baptism of flight
This story is real (it happened to me)....I love aviation...but I've been terrified of heights since I was a child (poor me)
South America 2017, (with all that this means: poverty, very low quality aerodromes, poor professionalism, ... but with good and pleasant people .... and old planes, some too worn) (general aviation, small planes)
I was on vacation on the coast, when a small plane with a powerful loudspeaker announced that it was doing "tour" flights (from 20 minutes to half an hour) for a few "few" of money (pesos)... at the nearby aerodrome... .
only I like aviation (nobody in my family likes this)... but they liked the idea of going for a walk...
the next day we went to the place that was "called" an aerodrome... there were no fences, barriers, no security, no people,...the site was completely open...just a "house" with a high antenna... .very tall grass, 5 small planes scattered around the place (a cessna, 2 pipers and I think a twin-engine beech)... and in the distance a robinson r44 police helicopter parked. I approached all the planes, took photos, nobody came to see me, and I did not see people.
my family parked the car at the entrance of the house "sporadic atc tower".. we had lunch there....
then a man came out of a mobile home, we approached him and asked him about the ad... he said it was him, and that the cessna (old and silver) belonged to him. I live in South America there are a lot of poor people...so what he thought was "cheap"...for us it was "expensive"... (3 people on the flight = 1 month's salary)...he He went to "warm up" the cessna...he said he would leave in 20 minutes...my sister, my cousin and I decided to go....
...even though I was excited about getting on a plane for the FIRST TIME (not an airline plane like everyone else) he was very nervous about how high he would fly...he was determined not to look out the window on my side.
the pilot in the left seat, me as "co-pilot" in the right seat, my sister and my cousin in the back....there are no headset radios, just talking loudly.
From time to time he would say "check if the door is closed properly, sometimes it tends to open" (he checked himself stretching a little)
the runway was parallel to the coast...so the plane stayed on a runway heading as it climbed leveled at 1000ft (I think so...seemed so) turned 90 degrees to the right...heading for the coast. (when turned right...my right window tilted to the ground...I just looked straight ahead and up at the sky). When reached the coast, turned 90 degrees to the right... and flew along the coast.
things change at a certain height...on land the water looked "dirty-brown"...from the sky it looked dark blue. (back...my family took pictures of everything)....the tallest buildings were little lego blocks.
when he was flying level and straight... without saying anything, and with a smile on his face, the pilot pushed the stick very fast.... oh god !!!.... it only lasted 3 seconds... but I felt like I was falling into the void.
then he leveled again, this time he warned us to hold on, (I laughed on the outside, but cursed on the inside to go through that experience again)... on the sides of the door, the cessna had some "straps" or handles. ..I held on to them. the pilot pushed the stick again...5 seconds of rapid descent. he leveled it again and applied power to climb...the climb was also impressive...
Something I noticed is that he hardly looked at the controls (attitude, vertical speed...etc)... and that's because they didn't work!!! (During the descent or ascent the vsi did not mark anything... old plane, cheap flight)
