Jelle Pingen
This is your captain speaking
Written on September 28, 2010
The Reims-Cessna F172N Skyhawk I flew in.
In January last year, there was a program on Dutch television called Top Gun Holland. In the program they followed students of the Dutch military flight academy, from first to last year. I watched the program almost every week, because a friend of my brother was in it (he’s in training to fly chinook helicopters). About two thousand aspiring pilots signed up, but only less than 70 get through first days of selection. But the selection continues, with physical and mental test, such as withstanding 5 g’s. 30 Students continued, but in the end only a handful can become a fighter pilot. Watching the program (usually with the rest of the family) I wondered how far I could make it in that hard selection process. Not that I wanted to be a fighter pilot, not at all. I’m way too scared to be shot down behind enemy lines. Experiencing the freedom of flying an F16 fighter jet is still somewhat a dream though.
And that kept me thinking, what if…
Ofcourse my parents knew about this. However, we never really talked about it and to be honest I kinda forgot about it. That was until June this year when I graduated from high school. My parents gave me an awesome gift: flying! So last week we went to a little airport in Teuge. We were a little too early, so we could enjoy the parachutists landing near the airport. When it was finally time to fly I first got a short briefing, explaining how the airplane works and how to steer etc. We hopped into a small 4-person plane. My parents in the back, me and the pilot in the front. The pilot did the take-off, but when we were high enough he told me to take over. I was a little bit scared at first, but it was surprisingly easy. I had 45 minutes to bascially fly to anywhere I wanted to, before we had to go back. I was told that the royal palace Het Loo was near, so I wanted to fly over it. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it. The only downside of the day was the weather. It was quite windy that day and because the plane is so light, we suffered from quite some turbulence. My mom (who was unsure whether she wanted to go at first, because she has a fear of heights) got quite sick of the plane shaking all the time. Fortunately (for her) my 45 minutes were up so we turned around and the pilot took over again to do the landing.
All in all, it was an awesome experience! Definitely something I would do again. Or maybe jump out of the plane next time (with a parachute, ofcourse). Some more pictures below; click for a bigger version.
Staceentan on November 8, 2010
Wonderful blog! I definitely love how it’s easy on my eyes and also the data are well written. I am wondering how I might be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which need to do the trick! Have a nice day!