Piper @ MindSay

When I was younger, and had some "spare change", I pursued a private pilot's license.  I was alway into airplanes and space, but as probably everyone thinks to themselves, that can't be me.

One day, out on a ride on my motorcycle in the country outside of Austin, I spied a weird looking plane in the sky.  It was white, with 2 sets of wings - small ones in the front, and delta shaped in rear.  The propeller was in the back, and it had a bubble canopy.  I watched it get lower and lower - readying to land.  I follow the plane to a small airport.

Now, we Texans are (mostly) a friendly bunch of folks - we do have signs that say "Private Property", "Keep out", and such, but if you are nice and cordial and can find someone who lives/works/owns it there, you can usually get in.  So, I followed the plane to the hanger where it was parking.  Inside was another one of those planes being worked on by a couple of old men - retired.

The planes were call Long-EZ:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutan_Long-EZ



I got to talking to the men, about the costs, amount of time to make these planes and such.  I expressed a great desire to fly with one of the - if possible, since I had only done simulators and big jumbo jet.  Well, one of the men said that since "these" planes were experimental, only one person can fly at a time.  BUT, if I came back the next day, he'd bring his cessna and take me up.  I stayed around trying to soak up the stuff the guys were doing, lending a hand where I could.  I thanked everyone, and took off for the evening.

Well, of course I was there the next day with bells on.  We met and he walked me around plane, pointing out the equipment.  He gave me a pair of headphones and I got in the "passengers" seat.  There are two sets of control in front of both seat.  Main difference is that the key is on the "driver's" seat side.  He walked me through the gauges - I had known about most of them through my sim experience.  We plugged in headphones, gave a "Testing 1 2 3" to make sure we could hear each other.  CONTACT!  and the engine roared to life.  Taxied over to the runway - making sure it was clear.  Onto the runway, full power, and we started to race down toward the end.

These planes are very light and it doesn't take too much space to get airborne.  But see, here comes the problem.  Today was a hot day, and with hot days comes something called "thermals".  These are those pockets of air that are unstable and toss the plane around, making for a bumpy ride.  Almost immediately my thoughts of flying turned into horror, with all the bouncing around.  I love to ride rollercoasters, but the deal with them, is that you can SEE the bumps and prepare yourself.  NOT with flying - every one is invisible.

I didn't get sick (I don't), but just could not really enjoy the flight.  We flew away from the airport, and we climbed to 4000 feet.  We did some circles, banking the plane left and right, and I got some amazing views out the window.  He turned it over to me, I did a little bit of controlling the plane, and then back to the airport for the landing.

I was hooked, but with the bumpy ride, really re-evaluated my desires of flying.  Right on the airport was a flight school, so went and talked with the instructor - price, time, materials, etc.

And, I started taking lessons.  Once a month.