I Can See Clearly Now

A friend of mine has a small aircraft and a flying license to go with it. I expressed an interest to go flying with him one day. That day was Friday. Did I mention that his plane is small? Tiny is a better word for it. My friend mostly flies by himself. The reason being that to be a passenger in the tiny craft, you have to be rather tiny yourself. As in not taller than 5'2". Luckily, I meet that requirement....exactly. I guess you could be taller since I did have room above my head, but getting in and out of the back passenger seat is quite a challenge. If you're taller, then your flexibility and gymnastics skill have to go up accordingly.



He told me that noise is a problem. The unprotected ear would go deaf after 10 hours of being exposed to the engine noise. I forgot to mention that the engine is directly behind the passenger's head. He gave me ear plugs and noise-cancellation head phones with an intercom so we could talk to each other. But with the engine at full-throttle, it was nearly impossible to hear each other through the intercom. So he turned the engine down each time he had something to say to me. Unsettling!!!



He asked me where I wanted to go, so I suggested the coast since I knew he flew to Seaside just to have lunch sometimes. The weather didn't look too promising over the coastal range, but he gave it a go. Nope, cloud ceiling was too low, and it looked like rain on the other side. Instead we flew north and landed in a tiny airfield in Scapoose, which is about a whole 30 min. by car north of where I live. It gave us a chance to stretch our legs and visit the port-o-potty. Did I mention that getting in and out of the plane is the most challenging part? Lucky me, I got to practice it again.

Next we flew towards the gorge, flying over the Columbia river. It was beautiful. But motion sickness started to be an issue for me. He said that the air was bumpier than usual. Bleh. I figured out that by focusing on the horizon I was able to keep my breakfast down.

We landed safely on the airfield outside of Hubbard, OR, in the middle of the country. On our drive back to civilization, he told me that it was a little freaky flying over the river because there's no really good place to land in case of engine failure. He also said he doesn't like flying over populated areas for that same reason. The sign of a good pilot is that he/she is constanly scoping places to land "just in case". He said I could fly with him again. I guess that means I met the two major challenges: 1) I could get in and out of the seat and 2) I was able to tolerate the noise. I'm not so sure about the queasiness I felt for the rest of the day. Maybe that wouldn't be an issue with better flying conditions.