I FLEW A PLANE TODAY!

APRIL 17th: TODAY I JUST FEW A PLANE!

I was so excited! For years, one of my biggest dream as a kid was to fly a plane. Flying a plane was the oldest aspiration I ever remember having in my life, even older than the “permanent” current aspirations like being a physical, joining the military, skydiving, etc. So to FINALLY do it after nearly 4 months of planning it out REALLY means something to me near and dear.

FLASHBACK: (3:00 pm)

So I arrive at Stinson Municipal Airport (KSSF) a couple minutes early. My mom took me instead of driving myself as my mom wanted to see me fly so badly and agreed to let her watch as she wanted to see this for YEARS and wanted to see if I was “bullshitting” or not. As I arrived to the airport at first my heart sunk in sadness 💔 my flight was CANCELLED 💔🙏 I never received the email to reschedule my flight appointment as my CFI (certified flight instructor) got a illness. But some  LEGEND CFI (and I thanked this dude SO hard) had some time off and asked me “hey man you wanna fly” and my eyes LIT UP. Like a baby trying a sugary meal for the first time and I barely could contain my excitement and nodded my head like a happy kid.

(The plane I flew was a DA40 DIAMOND and its registration code was N386JP.)

GROUND: (~3:08-3:30)

As I was on the ground, I was doing a checklist of the plane and what we checked was the gasoline, check the oil, check the exhaust and intake, etc. then take the anchor ropes off the nose and two wings. Then i got my headset and then hoped into the cockpit. I was SO SO SO happy in the plane, my face BRIGHTENED UP SO MUCH just like that 6 year old boy who first got into planes. When I was in the plane, I took so many photos and I was so excited when I saw the garmin instrumental of the plane boot up. It looked like some HALO 3 shit in the cockpit. You saw a radar of traffic and communications from the ATC from KSSF (Stinson municipal airport) and the ATC from SAT (San Antonio International Airport). I even got to communicate with a United Airlines flight  from the ground.

TAXI & TAKEOFF: (~3:30)

I remember that my CFI gave me thr controls of the aircraft and I set the thrust from ideal to ~18.5 and used the rudder to steer the aircraft from the hanger, to the runway. Some idiot in a Cessna 172 touched and goed without ATC clearance as we almost took off. 😭🙏 I remember setting the engine to full thrust (TOGA) and I remember the plane ZOOMING down the runway. It was from ~11kt to ~130kt at takeoff. When the plane took off it felt UNREAL. I was SO exited when it took off like a kid. In a smaller plane it feels like one of those universal studios simulator rides it was SO COOL.

FIGHT (~3:30-4:12)

So as the plane took off I remember we took off southeast (towards Victor Braunig Lake) and I remember seeing my altitude instruments going from 580 (lvl from thru ground at KSSF) to 4270. It was SO COOL to see the clouds ahead and all the cars in I35 looked like toys and very little was recognizable on the ground . I remember when I had the full controls and I banked the plane nearly inverted to the left (~ -45 bank) 😭 it felt like a fighter pilot. We had some strong winds at 4000 feet so it felt very shaky and you had to really muscle the throttle to stay on course. (Southeast), I remember we stalled around 13 mins into our flight (controlled stall test) and I was panicking as the airspeed went from 154 to ~71 kt in just around 30s and the altitude went down to ~1700. But next we got some airspeed going southeast, and we climbed back to FL 35 (3500) and we tested a over speed test (pitch nose down) and I remember that when we oversped, it felt like a rollercoaster drop. You can REALLY notice the change in speed it’s very drastic (~115kt to 160kt) and the FL went to 16 (1600) from this altitude we hugged the lake banking hard to the right. Which was pretty cool as you use the throttle and fully control the plane but must be careful to not invert the entire plane. We hugged the lake and went back to FL 30 (3000) and cruised NW for the remainder of the flight. 

LANDING ~4:12 PM

Due to strong headwinds in our direction we needed to “bubble” the runway versus a direct approach so we set out FL down to 11 (1100) and hugged HARD at a Walmart that was nearby (Palo Alto road and I35) and as we approached the runway we were going FAST. (~100 kts) and as we landed we got ATC clearance a couple mins prior, and as we landed we had a pretty smooth landing as we landed, we but the breaks on with the rudders (upper corner on L & R rudder) and we set the engine from TOGA to idle. Then pitched thr nose up to halt the plane. Then as we had ATC clearance we steered the plane right to go back to the hanger. 

AFTERWARDS:

I was so happy like CHILDLIKE happy that I finally flew a plane. I’ve been trying since mid February to get a flight in but money, school stuff, or weather delays halted it. BUT FINALLY after so long, I flew a plane! I took some photos after I was done flying the plane, and then after I was done with those photos I saved my footage that I recorded. I was SO SO DO HAPPY I’m so grateful to God that I was finally able to be in the skies for once.

(ALL FOOTAGE CAN BE SEEN ON MY INSTAGRAM “FAA” HIGHLIGHTS I RECORDED IT ON A GOPRO HERO 10. IT IS IN TIMELAPSE SHOWING EVERY PART OF THR FLIGHT FROM THE TIME THE ENGINE WAS ON TO LANDING)