“Here take the controls,” these were the words that I wanted to hear yet I also dreaded,” I’m done with flying for now you need a try.” Those words also came from the pilot who my family and I knew. Extreme nervousness flash flooded me, I was trying to douse it but the only thing I did was look around the in the small four passenger plane stupidly for an answer. Buttons, readings, switches and… the controls, I reached slowly, shaking violently. The only experience I had of flying were those flight simulators that don’t teach you enough, this was the real thing, it didn’t compare. Great, I thought about this and I just grabbed the darn controls and shook. I was flying. Flying.

My day started like this, I woke up knowing that I was going to be in a plane for the first time in my life but I didn’t think so much about me flying it. For the rest of the morning hours I slowly started to build up my excitement. It was midday when my Dad and I arrived at the airport to see Buddy, (the pilot) we first went to check the plane for preparation then off to the weather, into the building we went and on the computer. “Clear skies,” he announced, “and sunny with very little chance of turbulence.”

Buddy was right, the sky was the richest blue anyone would dream of seeing, the sea wavy as usual and I didn’t know where I was sitting (in the co-pilot seat) I looked around from the sky to the instrument panel. “Wesley,” Buddy said, “Yes?” I croaked back, “you’re going to say flight check 030,” he almost was forcing me. Now I’ve heard his professional flight voice, impressive, I sounded so pathetic that Buddy joked that the people in the flight tower (who I said flight check to) were probably thinking something like this: WHO IS THIS KID??? IS THIS A JOKE??? Pretty funny.

We were staring down the 1 ½ mile runway and Buddy slowly sped up the plane and away we went. Everything around me was such a distraction, my eyes were darting everywhere. Our trip plan was to land at a different airport then back to where we were originally, then halfway through the trip…

I was flying, I couldn’t believe it but it happened, the nervousness that was in me remodeled into sheer happiness. Cruising across the sky, I sort of daydreamed while I was focused, anyway nothing penetrated my bubble of daydreaming until, we landed then we were cruising again. We were staring down the biggest orange and yellow campfire called the sun.

I was short, the blinders for the plane (like a car’s blinders) reached just above my eyes, almost panicky I said, “I can’t see!!” all calm Buddy as simply as he could said, “just look at the readings.” I was expecting a more sophisticated answer. We landed back on the runway and we got out of the most cramp plane compared to the plane lot where we were rolling the plane. There was a spot with holes in the ground to tie off the plane and I did what I always do when I get distracted, I looked around at the other planes, bigger planes I should say.(not the big airliner “big”) I am now realizing something I didn’t before, with new experiences come big fear at first.