One wonderful thing about airplanes is that each has a lesson to teach. All a new or old pilot has to do to learn the lessons of an airplane is keep his or her eyes and ears open.\u00a0 The airplane will do the rest.<\/p>\n
I was home on Christmas leave one year and went to the airport where I first worked as a flight instructor. \u00a0When I walked into the fixed base operator’s (FBO) office, I ran into a former student. \u00a0He was dressed professionally and said he was selling airplanes. \u00a0Good for him<\/em>, I thought.<\/p>\n “What are you selling?” I asked.<\/p>\n “The Phantom II ultra-light,” he quickly answered.<\/p>\n “Oh, OK,” I responded. “Not really an airplane.”<\/p>\n \u201cActually, it is<\/em> an airplane.\u00a0 It is more airplane than ultra-light.\u00a0 They designed it to take more positive and negative g than most airplanes.\u00a0 You want to try it out?\u00a0 Got one all set up for demo flights,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Visions of weight shift or warping wings came to mind and I said, \u201cNaw, I don\u2019t do ultra-lights.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll like this one,\u201d my student replied.\u00a0 \u201cIf you pass this opportunity up, you will always regret it.\u201d\u00a0 Then he moved into the hard sell.\u00a0 He showed me the construction drawings and details, explained how three axis controls operated like any other airplane, and he went over the weight numbers.\u00a0 He talked about the wing loading as well as power loading.\u00a0 My student said the airplane performed well in winds up to 20 knots.\u00a0 The more he talked, the more interested I became; turns out, he was quite a salesman.\u00a0 Almost two hours later, he convinced me into fly his demo model.\u00a0 (The video below sort of verifies my student’s claims of g capability, but I don’t believe I would ever go out and try such with an ultra-light.)<\/p>\n[youtube=http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=3p9uuOdSSq8&feature=related]\n I told him I could not buy one, and he said, \u201cThat\u2019s all right.\u00a0 Take it around the patch a time or two.\u00a0 Go have fun with it.\u201d<\/p>\n So I did.<\/p>\n And I had fun, also.<\/p>\n Really…, a lot <\/em>of fun.<\/p>\n I flew almost a couple of thousand hours off this little country grass airport.\u00a0 Every hour of dual instruction and every minute of charter flying was wonderful.\u00a0 I most enjoyed every second of personal pleasure flying.\u00a0 It was all fun.<\/p>\n But not nearly as fun as the fun as I had with that \u201cultra-light.\u201d<\/p>\n When I lifted, I saw a couple of guys hunting dove near the end of the runway.\u00a0 They stopped and waved.\u00a0 I had seen them before from the cockpits of Cessnas and Pipers, but they never paid any attention to those airplanes.<\/p>\n I flew over a school bus disgorging students.\u00a0 All the kids became excited and pointed to the little airplane and me and started shouting and jumping up and down.\u00a0 They never did that when other \u201cregular\u201d airplanes flew over.<\/p>\n I took the littlest airplane around the patch twice.\u00a0 The takeoffs were shockingly short and the landings shorter.\u00a0 The climb rate was phenomenal.\u00a0 In the air, she was a delight to fly.\u00a0 Feeling the wind on my face and tugging at my clothes reminded me of what flying was all about.<\/p>\n Yes, like all the other airplanes I had flown to date, the little ultra-light taught me a lesson.\u00a0 In her own way she taught me not to be prejudicial.\u00a0 Reminded me of some clich\u00e9 about judging books and covers…<\/p>\n She also reinforced the idea flying is fun, but that flying which allowed one to feel the wind against their face is especially delightful.<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" One wonderful thing about airplanes is that each has a lesson to teach. All a new or old pilot has to do to learn the lessons of an airplane is keep his or her eyes and ears open.\u00a0 The airplane … Continue reading