A View to Remember
Computers are all well and good but my first love has always been aviation. I'm an Air Traffic Controller originally but when I moved to Japan I quickly realized that civilian aviation jobs are few and far between which is why I decided to look for work elsewhere. I believed this to be a sound choice because the FAA has been in a controller drought for quite a few years now. Before coming out to Japan I worked for the FAA as an Air Traffic Assistant and I saw first hand how undermanned all of the sectors were at Oakland Center. I also remember a letter published by the controller union (NATCA) begging for new controllers. Despite this the FAA has not hired any new controllers unless they were already attached to the FAA in a different billet as a displaced air traffic controller. Anyway, people kept coming up to me with hope in their voices saying, "I just heard a news report about how the FAA needs to hire hundreds of new controllers in the next 10 years" I smile and thank the well-wishers for the info but in reality the FAA has been officially saying this for the past 4 years (at least) and nothing has happened. So I found a new day job.
Three years of being away from the aviation community has left a serious void inside of me as well as my resume. I will always be a certified ATC-er but I'm starting to look pretty rusty so I decided to go to the dark side and become a pilot. I've gained a lot of resume fodder while working as a Database Administrator but to be honest, that's about it. Maybe it's the Libra in me but in order to be truly happy I need to follow my heart and continue with what I'm passionate about.
I'm starting ground school next week but yesterday afternoon I took my first flight lesson. I almost didn't go because the weather had been pretty much IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) and when I woke up yesterday morning the sun was out so I scheduled the lesson. By the time 4:30 rolled around it was still VFR (Visual Flight Rules) but it was starting to drizzle and I was hoping the clouds would be high enough so we could climb up high enough to do a stall, the one thing that I was apprehensive about.
Flight lessons are given at Kadena Air Base at the Aero Club. The lesson cost $90 for an hour of flight. $55 was for the aircraft rental (C172) and the rest was for the instructor. It's a small world because the instructor was the wife of a Marine Air Traffic Control officer where my husband works - had no idea. So I felt really out of place. I didn't want to come off presumptuous about flying because I am a controller so I felt a little uncomfortable but once I got in the plane I realized that I could use my ATC knowledge to aid in flying, like I could concentrate on flying the damn plane without stressing about what the controller was saying.
As soon as we took off and checked in at the 1st VFR checkpoint the plane was mine. It was something you see in movies or have read about a thousand times. I felt like I had flown before even though I just played C-12 crew chief a few times before. It was like an out-of-body experience. I was flying but it didn't feel real. Now I had something entirely new to worry about. How far could I push the controls before I threw the plane into a stall or lost lift. I was being very careful taking half-rate turns while carefully maintaining altitude. About 5 minutes later I was able to relax enough to establish where the horizon should be while flying straight and level and that's when I opened my eyes for the first time. The view was amazing! I was flying north along the Western coastline right over beaches and hotels I had spent a good hour trying to drive to. Beautiful islands off to my left and highway 58 to my right. I flew all the way up to Ocean Expo park 5 minute flight takes over an hour to drive to because of the traffic and slow speed limit. The sun was out now but it was still hazy so I had to strain to see reporting points off in the distance.
Right at Ocean Expo I made a left turn and went back down the coast line. Far off in the distance I could see Futenma Air Station's control tower which was further south than Kadena's airfield. Once I was heading south I asked the flight instructor if she could take control of the airplane and preform a stall so I could see if it would freak me out too much. I love turbulence and controlling the plane through moderate chop was even better and I felt truly in control so I felt ready to see what a stall was like. She took control and moved us a little further out over the water and took us up from 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet. Making a Cessna 172 stall requires a lot of effort because she said this plane was built for students and is very forgiving. First she pulled the throttle out and pointed the nose down as if we we were coming in for an approach. I don't remember the airspeed but it slowed down a lot. Then she pitched up the nose to cause the stall. Right before the plane stalled I think I could hear a whine coming from the engine. Then the engine started to die and the nose started to go down. Then the engine just stopped and there was silence in the cockpit and the nose went down and we were in a free fall! I let go of the yoke (i was still holding it up to that point to get the feel of what she was doing) yelped in excitement and did a little clap. Meanwhile she pushed in the yoke as if pointing the nose down even further and added power. The engine started back up and the nose came up. She got her horizon back to level and then she brought the plane back up to 1,ooo feet! It was amazing and I feel like I could actually do it by myself next time! It wasn't hard at all which is a good thing for me because I'm gonna be a pro at them before I get signed off to solo. She gave back control of the airplane and I continued down the coastline. The turbulence had let up and the sun was pretty much in my eyes. Just then I looked out to the right and saw that I was at the same elevation as a Boeing 737! It was making an approach to Naha International Airport and I vowed out loud to take a camera with me from now on so my instructor can take a picture the next time that happens. I love commercial airliners so much that that experience made me realize , "Holy shit! I'm in the pilot's seat and I'm flying this hunk of metal myself!" At this same moment my husband saw both me and the B737 from our house. He had just gotten home with my girls and he said, "Mommy is flying that airplane!" and they were all excited for me. He was even more excited when I got home and told him I was actually flying it right then. A couple minutes later the instructor took back over and we descended to 800 feet and she put us on base as we set up for a visual approach. We encountered a good crosswind and we kinda crabbed our way in on final. about 100 feet above the approach end the wind was calm and we straightened out. I felt like we came in fast because I'm accustomed to seeing big C-130s and P-3s coming in nice and slow. It was a great landing and I helped her with the rudders and that was that. It was a great time.
