The day I flew a plane!!

Well, again from hearsays in my socializations I came to know about a flying club in Daejon. And every year the club opens with an open day where they allow the newbies at one third the usual prices as promotional offers. So was anticipating another exciting experience and you bet it was a good thing amidst the lull for the past few weeks. [Got a lot of queries about new updates on the blog...but nothing was really happening worth writing about]. So here it is now..

The venue was shifted from Daechon Beach [which is around 2 hours drive from Daejon] to the outskirts of Daejon [just around 30 mins from our place], so we started at around 9 am and reached with the group [Carol, Henning, Adrienne, Bobby, Matthew, Anshuman & Me]to the location..a nice riverside place close to the site where a new city called 'Happy Town' is being constructed right from scratch...roads, buildings, subwaylines etc.. They say, since Seoul is getting overburdened, some of the government offices will be shifted to the new town. Though could not get a glimpse of it on our way there..got it when I was in the air around 2 hours later.
We were with Matthew, the owner of the club who has been a commercial pilot for 15 years before coming to Korea from England. So we had some introductory talks on our way.



I was so excited that even the car we drove in, with its doors open looked to me as if it would fly. :)



Matthew told us that since his new plane was not ready yet, he had hired some other plane for the day. And just after a quick round of coffees we got in the hanger to see the 'Angelfish' [its the name of the plane!]




Matthew briefed us about the basics of flying, the Angelfish and controlling during flight. Angelfish has a 65 HorsePower 2 stroke engine. In a short while we were ready to take off!

I was not the first one, but the excitement did not die down as I kept myself busy with the photography..and in fact I was using Carol's SLR with a 200 mm lens..so it was amazing! Here are some that I liked..

The take Off....


Up...UP..



..and Away....








There were some really nice scaled models kept on display in the office & premises of the club.





And finally it was my turn!!


The cockpit was really really small..but cozy. The controls were minimal and not complicated.



Matthew was my Flight Instructor. He told that it is so noisy up there that to talk with each other we have to use the head-phone mike systems.


We were ready to take off..The long runway gave me goosebumps but they were fleeting..


..and before we knew we were in the air.


[Video by: Anshuman (Shot during his flight)]

It was a little windy which is not good for light aircrafts, so Matthew was really concerned about handing me over all the controls. So I engaged in some aerial photography..







The bridges in the distance are being constructed as expressways to the new city.




There were ducks idling in the afternoon sun..






And as I was nearing the end of my round I could see my group..






[Video by: Anshuman (Shot during his flight)]

Phew!! That was amazing...another exciting outing came to an end. It was getting more windy, so Matthew requested Bobby and Anshuman, who had missed out, to come the next day.

We all took a group picture and went for a lunch in a nearby town, Jochiwon, in a chinese restaurant and returned but not before Anshuman & I made plans for the next day... :)


The Group [left to right : Henning, Adrienne, Carol, Bobby, Me, Matthew & Anshuman]