It was supposed to be one hour fly after training in a simulator for an hour.
I was all happy when my instructor said "let’s go fly directly, no simulator". But he never had a hint this is not going to be his day.
All my imagination - quick squirmy – falling from the sky, flight wreck, engine burst…came and went off.
May be it’s the mind adjustment to think all possible bad before we step in and get convinced that we are prepared for the worst.
And I never thought one of them was going to be true today!
"No lessons?"
"Yep. No". (What does he really mean?)
The lady in the phone confirmed my appointment at 11:00 am and "only... only if the weather was good".
Good, everything was. Sky was at its fullest blue. No sign of a cloud.
Headed directly to this cute little charter plane, four seater - “she had my wings”! Instructor pulled out a big check list with 4 pages.
He has to mark all the check boxes; part of them is external check and most of them are at dashboard.
“hmmm, there is a reason for all the flight delays”
Climbed on the wings and jumped into the seat through the single door of the plane. I moved to the left seat and the instructor took the right seat near the window. (Indeed, it was the right seat)
He taught me few little things about the tools around the driver seat and left explaining about too many meters on the dashboard – 100 eyes on a nose less face!
Most important of them were Control column with Yoke – Imagine the Joy stick, the Rudder Pedals – this is unimaginable, in sense, they are just like pedals in car but here they are used to steer. “What? Pedals to steer?”
On the ground, i.e., on the runway - except for a fault landing - the pedals are used to steer. Two pedals; first half of them are breaks and the lower half pushes the plane; left and (or) right. On the air – as we know – it’s the Yoke, the steering. I drove the plane on the runway for a certain distance. The car gear is the throttle, here. “Planes are not cars”.
Set with the headphone and mike. Even for someone like me – obsessed with the headphones – This Bosch was BIG. Literally! We could hear different pilots connecting to ATC – Air traffic controller – and getting signals for take off and landing. Imagine the wide mouthed walkie-talkies our policemen have. They call it Radio but no music. And…. my goodness you can’t listen to music when you drive plane?
Yoke had a mike button. That will let ATC hear us. I had one on my yoke too.
Instructor whispered, “You are never going to push that button unless I had a heart attack and become numb”
“Roger that”
I did manage to balance the flight on the runway, steering on my foot. Instructor would have not noticed, to press the pedals strongly, I was already rising from the seat halfway to stand.
He told me “you are good at balancing. We call it “negative transformation”. Most people find it hard to steer on the legs, if they’d driven the car to this flight school by themselves”. I had my “negative transformation” - a bike to car - when I first drove the car in US! Was searching for gear shift with my legs and pressing hard the steering wheel to accelerate!
Flight took off just with few meters run on the road. He took the control during the take off and gave back the control when I was flapping my wings in the air. I never thought it would be this easy to fly a plane – don’t I really need to know lot of physics and bit of differential and Integral calculus? –Yep, no (?) when you have the instructor nearby. He asked me to play with the Yoke, turn however I want to. All the turns will be too steep with a great slide. No normal – parallel to the ground – turns. But before each such steep turn, he confirmed if my stomach was good. We were flying more than an hour just gazing the beautiful Pacific and the tormented terrains.
All was fine until the GPS went off. Plane had two GPS – Garmin – I really dint understand why we need it. (Exit in 1 mile and take 2nd from the left lane to turn right?) It was showing us on some route but now both the GPS went black. Just in a minute time our Radio became too quiet. Wow, how beautiful the world is when you listen to nothing while flying. But that’s not the case, all the meters started to flicker – just as in any Hollywood blockbuster – and all the needles went to sleep. I pretended as if Ididn't notice and I was too busy in getting the plane nose down and up. “I am balancing”.
Instructor figured it out, the battery is down but the alternate battery is not up yet.
“Should I do something now?”; “Does this plane have any parachutes?”; “Is it possible to charge the batteries on the air – we are close to sun, isn't it?”
In matter of no time, he realized that we are lost in the air. Lost connection with the ground and if this continues, no one from ground can reach us. He asked me to take full control of the plane for sometime.
