SkyHog
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2005
- Messages
- 18,431
- Location
- Castle Rock, CO
- Display Name
Display name:
Everything Offends Me
Quite possibly.
I woke up this morning and gathered up my things (things being my flight bag, my logbook and my kneeboard) and headed to Sarasota-Bradenton Airport.
I got checked out by one of the coolest and nicest flight instructors I'd flown with to date. We started up and went over a few of the local procedures and I jumped on the radio....still just as comfortable as ever on the radio, apparently you don't lose radio skills after a near year hiatus from flying.
But I knew I'd be flying an airplane shortly, and I was admittedly a bit nervous on how I'd perform. I took off from Sarasota and headed out to the coastline and flew south towards Venice. Along the way, the CFI had me do a steep turn, which I nailed. Then he had me enter slow flight, which I was doing pretty good at, but totally forgot about keeping altitude, I had everything else right, I dunno...brain lapse.
While in slow flight, the CFI had me do a slow flight turn to the exact opposite heading, where he had me do a poweroff stall and recovery, which I absolutely nailed. I was hitting my headings and my altitudes nearly perfectly....I was truly amazed at how easy this was today.
So he tells me, I've seen enough, lets go back to the airport. Again, called up Tampa Approach and flew in to do a landing, which I squeaked. He tells me "that's enough, you're good." I was not current and I needed to be, so I asked him if we could do two more, so I was VFR current again, and he agreed, so we did two more touch and goes, and aside from a squirelly little bit of sideload on touchdown on one, they were all very nice landings. I was filled with pride.
But the important part of the day was coming up...
My grandfather had been standing by, watching me fly. He used to fly, about 40 years ago, but had stopped when he got diabetes. He's always loved flying, and had mentioned a few times that he really missed it. When he learned that I had gotten my PPL, he had mentioned to family members that he wished he could fly with me.
So I loaded him up into the rental 172 and we took off. We got up a ways, turned to our assigned heading, and I told him "Grandpa, its your plane." He was astounded, grinned, and took the controls.
I should explain, my grandfather is not doing well at all. His body is frail, and his mind is not really there much anymore. He loses his train of thought easily, and cannot finish sentences very well. As soon as his feet hit the rudders and his hands hit the yoke (both hands, like driving a car, btw), he reverted to young mode again.
And so I let him fly. He flew us south, along the coast, while we looked for his house. We got down about as far as Venice and he turned around and we headed north. I noticed he was climbing, but I let it go, because he seemed to be really in control of this airplane. We were above Sarasota's Class C airspace at this time, so we flew right over it and continued higher and higher. At about 9000ft, I pointed out the Sunshine Bridge and he laughed and started to turn right...I didn't even mention Tampa's Class B in front of us, but he avoided it.
So we're flying right towards clouds, and I mention "Grandpa, we should turn to avoid those clouds," and he snapped back "oh yeah, sorry, I forgot." At that point we were about 10,500 ft and still climbing, so I was afraid the lack of oxygen was getting to him a bit, so I took the controls and began our descent for some more playing. He was still grinning pretty good and asked why we were turning away from the airport (he thought the flight was done).
I took him a bit of the way out over the gulf and we started to talk about spatial disorientation due to no horizon (with the haze, I could totally see that being an issue on days like today). I could not believe how pert he seemed during the flight.
We headed back to Sarasota and landed, another nice smooth landing (nasty approach though, the wall off runway 14 really spins up that wind at about 100 feet). As I tied down the plane, my grandpa still seemed pretty good.
He went back to the frail version of himself when we got home. I'd like to think that this was good for him, and since I don't think he'll be around much longer (a month or 2, most likely), I hope this sticks with him for the rest of his time.
Pictures:
1. Grandpa takes the controls and starts to fly
2. Looking over the coastline
3. Grandpa is focusing on flying
4. Grandpa looking for traffic
5. Siesta Key from my seat
6. The Sunshine Bridge
7. Tampa Bay
8. Out over the Gulf of Mexico
9. Climbing near clouds
10. The line of clouds
11. Another view of Sunshine Bridge
I woke up this morning and gathered up my things (things being my flight bag, my logbook and my kneeboard) and headed to Sarasota-Bradenton Airport.
