The Teaser Flight

I've always wanted to learn to fly an airplane.

I finally decided to pull the trigger. I chose Advanced Aviation in Lawrenceville, GA. http://http//advancedaviation.com/ They are within a few miles of my house, so that is convenient. I scheduled a $59 teaser flight for 12:00 Saturday (9/20/08) with Darick.

The fact of the matter is I've always been tense on commercial flights. Takeoffs, landings, turbulence, and strange mechanical noises always give me at least a little pause, if not make my heart skip a beat. So I was both excited and terrified at my maiden flight.

The anxiety of it all didn't really begin setting in until Saturday morning. My wife, Cynthia, had some errands to run that afternoon. So I was home alone watching TV with one eye on the clock counting the minutes until I needed to leave for the airport.

11:30 rolled around and I decided to head out. Drove to CVS for a bottled water and some cash. 11:45. No more excuses for delay. I drove out to the Gwinnett County airport. Briscoe Blvd is a strip of road, approximately 3/4 mile in length, where flight school offices, garages, hangars, and the like are located. Advanced Aviation occupies the upstairs of a shared office complex on Briscoe Blvd.

I got signed in and met the instructor I would fly with, Darick. Anxiety levels were holding steady at about medium/low. I followed Darick outside and around back to the ramp (where planes are parked). This is where my anxiety peaked: when I saw the plane.


I had assumed we would be in a larger, twin engine type that we could move around in - like the ones you see in movies. Not so. This little 2 seater is a Diamond DA-20. It's a trainer aircraft made of very light, sturdy composite material. It is tiny. Later I would be told that the DA-20 is statistically the safest trainer aircraft around: newer than the Cessnas and Pipers, better avionics, easy to fly, and stable.


At 6 feet / 200 lbs, this was the only point where I truly considered backing out. I swallowed my fear and decided to continue, trusting in Darick to keep us safe. We climbed into the cockpit, nice and cozy. Once inside, Darick finished the preflight and we buckled up. The belt buckles are 2 straps that cross lap and chest and snap together in the middle. We donned our headsets and the plane started up. Some recorded weather conditions came over the radio. Darick had an exchange with ATC and then jotted down some information they read out to him. I can't wait to learn this stuff.

The ATC radio chatter can be hard to make out. We taxied out of the ramp and toward the runway. Darick used only the rudder pedals to drive the plane around on the ground. We positioned facing down the runway and stopped. A short while later, I heard ATC say "cleared for takeoff". We throttled up and were speeding down the runway.

Every day people deal with "points of no return". Merging onto the interstate, for example. We deal with them every day without thinking about it. They don't feel like momentous commitments because we do them all the time. Takeoff was a new point of no return for me, which is a rare and special thing. You can't pull over to the side of the road. There are no questions. You are committed.

We lifted off at what felt like was 50 or 60 mph. It was different from commercial airline liftoffs; it was lighter and easier. I did not feel like air cargo. I was flying. Our little DA-20 had turned into a bird. Darick let me control the stick while we climbed and leveled out. The stick controls the nose pitch and wing tilt by raising and lowering surfaces on the wings and tail. Hold your hand out the window of a moving car and change the angle. Tilt up and your hand lifts, tilt down and it falls. Same principle.

Every once in a while we would hit these little pockets where the plane would lurch downward for an instant which gave me minor stomach butterflies. Darick said those were "thermals", pockets of hot air rising up from the ground due to the clear, sunny day. If you think about flying as "swimming" through air, it makes sense that different sized water molecules (warm air is less dense than cool air) would feel different to the swimmer as he passes through them. Columns of hot air will actually displace the airplane upward and then passing out of the warm column, the plane "falls" back down relative to the cooler air. We flew around for about 20 minutes.

Darick had a few more ATC exchanges over the radio, and then lined up for landing. We just sort of glided in steadily, held right above ground level for a moment, and then throttled back which lowered us into contact with the runway. He made it look so much easier than it probably is. The DA-20's lightweight composite construction makes for a smoother more efficient flight, but renders them more sensitive to winds than their heavier Cessna and Piper counterparts.

We taxied back to the ramp. I was already sad it was over - hopelessly addicted. I met the president of the Advanced Aviation, Bruce, who was extremely informative and helpful. He was once a CPA - a desk jockey like myself.

Flying that plane was the most fun I've ever had. I want to learn about everything: the avionics, the flight physics, ATC procedures, everything. Once I get my private license, I want to fly my wife to Apalachicola, FL airport and celebrate by eating the best oysters on the planet at Boss Oyster.

My next flight, and first real lesson, is Friday 9/26/08. I cannot wait to get back out there.