My Flight

I didn't know how much traffic there was going to be so I left a little early. When John got there we drove over to the hangar, and did the pre-flight checks such as checking fuel level and quality. Had to make sure that they color was blue-ish. Look the plane is pregnant!

I got a an introduction to all the instruments and was told what each did and what to look for. Yes, they do look just like the flight simulator but this is an older Navy Trainer. Still looked cool to me! One thing that instantly caught my attention was when John took the parachutes out of the plane and left them in the hangar. We were going to be too low to use them. Nice thought, huh?

Don't you like the fighter stick? It was really sensitive; just use slight pressure to get the plane to go where you want. Reminds me of the thrustmaster joystick.

Once we got in the airborne, and leveled off, I took this self-portrait. I decided to take the 50mm just to keep things compact. I wish I had taken the 16-35mm but using one hand was kind of interesting. The headset had a gelatin type seal, it felt kind of weird.

At first, the weather was overcast but a little later things cleared up and we headed south down to Chula Vista. I got this shot of where Heather plays softball.

I had to duplicate a Microsoft Virtual Maps shot, by banking the plane left. Before I left this morning, I saw a car in front of my house that matched a model that was given to me a while back, a little convertible. I could clearly see that it was still in front of my house when I flew over!

We had to call the Brown Field tower to let them know we were in the area loitering around.

I had to take this shot of John because he looks like a giant M&M...don't you agree? He must have heard me because at this point, we did some barrel rolls and 3.5 g maneuvers, and banked hard left and right. Remember my headset? Camera or Headset? Which would you let go of? Yup, I had to chase the headset around the cockpit! John just looked at me in his little mirror.

We landed safely, and backed the plane to the hangar. John took this shot of me getting out of the plane. Notice how the canopy slides back? That's the air conditioning since it gets really hot up there. I slid the canopy back to take some of the pictures. BTW, Don't stick your hand out of the canopy!

Now I know what goes into getting that weather report from your local news station. The lady was already inside and strapped in as I passed.

Just call the gas truck and poof - $5.00 a gallon gas filling the wing! The gas smells like model glue.

Finally, you gotta fill out the flight log. I had a blast. After the flight, I got the grand tour of the Gillespie airport. A flight show is scheduled for the rest of the weekend and everyone was busy getting ready. This is when I headed back down to Chula Vista to join Mariah's graduation celebration.

I have about 150 more photos doing the barrel rolls, scenery, etc...I don't know if I'll post them. And no matter how I format this post. Blogger goobers it up!