My family roots are deeply entwined in aviation and I am no exception to the longing for the open skies. With a Grandfather who left the vast farmland plains of Oklahoma to join the Air Force after a childhood of watching in awe as planes fly overhead. His own passion for flying was carried on in teaching me from flight textbooks and simulators. When he saw that I was truly grasping what he had taught me, he decided to increase my training to the next level.
After several months under his instruction, he decided that I was ready to take flight. On the 28th of June in 2014 I lowered myself down into the cockpit of the Warrior II Piper with my grandfather in the back compartment watching the instruments over my shoulder. An instructor was seated beside me to monitor our instruments and to critique my handling, but for most of the flight kept his hands away from the yolk.
With my eye on the horizon and knot in my stomach the engine rumbled to life as the propeller started to spin. We rolled forward along the runway and quickly picked up speed before I pulled back on the yolk and the wheels lifted off of the hot tar of the paved runway as we took flight. The plane wobbled upwards and downwards under my wavering direction as I adjusted to the force of a real aircraft under the control of my grip. The mixture of pride, power, and awe overwhelmed and enthralled me. The higher we ascended to more speechless I became.
The view was incredible, and the feeling of flying a real plane felt like wrestling a lion as I struggled to tame it. Plunging toward the earth or rearing up toward the clouds in a battle for dominance against gravity, wind, and momentum. By the time we landed again, my nerves were rattled, I was sweating and shaking, but I felt completely exhilarated. I had dome something which I had never imagined being able to accomplish, and my grandfather's encouragement and joy from sharing this experience with me made me feel a true gratitude. His dedication to teach me had given me the ability to fulfill a dream he had instilled in me.
A quote by Leonardo Da Vinci remains in my mind ever since that day, " For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return."
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