My Dad was a flight instructor and taught me how to fly 24 years ago. He had a small little experimental airplane called a Starlight. It was tiny; one seat, rotax (snowmobile) engine, and weighed 400 pounds with you in it. It had different flight controls than the Piper Archer II I learned on. I was a new pilot, but my father gave me confidence.
We had talked about me flying the Starlight one day. It was a very cool looking little plane. The problem is that it had only one seat. How do you really learn to fly a foreign airplane when you can’t go up in it until you fly it?
The only way to get instruction is to sit in it, and have the instructor talk to you while he is standing on the asphalt. “Right wing goes up!” he’d say, and watch my right hand tilt the little joystick flight control, which barely fit between my leg and the fueslage, to the right.
The day came for me to go for it. There was a crosswind that had picked up over the last hour. I taxied out onto the active runway, got a clearance for takeoff, and pushed the throttle forward with my left hand. The light little red plane bounced a lot as it rolled down the runway – it felt really different already.
I watched my airspeed, and at the right time, I pulled back on the little joystick. The elevators behind me lifted up and pushed the rear down, angling the wings up as they should, and all of a sudden, I was off the ground. Before I could enjoy the sensation, something was very wrong. I was crabbing – badly.
The cross wind was hitting the tail of the plane and pushed it to the side, such that I was flying crooked, or diagonally to my direction of travel over the ground. This is not so much of a problem as it happens with a cross wind in all planes. But I went to straighten it out with opposite rudder, and it didn’t work!
That’s when I knew I had a real problem. I was crabbing enough that if I tried to land that way I’d break the landing gear off or some such violence surely would occur. Why wasn’t this rudder working?
It was controlled airspace and I was just going to go around the pattern and do a touch and go a few times, then land. But I could not control the airplane. It seemed the left rudder pedal worked, and the right one didn’t. I wasn’t on the right radio frequency to talk to my Dad, I had to stay on the tower frequency. But I needed to ask for help!
I turned left, and then left again downwind. I am now 1000 feet off the ground and I am crabbing the other way now. I can’t land like this!
Sometimes when we are in a bad situation, or feel the worst is going to happen, we can’t just stop or give up. I had to fly this plane, and ultimately, I HAD to land this plane – myself.
Breathe.
My Dad would tell me, “You’re the pilot in command. Don’t be your own worst enemy. FLY THE AIRPLANE.”
Breathe. The tower cleared me for landing. Keep flying. If I couldn’t straighten it out over the runway at 50 feet off the deck, then I could go around again and figure something out.
Keep flying.
Suddenly, as I turned base (one more turn to final approach), I accidentally figured out the problem. This tiny plane had four pedals. The two middle pedals are for brakes. You use them on the ground. The two outbound pedals are for rudder – you use them in the air. As soon as you leave the ground, you switch your feet to the outbound pedals. Your feet barely fit on these little pedals without touching the other ones. I had switched one foot, and not the other. When I thought I was pressing the right rudder, I was pressing the right brake!
As soon as I realized this, I got control of the airplane. Good thing because I was on final approach and the crosswind blew me crooked to the direction of travel again. No problem now. Right rudder, drop the left wing, and slip it right down..hold it off, bleed off the speed…Perfect landing!
I decided not to do a touch and go and just taxi it in! I’d wait for a calmer day to fly the Starlight again, which I did a number of beautiful evenings.
There’s no substitute for preparation, but eventually you have to go it alone.
The unknown can be scary, but in doing it, you can learn to fly.
Still a student pilot…As in life, keeping a cool head and evaluating the situation methodically with logic along with some gut instinct usually is the best bet.
Great stuff, thanks for the words.
I always wanted to fly as a kid and finally found my opportunity in 2003. I earned my pilots license and loved to fly friends and family around the area I lived in. But as I was busy with “life”, I realized I wasn’t flying enough or “practicing” enough. And like anything else in life (like sales), if you don’t practice enough, you won’t be on top of your game and when you are flying, it’s not just a sale you may lose.
Very nice story. So many analogies can be used with flying and business. As a newer pilot, I get that feeling and can definitely relate it to my business life.
I realized once I got my Pilot Cert I knew how to fly as PIC but the real learning began. Every flight is a new learning experience, just like every day at the office is a new experience and I have something to learn and become better at.
Larry – just had a long conversation with my son about controlling your emotions and learning work thru a situation – I cant wait to share this story with him thanks
The last time I flew from the left seat was when I promised God that if he would help me land, I would never pilot again. I have kept that promise for 45 years!
Sometimes in this wonderful life, the most rewarding experiences happen as we “leave our city of comfort and go into the wilderness of our intuition.” (Alan Alda).
Learned to fly about 45 years ago and enjoyed re-living some of my flying experiences in reading your story.
Our son was a student pilot at 18 and flew several solo flights. I hope my (risk averse) wife (a subscriber) does not read this!
Really great story though, and analogous to things we all do every day. How many new sales people do we send out that feel this same sense of lack of control.
Conquer the fear and enjoy the ride!
Very inspirational, the strong message I received (& I don’t fly) is just do not quit!
Larry, I used GI Bill benefits to learn to fly back in the 70’s. I got my private, instrument and commercial licenses and ended up with over 500 hours. Actually owned a Piper Warrior with 3 other guys (rented it to the flying school). I also had about 20 hours in an Archer. Great fun; however, when I felt my first daughter kicking in my wife’s belly, I decided to hang it up. I loved practicing touch and go’s in crosswinds; even some with winds at 20 knots plus, and at night. Don’t know what it got me other than a lot of confidence. Good story; I had a couple of close calls too and thank God he was looking out for me.
I love this story. Overcome your fear and get it done!!!
Great story Larry. I first soloed a airplane when I was a junior in high school. Not too many years later I did it again in a helicopter. Army flight school was almost a year long learning experience and upon graduation we all thought we were ace pilots. Then we found out how much we didn’t know shortly after arriving in Vietnam. There we wanted to learn more to stay alive. Now we want to learn more so we can earn more.