OMG MOST INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
OK kiddos, for the unaware...I GOT TO FLY A PLANE TODAY!!!! [courtesy of AFROTC of course.]
ps sorry if the pics are too big, I did my best, but all are so crazy good I couldn't not put them in this post.
I met my fellow [and senior] cadet, C/Major Andrew Arnott at the UW at 1310 -- he called me to say he'd be a little late. I expected him to pull up in typical car, but alas, no. Suddenly I heard a "Hello Cadet Shaw!" as a guy in a topless 1980 Corvette zooms by. Let's just say the trip to Boeing Field via highway was incredible.
Once we got there, met the instuctor pilot, and got a debriefing on the plane, we hopped in. Here's the inside of the Cessna 182 that I flew:
Before taking off, the instructor pilot went through the safety precautions, all of which included "If this plane crashes..." which of course did nothing for my nerves of being in a small aircraft for the first time.
Cadet Arnott took the backseat first:
taking off from boeing field:
yay I-5!:
SeaTown fo schizzle:
at this point I shall inform ya'll that my instructor pilot was Cal Wilkinson, a guy who worked on a patent for the space shuttle with my dad years ago at boeing!! Small world? yep. Preferential treatment? haha YES.
front seat flyin!!:
Allow me to inform you that despite his age, Cal is a fearless one. For example:
"One thing you don't want to do when you fly is pull back too fast on the controls" [he pulls back on the controls, nose goes straight up, stomachs turn inside out]
"Nor do you want push forward to fast" "Don't turn the plane suddenly" "Hey, wanna find out what happens to a plane when you shut off its engines in midair?" FYI there was no hesitation whatsoever on Cal's part when it came to demonstrating these things multiple times :-!
After I flew for awhile [including a circumnavigation of an island and almost into a Marines no fly zone], we landed at a random airport in the middle of nowhere and at The Spruce Goose Cafe. This is where Cal told us his life story as well as where we learned that he worked with my dad on a space shuttle patent. We took off an hour later, this time with C/Arnott in the front seat...
...which meant backseat time for me. no probs, i had fun back there taking pictures of the area and of course, of myself:
think this is the sky? think again, it's the sky reflected in the serenly beautiful, mirror-like water:
Olympics and Cascades = beautiful.
this is what happens when you give up the front seat -- you learn to really trust your fellow cadet as he pulls a 360 in midair:
redmond, WA:
my elementary school:
my house is in the very left top corner, half cut off -- say Dad, where did the Rabbit go?:
me and Cal:
in sum: USAF, hell yeah.
ps sorry if the pics are too big, I did my best, but all are so crazy good I couldn't not put them in this post.
I met my fellow [and senior] cadet, C/Major Andrew Arnott at the UW at 1310 -- he called me to say he'd be a little late. I expected him to pull up in typical car, but alas, no. Suddenly I heard a "Hello Cadet Shaw!" as a guy in a topless 1980 Corvette zooms by. Let's just say the trip to Boeing Field via highway was incredible.
Once we got there, met the instuctor pilot, and got a debriefing on the plane, we hopped in. Here's the inside of the Cessna 182 that I flew:
Before taking off, the instructor pilot went through the safety precautions, all of which included "If this plane crashes..." which of course did nothing for my nerves of being in a small aircraft for the first time.
Cadet Arnott took the backseat first:
taking off from boeing field:
yay I-5!:
SeaTown fo schizzle:
at this point I shall inform ya'll that my instructor pilot was Cal Wilkinson, a guy who worked on a patent for the space shuttle with my dad years ago at boeing!! Small world? yep. Preferential treatment? haha YES.
front seat flyin!!:
Allow me to inform you that despite his age, Cal is a fearless one. For example:
"One thing you don't want to do when you fly is pull back too fast on the controls" [he pulls back on the controls, nose goes straight up, stomachs turn inside out]
"Nor do you want push forward to fast" "Don't turn the plane suddenly" "Hey, wanna find out what happens to a plane when you shut off its engines in midair?" FYI there was no hesitation whatsoever on Cal's part when it came to demonstrating these things multiple times :-!
After I flew for awhile [including a circumnavigation of an island and almost into a Marines no fly zone], we landed at a random airport in the middle of nowhere and at The Spruce Goose Cafe. This is where Cal told us his life story as well as where we learned that he worked with my dad on a space shuttle patent. We took off an hour later, this time with C/Arnott in the front seat...
...which meant backseat time for me. no probs, i had fun back there taking pictures of the area and of course, of myself:
think this is the sky? think again, it's the sky reflected in the serenly beautiful, mirror-like water:
Olympics and Cascades = beautiful.
this is what happens when you give up the front seat -- you learn to really trust your fellow cadet as he pulls a 360 in midair:
redmond, WA:
my elementary school:
my house is in the very left top corner, half cut off -- say Dad, where did the Rabbit go?:
me and Cal:
in sum: USAF, hell yeah.