14th Birthday Surprise
Beckett Hanna
“Where are we going, Mom?” I inquired one last time. I heard my mom tell me once again that I would have to wait to find out where we were going until we got there. So I sat, waiting in anticipation. My parents have been teasing this all day and it had been painfully waiting to see what they had planned. Finally, after what felt like ages, but was probably just five minutes, we arrived at our destination: The Palo Alto Airport. As we walked inside I thought about what we could be doing here. Would I be sky diving? No that didn’t make sense, I was too young. Could I be going somewhere? I don’t think so. Where would I be flying to? Would I be flying a plane? It didn’t seem likely that I would, but there was a small chance that I would.
As we stepped into the front room at the airport, I saw Paolo, who is the dad of a kid at my old school. I knew for a fact that he was a pilot and would fly people around to different places. My mom said hello and introduced my dad and grandmother to Paolo. After everyone finished exchanging hello’s, Paolo turned to me and asked me if I knew what I was doing here, so I said that I wasn’t sure but I thought that I might be learning how to fly a plane. As I said this he started to nod his head which confirmed my suspicion.
Paolo turned around and walked us out to the runway where he showed us a little red two-person plane and helped me up into the front seat. As soon as I sat down I could smell the leather seats. I could hear the sound of another plane taking off. I looked down at the controls and I could see the shiny buttons and levers and lights that had enough power to make a piece of metal fly. As I took this all in, Paolo showed me how to work different controls. Before I knew it, it was time to take off. My heart was racing I was so excited. I said goodbye to my family and Paolo climbed into the seat behind me and closed the door behind him.
Paolo showed me how to move the plane while it was on the ground, and how to change to different radio stations. We put on our headsets, and then he began to taxi us out to the runway. As we pulled in behind another plane, I was almost losing my mind with anticipation. I could not wait to fly the plane. It was an opportunity that only so many people get the chance to do and I did not plan on wasting mine. Finally, after a couple of minutes, it was our turn to take off. Paolo pulled us out onto the runway and as the plane started to pick up speed and lifted off, it felt familiar but at the same time completely different. I was in the pilot's seat and I was in the sky!
As we were climbing in the air, Paolo showed me that if I lined up the wings to the horizon, the plane will stay level and not turn at all.
“Now I am going to let you practice how to keep the plane level,” Paolo said. “Fly us out to the coast while keeping us steady.” So I started flying out towards the beach while constantly checking the horizon to the sides of me to make sure I was staying level. Soon after we reached the coast, I recognized San Gregorio beach, and Paolo took control of the plane again. Paolo then started to teach me how to make turns. “Before you make a turn one way, you lift the wing on that side in order to check for other planes,” Paolo told me. “Then you can make the turn.”
I practiced this a few times with Paolo helping me, and then he told me, “I am giving you complete control of the plane. All you need to do is to make sure you don’t turn us upside down.” At that moment I felt a kind of freedom that I never felt before. I was in the sky, with nobody trying to force me to do anything.
As I flew around, I saw the road that my family uses whenever we drive over to go to the beach as well as the town of Half Moon Bay. Everything looked so different even though I had seen everything many times. After I finished flying around on my own for a little bit, I began to fly us back towards the airport. Although the landing was difficult because the wind was blowing us to the other side of the runway, we were able to land our plane. After we landed, I heard Paolo’s voice through the headset,
“Do you want to give the radio request to control tower to go back to our hangar?” He asked.
“Sure!” I replied.
The request to return to the hangar was much more complicated than I expected, but after I practiced it a couple of times, I was able to give the request to the control tower and get back to the hangar. We both got out of the plane and walked back inside the airport where I saw my family waiting. I told my family about the flight for a little bit, then Paolo and I had a conversation about what it would take to get my pilot's license.
After this whole experience, I have now learned what it takes to be a pilot and the difficulty of getting a pilot's license, as well as a couple of skills on how to fly a plane, such as how to turn and how to keep the plane steady. I got such a feeling of freedom when I was flying the plane, it is an experience I will never forget.
