DavidWhite
New member
I was in California this last week and thought it would be fun to take a discovery flight and pretend I know nothing about airplanes outside of my copious FSXperience. I mean, I fly a 747 online, how hard could a 172 be IRL? (Just an FYI, this was the tone of the entire flight)
My partner in crime, Meliss (PoAs very own), set me up for a discovery flight with the Orange County Flight Center at SNA (John Wayne) in a Cessna 172SP. We showed up for the flight and after following the instructor around the plane while he did the preflight we hopped in. At some point in the journey it was revealed that the instructor took his first flight in November of 2011, and had about 230 hours of flight time (half of what I've got)
He did the taxi, takeoff, and most of the climb but gave me the controls at the top of the climb. We flew down to Oceanside and back - I got to fly the whole way. He complemented me on my altitude holding ability (I was within 20' - when you fly an airplane without an autopilot for almost 500 hours you get pretty good at it) and after using the term "Just like Flight Sim" about 100 times and some coaxing I got the instructor to let me try landing - and I actually landed an airplane on my discovery flight! Just like flight sim!
He taxiied back to the flight school and I ran and got my logbook. I asked if he would sign it, and he did. We chatted for a minute or so and he went to his next student.
Meliss took some pretty good pictures while we were up, too.
This is looking out towards what I'm fairly sure is Catalina Island
FSXpert at the helm, no need to worry.
Dana Point, between Laguna Beach and San Clemente
Just like flight sim!
My partner in crime, Meliss (PoAs very own), set me up for a discovery flight with the Orange County Flight Center at SNA (John Wayne) in a Cessna 172SP. We showed up for the flight and after following the instructor around the plane while he did the preflight we hopped in. At some point in the journey it was revealed that the instructor took his first flight in November of 2011, and had about 230 hours of flight time (half of what I've got)
He did the taxi, takeoff, and most of the climb but gave me the controls at the top of the climb. We flew down to Oceanside and back - I got to fly the whole way. He complemented me on my altitude holding ability (I was within 20' - when you fly an airplane without an autopilot for almost 500 hours you get pretty good at it) and after using the term "Just like Flight Sim" about 100 times and some coaxing I got the instructor to let me try landing - and I actually landed an airplane on my discovery flight! Just like flight sim!
He taxiied back to the flight school and I ran and got my logbook. I asked if he would sign it, and he did. We chatted for a minute or so and he went to his next student.
Meliss took some pretty good pictures while we were up, too.
This is looking out towards what I'm fairly sure is Catalina Island
FSXpert at the helm, no need to worry.
Dana Point, between Laguna Beach and San Clemente
Just like flight sim!