I got checked out by one of the coolest and nicest flight instructors I'd flown with to date. We started up and went over a few of the local procedures and I jumped on the radio....still just as comfortable as ever on the radio, apparently you don't lose radio skills after a near year hiatus from flying.
But I knew I'd be flying an airplane shortly, and I was admittedly a bit nervous on how I'd perform. I took off from Sarasota and headed out to the coastline and flew south towards Venice. Along the way, the CFI had me do a steep turn, which I nailed. Then he had me enter slow flight, which I was doing pretty good at, but totally forgot about keeping altitude, I had everything else right, I dunno...brain lapse.
While in slow flight, the CFI had me do a slow flight turn to the exact opposite heading, where he had me do a poweroff stall and recovery, which I absolutely nailed. I was hitting my headings and my altitudes nearly perfectly....I was truly amazed at how easy this was today.
So he tells me, I've seen enough, lets go back to the airport. Again, called up Tampa Approach and flew in to do a landing, which I squeaked. He tells me "that's enough, you're good." I was not current and I needed to be, so I asked him if we could do two more, so I was VFR current again, and he agreed, so we did two more touch and goes, and aside from a squirelly little bit of sideload on touchdown on one, they were all very nice landings. I was filled with pride.
But the important part of the day was coming up...
My grandfather had been standing by, watching me fly. He used to fly, about 40 years ago, but had stopped when he got diabetes. He's always loved flying, and had mentioned a few times that he really missed it. When he learned that I had gotten my PPL, he had mentioned to family members that he wished he could fly with me.
So I loaded him up into the rental 172 and we took off. We got up a ways, turned to our assigned heading, and I told him "Grandpa, its your plane." He was astounded, grinned, and took the controls.
I should explain, my grandfather is not doing well at all. His body is frail, and his mind is not really there much anymore. He loses his train of thought easily, and cannot finish sentences very well. As soon as his feet hit the rudders and his hands hit the yoke (both hands, like driving a car, btw), he reverted to young mode again.
And so I let him fly. He flew us south, along the coast, while we looked for his house. We got down about as far as Venice and he turned around and we headed north. I noticed he was climbing, but I let it go, because he seemed to be really in control of this airplane. We were above Sarasota's Class C airspace at this time, so we flew right over it and continued higher and higher. At about 9000ft, I pointed out the Sunshine Bridge and he laughed and started to turn right...I didn't even mention Tampa's Class B in front of us, but he avoided it.
So we're flying right towards clouds, and I mention "Grandpa, we should turn to avoid those clouds," and he snapped back "oh yeah, sorry, I forgot." At that point we were about 10,500 ft and still climbing, so I was afraid the lack of oxygen was getting to him a bit, so I took the controls and began our descent for some more playing. He was still grinning pretty good and asked why we were turning away from the airport (he thought the flight was done).
I took him a bit of the way out over the gulf and we started to talk about spatial disorientation due to no horizon (with the haze, I could totally see that being an issue on days like today). I could not believe how pert he seemed during the flight.
We headed back to Sarasota and landed, another nice smooth landing (nasty approach though, the wall off runway 14 really spins up that wind at about 100 feet). As I tied down the plane, my grandpa still seemed pretty good.
He went back to the frail version of himself when we got home. I'd like to think that this was good for him, and since I don't think he'll be around much longer (a month or 2, most likely), I hope this sticks with him for the rest of his time.
Pictures:
1. Grandpa takes the controls and starts to fly
2. Looking over the coastline
3. Grandpa is focusing on flying
4. Grandpa looking for traffic
5. Siesta Key from my seat
6. The Sunshine Bridge
7. Tampa Bay
8. Out over the Gulf of Mexico
9. Climbing near clouds
10. The line of clouds
11. Another view of Sunshine Bridge
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Sounds like you both thoroughly enjoyed the flight.
