Flying a plane

I had a memorable experience - an adventure flying an aeroplane.

My colleague Dr Yoshihito is a pilot. He flies an aeroplane every month to keep his pilot license active. So I got an opportunity to fly with him from Elstree Aerodrome.

The weather was sunny and calm with no strong winds. We checked the wind direction so that we can choose the opposite direction for take-off on the runway. I wore safety visor jacket on top of my clothes as per airport rules. 

We boarded Cessna 152 aeroplane (code named G-BPME) and we didn't have to refuel it despite its recent use by someone ahead of us as there was enough for our short flight. We flew the plane for about 1 hour from 1 pm onwards. The highlight of the session was that I even took control of the plane for about 1 minute under his expert supervision.

It was a unique experience to be in front of all the flight controls. Any knob is just a arm reach away so in some sense it is also frightening that by mistake I might flip some switch on. It was exciting to talk over intercom despite being seated right next to each other as it is impossible to hear anything over the thunderous plane engine noise.

It was a once in a lifetime experience.