Liz bought me a flying lesson for my birthday (and some life insurance!). I’ve been saving it up and today was the day!
It was fabulous.
We took off from Leven airfield. As soon as we started flying I was handed the controls. I flew out to sea and along the coast to Scarborough and back.
It was a hour flight and I did it all – banking, climbing, dipping – but not crashing. It was fun. Quite strange holding those controls with the wind buffeting us. The views were incredible. I had my camera and took some shots out of the window with one hand while holding the plane steady!
I think I’ll do it again!
My plane being fueled by the pilot
Me flying out to sea with the cliffs of flamborough below
Filey Brigg
Quite high!
A bit of East Riding patchwork.
Flamborough Lighthouse
Bempton cliffs with seabirds
North Frodingham
More East Riding
Coming in to land.
The airfield.
I didn’t crash once!
I’m sure Liz will enjoy Bunje jumping! Can’t wait for her birthday to come round!
Great Birthday gift. Always wanted to try the private planes here, but somehow lacking the confidence. Just had our Annual Air Show for two days, maybe see you up in the air next year at the show. Excellent pics.
It was great fun – if a little nerve-racking! Go for it Anna!
Opher…how cool!!! My hubby has his pilots license…fleet to Florida once with him piloting a friends small plane…just waiting to hit the lottery so I can buy him his own plane 😄😄
Fabulous photos!!!!!!!
That’s great Linda. Must be great to go solo! I think I’d get lost! Looks so different from up there! I’d need a good co-pilot.
Hope you win that lottery soon!
LMBO at your last comment! 😀 That picture with the river is so beautiful. What an undertaking! (Oh wait! You DIDN’T crash! 😉 ) That is just stupendous, Opher. What a great gift! (Brave little cus, aren’t ya!)
You’ve got to go forwhatever comes along and give it your best shot. That’s my motto. You only live once. Not brave at all. It was fun (and I knew the guy was sitting there ready to take over if I made too much of a bodge. But it really was quite easy once you got used to it. I’m sure the take-off and landing are a bit more unforgiving. The wind buffeting did get a bit much.
Oh my Gosh Opher!! How exciting! What a great present. So glad you didn’t crash.
Happy belated birthday!
Mary
Great present wasn’t it? Now I have to find something to reciprocate! I don’t really think crashing was an option.
Wow, great pics and flying one-handed … is there no end to your talents?
Unfortunately yes.
I found that when I started looking out the window I inadvertently pulled back on the controls and the plane went higher. I suppose that’s better than it plummeting down. I think it’s easy to do if you have someone sitting beside you ready to grab the controls if you do something drastically wrong.
For some reason this came to mind … http://a1.files.biography.com/image/upload/c_fit,cs_srgb,dpr_1.0,q_80,w_620/MTMxMTc0MTUyNTc1OTIwNzcx.jpg
Excellent. I was the one on the left!
You have some bottle to go up in that single-engineered plane. Having spent 30 years adjacent to the private airfield at Breighton and seen a few crashes (1 as recently as a few weeks ago), power lines brought down, the airfield manager killed in a crash flying a Hurricane, I have always declined offers to go up in one. Did you loop the loop? I think the G force would make me sick in any event. Travelling in a Suburu sports makes me ill.
No. I think looping the loop might have been a tad ambitious for a first flight. It was nerve-racking enough getting the angle and inclination right and holding it in the wind. But quite exhilarating. I can see that it would be addictive. I enjoyed it and it wasn’t too hard. After a few sessions I think I would be quite confident about flying one – take off and landing might be a different kettle of fish though.
Taking off and landing are usually when accidents occur but I have known engines to cut out during a flight. That can be dangerous if there is no suitable place to glide in. The aircraft you went up in looks fairly new. At Breighton they have some very old planes which remind me of the Wright brothers’ era but people still take them up.
I doubt I’ll do it again. But who knows? It was fun.
Such a brilliant gift! And those photos are stunning. Can’t believe I missed this post
She’s done it again! I’ve got another flying lesson from a different airport. Do you think she wants rid of me?