Chapter 13: Flying
I booked a 3-week course at Rockledge Air Park near Cape Canaveral in Florida. They advertised that you would get an FAA private pilot's license by the end of the course. I flew back to the UK from Denmark and got the plane to Miami from Heathrow. The site provided accommodation in a house adjacent to the runway, but you had to get all your own food. There were a few other people there from the UK including a guy who ran a skydiving drop-zone in the UK, but I've forgotten his name now.
The first part of the course was a written exam. After swatting for a bit, I had to drive down to Miami to take more tutorials and sit the exam. I think the course was 2 days, so I needed to stay one night. I passed the course and decided to detour to Epcot on the way back. Epcot was OK but it wasn't Disneyland.
My instructor was a heavily built guy of around 30 years old. He said that I was a natural at flying and saw no issues with getting a pass. We flew around the area for the specified minimum hours and then one day we took off and flew the few miles to Merritt Island Airport, which had a long and wide runway, and he sent me off on my first solo. The plane, which was a Cessna 150, just leapt off the ground without the instructor's weight on board, it was so much more responsive. After 2 circuits I landed fine and picked up my instructor again. I then proceeded in building up the required 40 solo hours of flying that was needed before I could take the test. I flew all around Central Florida, even having to divert around thunderstorms. On a couple of occasions, I was out for the whole day, landing at odd airports to fill up with fuel and grab something to eat. I enjoyed it a lot.
It was also quite fun being in the shared house with the other students. We would drive out somewhere in the evenings and have a meal and drinks in a bar on Cocoa Beach or up at Daytona Sands. The weather was warm and humid, especially in the evenings.
The day of my flying test arrived, and I was told by my instructor that the examiner was a bit deaf, and I would need to shout. I was also told that he always asks about the maximum allowed weights of the aircraft. I quickly swatted this up and sure enough it was the first question he asked. I haven't mentioned it yet, but the runway at Rockledge was aligned North-South, whereas the prevailing winds were East-West. This meant that from day one we were practicing cross wind landings, so my examination day was no different, it was even a bit more windy than usual. I impressed myself with the precision of my landings that day. The requirement on landing is to approach aligned with the runway, but to stay aligned, the nose needs to be pointing off to one side, into the wind. You cannot actually land with the plane in that attitude, so just before landing you point the aircraft down the runway and at the same time dip your windward wing down a little to compensate. If all goes well, at landing you are in the middle of the runway and the windward wheel touches first, and this is what I managed at every landing during the test. I passed of course.
I did mean to continue flying in the UK, but it was so expensive and controlled that I never bothered. I heard from somewhere that the day after I left, one of the students messed up a crosswind landing and veered off the runway, crashing into the only other Cessna 150 that the club had, writing off both. I have never flown since.
In later years I did join a gliding club at Lasham in Hampshire. It never really captured my imagination, and flying without an engine seemed a bit dangerous to me. I persevered for one summer, and after the winter I did not rejoin.
Me and my C152
The Rockledge controlroom
Disneyland