The best time to fly is early in the morning on a clear day - about 0700 or so. I once flew from Naha North to mainland Japan, Fukuoka Airport. The way the sun hit the island made it look like a vibrant, colorful painting. It was so clear you could see for miles and you could see the coral and the bright blue water on the coastline. When you're not flying the plane it seems like it takes longer to travel the 62 mile length of the island but it was probably because I took in every inch of the scenery. Okinawa is a beautiful island both on the ground and in the air.
Three years of being away from the aviation community has left a serious void inside of me as well as my resume. I will always be a certified ATC-er but I'm starting to look pretty rusty so I decided to go to the dark side and become a pilot. I've gained a lot of resume fodder while working as a Database Administrator but to be honest, that's about it. Maybe it's the Libra in me but in order to be truly happy I need to follow my heart and continue with what I'm passionate about.
I'm starting ground school next week but yesterday afternoon I took my first flight lesson. I almost didn't go because the weather had been pretty much IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) and when I woke up yesterday morning the sun was out so I scheduled the lesson. By the time 4:30 rolled around it was still VFR (Visual Flight Rules) but it was starting to drizzle and I was hoping the clouds would be high enough so we could climb up high enough to do a stall, the one thing that I was apprehensive about.
Flight lessons are given at Kadena Air Base at the Aero Club. The lesson cost $90 for an hour of flight. $55 was for the aircraft rental (C172) and the rest was for the instructor. It's a small world because the instructor was the wife of a Marine Air Traffic Control officer where my husband works - had no idea. So I felt really out of place. I didn't want to come off presumptuous about flying because I am a controller so I felt a little uncomfortable but once I got in the plane I realized that I could use my ATC knowledge to aid in flying, like I could concentrate on flying the damn plane without stressing about what the controller was saying.
As soon as we took off and checked in at the 1st VFR checkpoint the plane was mine. It was something you see in movies or have read about a thousand times. I felt like I had flown before even though I just played C-12 crew chief a few times before. It was like an out-of-body experience. I was flying but it didn't feel real. Now I had something entirely new to worry about. How far could I push the controls before I threw the plane into a stall or lost lift. I was being very careful taking half-rate turns while carefully maintaining altitude. About 5 minutes later I was able to relax enough to establish where the horizon should be while flying straight and level and that's when I opened my eyes for the first time. The view was amazing! I was flying north along the Western coastline right over beaches and hotels I had spent a good hour trying to drive to. Beautiful islands off to my left and highway 58 to my right. I flew all the way up to Ocean Expo park 5 minute flight takes over an hour to drive to because of the traffic and slow speed limit. The sun was out now but it was still hazy so I had to strain to see reporting points off in the distance.
Right at Ocean Expo I made a left turn and went back down the coast line. Far off in the distance I could see Futenma Air Station's control tower which was further south than Kadena's airfield. Once I was heading south I asked the flight instructor if she could take control of the airplane and preform a stall so I could see if it would freak me out too much. I love turbulence and controlling the plane through moderate chop was even better and I felt truly in control so I felt ready to see what a stall was like. She took control and moved us a little further out over the water and took us up from 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet. Making a Cessna 172 stall requires a lot of effort because she said this plane was built for students and is very forgiving. First she pulled the throttle out and pointed the nose down as if we we were coming in for an approach. I don't remember the airspeed but it slowed down a lot. Then she pitched up the nose to cause the stall. Right before the plane stalled I think I could hear a whine coming from the engine. Then the engine started to die and the nose started to go down. Then the engine just stopped and there was silence in the cockpit and the nose went down and we were in a free fall! I let go of the yoke (i was still holding it up to that point to get the feel of what she was doing) yelped in excitement and did a little clap. Meanwhile she pushed in the yoke as if pointing the nose down even further and added power. The engine started back up and the nose came up. She got her horizon back to level and then she brought the plane back up to 1,ooo feet! It was amazing and I feel like I could actually do it by myself next time! It wasn't hard at all which is a good thing for me because I'm gonna be a pro at them before I get signed off to solo. She gave back control of the airplane and I continued down the coastline. The turbulence had let up and the sun was pretty much in my eyes. Just then I looked out to the right and saw that I was at the same elevation as a Boeing 737! It was making an approach to Naha International Airport and I vowed out loud to take a camera with me from now on so my instructor can take a picture the next time that happens. I love commercial airliners so much that that experience made me realize , "Holy shit! I'm in the pilot's seat and I'm flying this hunk of metal myself!" At this same moment my husband saw both me and the B737 from our house. He had just gotten home with my girls and he said, "Mommy is flying that airplane!" and they were all excited for me. He was even more excited when I got home and told him I was actually flying it right then. A couple minutes later the instructor took back over and we descended to 800 feet and she put us on base as we set up for a visual approach. We encountered a good crosswind and we kinda crabbed our way in on final. about 100 feet above the approach end the wind was calm and we straightened out. I felt like we came in fast because I'm accustomed to seeing big C-130s and P-3s coming in nice and slow. It was a great landing and I helped her with the rudders and that was that. It was a great time.
The best time to fly is early in the morning on a clear day - about 0700 or so. I once flew from Naha North to mainland Japan, Fukuoka Airport. The way the sun hit the island made it look like a vibrant, colorful painting. It was so clear you could see for miles and you could see the coral and the bright blue water on the coastline. When you're not flying the plane it seems like it takes longer to travel the 62 mile length of the island but it was probably because I took in every inch of the scenery. Okinawa is a beautiful island both on the ground and in the air.
Comments