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Some of you may have heard some may not have, Nilam, Dipti and I took a flight lesson at Windham Airport near the University of Connecticut last weekend.

It was the coolest thing, you all should do it. The most amazing thing about the flight lesson was that we actually got to do almost everything with the flight including take off and landing (with help).

first 20 minutes or so was checking out the airplane by doing things like, making sure the fuel is clean, the rivets on the wings are in good shape, the flaps on the wings and the tail can move without any obstruction, and that when you pushed certain buttons in the cockpit the right parts moved on the plane, (that was important). The checks and balances process also helped build a lot of anticipation and add to the funny feeling in the stomach.

Next we all got into the plane put on our headsets. I was the first to fly the plane, the instructor showed me how to do a few things and then let me taxi the plane to the run way. Although I kept pulling to the left, I did alright. The instructor seat and the student seat had all parallel controls so he could take over anytime. He helped me position the plane on the runway and pulled a red knob to set the propeller at full throttle. we were accelerating very fast now, our heads felt like they weighed like 40 pounds. Once we were over 100 miles an hour he asked me pull back on the yoke. I pulled back and we were in the air… this was the scariest thing. Suddenly any small movement I made with the yoke the plane would respond with very large movements and we would all feel it, like we were in a roller coaster. After about 10 minutes, Nilam in the back of the plane, I guess could take my high turbulence topgun style flying and got sick in the plane. I personally believe it was the 4 or 5 oranges she had on the way to the airport, but that’s just me. She asked for a vomit bag. The instructor just let go of the controls and started looking for the vomit bag, I was about the pee my pants.. I had the entire controls of the plane. This was definitely the scariest moment of the whole experience. Anyways after that he said alright let me take it from here, he brought us back and landed us.

Next it was Dipti’s turn, I went with Dipti. She got to almost fully take off the plane; we did 2 circles around her college. Which was cool because it was my college too.. She definitely had a much rougher flying style then I did, or may be it was just that I was in the back of the plane this time. But at one point she was making a steep turn and the plane was at a 60 degree angle. After the instructor recovered the plane Dipti commenced flying again. Dipti even got to land the plane with very little help.

By this time Nilam was on the ground, and had thrown up like 3 times in the bathroom. She felt like she had cleared everything there was to clear and was ready for her flight. We all got into the plane again and Nilam took off and after about a 3 minute flight she was ready to come back to ground. But it was still a thrill filled 3 minutes. The instructor landed the plane and we were all happy to be on solid ground once and for all.

Hope this inspires you to try this out for your self.

Enjoy the pictures.

Ashish

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