you can see here and at one point saw the white cliffs of Dover at a great distance. See if you can see them.



Too soon it was back to Manston and a l-o-n-g landing. They were at a great height over the threshhold but the instructor said that would take them back to the flight school better. John was very impressed by the knowledge, skill, and professional demeanour of the instructor.

They went back to the flight school where Alan made an appointment for his next lesson and paid for a series of five lessons so that he can tell if he wants to go the whole way through training to become a private pilot.

Unfortunately they were too late to go to lunch with Ron, so went home. John had hurt his back in the back seat of the plane and had to nurse it a bit.

After a short while he and Val went out to do a few errands in the ocal village. When they came back John went to sleep on the couch. It was gtime for sinner - chicken curry and John ended the day watching soccer on TV while I had to do this blog.

It was the end of another memorable day. John said he is very tempted to take up flying again.

TRB