“I thought that’s what I was doing all this time. No?”
He asked me to keep looking out the windows for other planes. – This is the only way to ensure that there are no planes crossing our way and to get rid of them without a dash – the lesson learnt. But I am concerned. How am I going to look for the planes behind? No rear mirrors with the ever beautiful proverb – “Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear”.
He took his mobile and tried reaching out the flight school. No network. Are we that far high from the towers? But we should be close to satellites, I thought. I didn't really ask him, “oh you are also with AT&T?”
Drove the plane in different directions to fish the network in the blue sky. (This metaphor was possible only after I realized I was still real). Flight school persons little panicked and they asked to stay wherever we are until they reach ATC to get hold of us. (You guys might literally have to hold us. But where are we?). We were asked to look for a point of references.
How far are you from the sea? Can you see any runway nearby? Do you see any tall white building? How far are the hills from you?
The calm gentleman, the instructor turned little frustrated and cried f***. that’s when I felt – should I be scared of something now? He sent an emergency code through a small electronic device. He taught me about the different codes and their purposes. “This will be the last device to go off in this plane”, he added. – “Man, you are a real instructor. You still want to teach me something?”
It’s already extra 45 mins on air that we are trying to figure out a way to land down. The fuel indicator is also still sleeping. He gave a confidence, “we have fuel to fly for half more day”. (It was almost 1:00 PM. half day window will let us watch sunset through the window. Then...... all will be set)
He tried to connect to the radio and every time when he did, we will only hear “Yes, we can hear you. Can you hear me?”, then the radio will sigh down as if it boozed all night. Meanwhile, I was doing my part perfectly. Kept the plane very plain. It didn't dance, it didn't somersault, no giggle, no wiggle!
But I think I annoyed him when I was continuously spotting the different planes flying on the air. “nareeean, that’s a chopper. We don’t have to worry about it. Hmmmm thanks, anyway!”
At last, through the mobile, we were asked to catch up few reference points and come near to Santa Ana airport. We were told that the green lights will flash on the runway indicating us to land on that particular track. We were asked to give few rounds above the airport and all other flight landing and take off will be held for five minutes. (On Sat noon, if you were any sort of a victim for a flight delay in SNA airport, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused!)
Found the runway with green lights flashing and the instructor quickly grabbed the spot and rubbed the road. Felt like everyone at airport were just looking at us. All the eyes were on us, I imagined. But “No breaking news, guys”. Docked the plane with a chain.
He turned towards me and said – “I am very embarrassed. I am sorry”.
“Why”
“It was my mistake. I missed to turn on the alternate battery switch before take off. When the battery went down, I tried to turn on the Alt battery but it drained everything out.”
(aah…If it was me, I would have never accepted it)
“No. actually, thanks. You made this trip very exciting. Else, it would have been a very normal flight.”
“Good to know you enjoyed it!”
(oohhf, where’s my car?)
Walked up to the flight school lobby. Everyone was so excited to see us back in full.
The receptionist (receptionist at reception; why is it not lobbyist at lobby? In a way or other, they actually are) stared at me and managed to smile and say “hello, how was the flight? Did you enjoy it”.
“Of course” (I need water, please)
The instructor, “he didn't panic. That was surprising.”
Didn't I ask for water? I raised my volume a little “Can I have water, please?”
The lobby went to silence. After a gulp, “yeah. I really enjoyed the trip. Can I leave now?”
I was given a pilot log book and asked me to sign on the first day log.
I was pretty sure that this guy is going to remember me for long time and I will come to his mind when he gets his appraisal results.
Receptionist, with all the laugh she could make, asked my instructor “Did he shout – oh Jesus”?
He replied “he would have not certainly done that today”.
On my way out, I noticed my instructor’s badge. His name – Jesus Morra!
The charming nature of this duo is heavily built on the comedy as much as it is on detective and stunt skills. The games mystical moves are well balanced and that make this fantasy action more brainy! The Europe was brought back to its early 18s but the mythical darkness only gives more dramatic atmosphere.
