My very first flight lesson!

Let me take you back to December 25th, 2008. I had gone over to B's house to celebrate Christmas with his family.  It was our first big gift-giving holiday as a couple.  I was really excited to give him the Syracuse hat, framed photo of the two of us, neck massager, and magazine subscriptions for school I had gotten him, and he opened his gifts first.

After opening his presents, he put on a nervous kind of grin, and said, "Babe, you really shouldn't have gotten me so much. I didn't really have a whole lot of time or money to shop for your present." Then, he went into the other room and grabbed a box from underneath the tree. At this point, of course, I'm nervous. It's our first Christmas together, and I went overboard?! How embarrassing.

The box is the size of a standard clothes box and feels squishy. Clothes, I'm thinking. Okay, he bought me clothes. That's fine. 

 I tear through the wrapping paper to see a Fashion Bug box.  

Okay, I'm thinking. He bought me clothes from Fashion Bug. That's fine too.

I open the box to see a maroon sweater, and lift it up to myself (he says it was red; it was definitely maroon). I'm trying to react appropriately when I realize that the sweater is way too big for me. And wait, I think this is a sweater I've seen B wear before. In pictures. From when he was about 10. Why is he giving me one of his old sweaters?!

That's when I noticed the envelope that he had hidden underneath the sweater. An envelope that held a gift certificate for my very first flight lesson!!! What a jerk! But, I was way too excited to be upset with him. It was seriously the most perfect gift he could have given me; I jumped up and down for a while!

Since that Christmas, B and I have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use my gift certificate; we wanted him to be able to come up in the plane with me and for the weather to be nice so we wouldn't freeze to death. So, early yesterday morning, B and I woke up and drove over to the Harford Airport. It was cloudy, and we were worried we weren't going to be able to go up; however, there was a high enough ceiling (1200ft) to fly underneath the clouds! Very lucky! When we got there, we met my flight instructor and he took us out to the airplane we'd be going up in; a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. I was kind of nervous, to be honest! I've been wanting to do this for as long as I could remember; I think I was scared I might hate it!

The flight instructor gave me approximately a 5 minute lesson on the controls, what they mean, and how to operate the pedals and control yoke (which is like the steering wheel). We checked the fuel for contaminants, and then B climbed in the backseat and I got in the front next to the instructor, and we buckled up for take-off! I didn't know, but B took a couple of videos!



It was SO COOL. To demonstrate how to climb (increase altitude) and descend (decrease altitude), the flight instructor pulled forward and backward on the yoke. He pushed the yoke in a good bit, and we dropped! It was a scary, but exhilarating, feeling!

Once we got up in the air, the instructor let me take the controls, with a little bit of help. I was totally not expecting to actually be able to fly the airplane!

After I made a couple of turns, he showed me how to quickly roll out of a turn and bring the plane back level. That part was a little bit scary, but also really fun! It amazed me how little you had to move the control wheel to get the plane to move. It's way different than driving a car!

We flew over B's old high school and new football stadium, and had a cool view of the Chesapeake Bay and Conowingo dam! There is something just so peaceful about being in the air. We also saw almost the entire county I live in during the plane ride, which is something you can't do in half an hour in a car!

We were in the air for about 20 minutes before it was, sadly, time to return to the ground. There was so much stuff to do to prepare to land! One thing I learned about flying is that you definitely have to be able to do more than one thing at once; it requires a lot of multi-tasking!



After a relatively smooth landing, I got to taxi the airplane off the runway and park it using the foot pedals.

The whole flight was so amazing, and it totally reignited my passion for airplanes and flying! Now, more than ever, I know that getting my private pilot's license is something I need to do in my lifetime.

I couldn't thank B enough for such an amazing experience.

I'm so glad he was able to share it with me!