My First Lesson!!!

March 31, 2007 will go down in history (well, at least my personal history). That was the day when I took my first flight lesson.

It all started out on Christmas morning (wow this is starting as a ‘back in my day…’ story). The last present I opened was a clothes box filled with all kinds of goodies; a sectional chart, an A/FD, a cool shirt, and an envelope. I opened it and went CRAZY!!! Inside was a gift certificate for a flight lesson. I quickly thanked my parents and ran to my room so I could further study the charts. Well January went by without a free weekend. February was filled with hockey games so I had no luck that month either. Finally in mid-March, an opening appeared so I jumped on it.

I was scheduled to meet at the airport at ten. We got there about ten minutes early and immediately I noticed some things. The FBO, Blue Skies Pilot Shop, was very homey. It was small and it looked as if everyone knew each other. A older man in the corner asked me if I was Evan and answered appropriately. He introduced himself as Johnny, my flight instructor. He will be the man that will instruct me how to safely pilot an aircraft for the next three years. I then introduced him to my mother. He suggested that we reschedule the flight for another time due to the low clouds and low visibility. I looked out the window and realized that he was right; it did look pretty bad out there. I told him I would call him within the next week or so to work out a time where we could try again.

A few weeks later I woke up at 9:50; just in time to realize that my lesson was in ten minutes. I quickly called Johnny and told him I was running late. When I got to the airport, we discussed what we were going to do then rented the plane. After that, we took a good half an hour going through the airplanes checklist. The checklist tells you what to check to make sure the plane is okay for flight. We then pulled the aircraft out of the hangar. I plugged in my headset and started the plane. It was a very good sound. Finally, the plane moved. I taxied (moving the plane on the ground) to a taxi-way parallel to the runway. Johnny did a pre-takeoff check and then taxied onto the runway. We pushed the throttle lever in and the plane took off. At about 80 mph, I was instructed to pull back on the yoke (airplane steering wheel). We were airborne!!!!

After climbing to about 3,000 feet we leveled off. Over the next fifty minutes we did an array of maneuvers including climbing, descending, S-turns, wide and tight turns, and 360 degree turns. I had a grin on my face that stretched from ear to ear that lasted the entire time. Finally, Johnny landed the plane back at Lake in the Hills (3ck). I taxied the aircraft to a parking spot, shut down the plane, and secured it. We then went back into the FBO (Fixed base operator (The pilot shop)) where we discussed some things with my parents. Topics included college, cost of training, medicals, and other such things.

Overall, it was a magical experience. It was one of the greatest moments in my life!!!! I look forward to making a new one.

airplane Evan Krueger