Remember how quickly your heart pumped when you drank your first double espresso with 2 sugars ?
Remember how quickly your heart pumped when you opened the envelope from the board of examiners to see if you had passed ?
Remember trying a vodka Red Bull and then staggering around wondering how your heart could pump so quickly ?
Imagine (or maybe you have done it) how quickly the heart of a 21 year old high on ecstasy, vodka red bulls dancing and gyrating at a Rave party pumps.
OK well combine all 5 and you are probably close to what your heart does when you take control of a plane and go solo. Admittedly it wasn't the first time I have done it, but it is 4 years since.
At approx 1045 local time (1515 UTC ) me and N955AC got very close and personal on runway 5 and in the airspace around Naples airport. A clear day(again) with precious little head wind ( was 5 knots ) and more importantly no cross wind to speak of ( was 5 knots as well ) Mr Creative Accounting (aka my instructor ) decided he had enough faith in my ability to let me loose on my own. After 5 landings and takeoffs ( they are called touch n go because you land , continue to roll and then take off again ) Mr Creative asked me to come to a stop on the fifth landing. He climbed out, told me to do 2 circuits ( so 2 touch n go's ) and then return.
As you sit there at the end of runway 5 holding short for clearance from Air Traffic Control your legs begin to shake. The voice comes over the radio clearing you to take off and you roll out onto the runway with your legs still shaking. You depress the throttle towards the panel giving her full throttle and concentrate on keeping the plane to the middle of the runway. As you gain speed to 55 knots you pull back gently on the yoke and the nose lifts then the side undercarriage and moments later you are airborne. As you climb out of the airport you concentrate on keeping the nose pointed skywards to ensure your speed as you climb out is a constant 75 knots. You climb to 1,000 ft ( and 110 knots )which is the altitude for aircraft doing circuits and head crosswind, perpendicular to the runway, then right again to be now travelling downwind ( in the opposite direction to your take off but with the run way 1,000 ft below you and to your right). As you head downwind you make a call to air traffic to let them know who you are, where you are and what you are going to do. Im ''Naples Centre 955 at downwind for a touch n go''. Air traffic responds with ''cleared for touch n go Naples Centre 955''. I respond with ''Naples Centre 955 cleared for touch n go'' ( and then pucker my sphincter) You bank the aircraft right to be perpendicular to the runway then bank it again to the right to be now flying to the runway for a landing. You concentrate on getting the flaps all the way down, maintaining your airspeed and ensuring you are on the right glide slope making adjustments if you feel you are too high or too low. You pass over the threshold of the runaway at 70 knots trying to maintain direction and speed to land at 65 knots. As you deaccelerate the aircraft wants to naturally fall and just as the wheels are about to touch you pull the yoke back 2 degrees to ensure you land on the side undercarriage and not on the nose wheel. All three wheels land , you maintain the centre of the runway, pull the flaps up, push the throttle all the way in to full and then continue down the runway to take off again and repeat the exercise. Second time around you come to a full stop and taxi back to the air centre.
Easy huh ? Think a vodka without the Redbull is in order.
Meet November Niner Five Five Alpha Charlie......
Livin' the dream bud!
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