Cadet Nikolas Tsavdaridis reports on the Flying Day held at Helipro Paraparaumu on 16th March 2013.
I was waiting in the Helipro reception area for my pilot to call me for my first flight. My heart was pounding, I was shaking with excitement, (but nervous all at the same time). Then finally my name was called out to start my flight. The pilot said that I looked really nervous about flying.
We went out to the apron where the plane was parked. It was a Cessna C-152. The first thing that the pilot showed me was how the rudder fins on the outside of the plane worked. Then I hopped into the left side of the plane, buckled up my seatbelt and closed the door.
We then started up the engine, which was really grunty. The pilot said that I can now use the rudder pedals to steer the plane onto the runway. As we were getting into position to take off the pilot then said “here we go”.
I pulled back on the control column and… within minutes we were up in the air at 1000 feet. This felt so cool I said to the pilot. He flew me over Peka Peka Beach, and then he said “Ok Nikolas, you can have a go at flying with the controls”. So I flew around the whole of Kapiti Island by myself.
It was now time to head back to Helipro, the pilot had to land of course. When we had shut off the plane completely I got out of the plane after the pilot had parked it and said “Hey Sir, flying in the plane was not scary after all!”