John Garrett imagined that flying a small plane would be like driving a car.
He learned otherwise when pilots in the Winston-Salem Civil Air
Patrol took him and seven other members of the Junior Air Force ROTC at North Forsyth High School in single-engine planes yesterday,
"There's a lot to do when you're in a plane," said Garrett, who took the controls from Capt. Rick Shoffner, who had leveled off the plane after takeoff from Smith Reynolds Airport.
At Shoffner's direction, Garrett flew the plane up beyond Pilot Mountain and back to the airport. He was too busy with the controls to notice North Forsyth when they flew over it, but fellow cadet Robert Shields, who, by the luck of a coin flip, was sitting in the back seat, was able to marvel at how small the school buses looked.
As they flew, Shields enjoyed taking it all in.
"I liked it a lot," Shields said. "I liked that you could look out and see everything — see the world."
When it was time to land, Shoffner retook the controls, and after the plane touched down, emerged from the cockpit and said: "We have two empty sick bags. It was a success."
When the students — rising 10th-graders — emerged, they were beaming, and Shields said, "I want to fly."
Shields had never been in a plane before. Garrett had been on a commercial flight but never in a small plane.
"This was very different," he said. "It was scary, but it was still a lot of fun."
This is the third year that the Winston-Salem Civil Air Patrol has worked with students at North Forsyth.
"We get kids who have flown before; we get kids who have never been on an airfield before," Maj. Glen Peting said.
The ROTC program at North Forsyth has about 100 students, 50 of whom were completing their first year in the program, said Col. Phil Bradley of the ROTC program.
The eight who flew yesterday were chosen from that first-year group.
"It's a reward," Bradley said. "These are students who have done well academically.… They have done a lot of community service on behalf of North."
The experience began with a briefing by Lt. Col. Bill Hawke, the commander of the Winston-Salem squadron. He filled in the students on details about how an airplane works, and which runway is which, and why you take off and land into the wind.
Hawke told them that the Cessna 172P, which has a 180-horsepower engine, can cruise at about 125 mph, but that they would be flying at about 100 mph, which seems pretty fast on the ground but not so fast in the air.
Hawke also told the students that he loves to fly.
"It kind of takes you away from the troubles of the world," Hawke said.
The Civil Air Patrol had two planes on hand that could take two cadets at a time, which meant that there would be two rounds of flights. After Garrett and Shields were assigned to Shoffner, he took them out to their plane for the pre-flight safety check.
"We always, always, always use a checklist," he said.
Checklist in hand, they examined the electrical system, the flaps, the ailerons, the rivets, the alternator belt and the tires. By the time they had made sure that there was no water in the fuel and that there was plenty of oil, they had checked off about 75 items.
They climbed into the cockpit, put on their headsets and buckled in. Shoffner started the engine, and they were on their way as the other cadets looked on.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement