I flew a plane!

So here's how it went down. Click for larger views of the pictures. All of the photos that turned out decent are posted on the crappy yahoo photo album.





Pantos and I went flying in a plane! She's a flight instructor for the Palwaukee Flyers, here's her picture on the wall of fame.








This is the flight schedule sitting on the table of Hanger 1. We have a plane reserved for 6:30pm. Did you know Palwaukee Municipal Airport is the third busiest airport in the state?







Here's Pantos looking up conditions and prep information for our flight. Even though she's not in uniform, and is probably doing stuff that she could do from a home computer, it's still cool because she's a certified, licensed pilot.






This is a view of the FBO, that's where planes park after taxing.









Another window from the same building, cool view of planes coming and going.









That's me in the simulator! I really didn't use it, I've used crappy, fake simulators before (like the kind on your own computer). I've never used a real one like this before, but it costs money so I didn't do it.





That's me in the main part of Hanger 1. They are trying to sell that plane that I'm getting into.









That's me actually in the plane for sale. Sorry about the sideways shots, just flip your monitor on its side.







The sexy Pantos, showing off a gutted plane in the hanger. I guess it's in the garage place for a reason.








This is the inside of the coolest plane they have there. It's really new and fancy, with its glass cockpit instrumentation. That means it's got lots of digital stuff, like the big dual-screen GPS.





That's the cool recent plane from the nose-down. It's a high-wing plane, meaning the wings are above it and you can hit your head. I think in the background (especially if you click to enlarge) you can see a low-wing plane, meaning the wings are below the plane and you can trip over them.





There she is, the plane we flew, a Cessna 172, better know as a Cessna Skyhawk! I think this is the most popular teaching plane in the world. Single-engine, just over 27 feet in length, with a hair over a 36 foot wingspan. Weighs over 1600 Ibs empty, with a never exceed speed of 185 mph!




There's Captain Pantos doing a preflight check, she's crouched under the front. She tested the fuel (checked for bubbles), pulled and prodded the wings, checked the lights, etc etc etc. Those wood blocks they put by the wheels are called Chocks (spelling?). I never knew that....



That was my view from inside. I tried to take pictures out the side window, but they didn't turn out, too much reflection off the glass from the flash. Captain Pantos did the take-off, though she let me help a little with breaking and the lights. I also got to do some talking. "Palwaukee Tower, this is Cessna 8-7-Julia-Alpha, requesting clearance for take-off at 16." I felt so damn cool.



Captain Pantos in action. Shortly after takeoff, she fixed the trim and made it really easy to fly, and I took over the controls! That's right, me, I flew the plane! She wasn't doing anything except watching and talking to me. I was making shallow turns and maintaing my altitude and all that great stuff. It was so freakin' awesome!




This was our dashboard (is that what's its called in a plane?). Captain Pantos showed me what most of the gauges did and how to read them. We had the dual-GPS thing going, those small screens on the right. It's a Garmin G1000, so it's kind of similar to my Garmin 60Cx GPS receiver, but obviously more complex. She let me push some buttons and set controls and turn dials, it was pretty badass.



There's me, pretend Pilot. We landed at CMI (Willard Airport in Savoy). We had dinner with Donald at Fridays, then flew back. I did most of the flying on the way back too, I really did! Captain Pantos was an awesome pilot, I was really surprised at how professional she was and everything. She really knew what she was doing, she taught me a lot of stuff during the flight. Way different than the high school days of being stupid teenagers cruising down Dundee.


So that was our flight, took about an hour each way. The pictures at Willard Airport didn't turn out so hot, oh well. It was really cool and weird being back so close to where I had moved out of only the weekend before. But I had such a great time, flying rules! If I had the money and time, I would so take flying lessons and try and get my certification from the FAA. Hopefully one day, but until then, flying with Pantos the Pilot is really fun. I hope we get to do it again soon!!!