It was the s.o.’s birthday and seeing how he is head over heels with planes, what better surprise than a trial flight lesson. An idea which could have spectacularly backfired, considering how I love a number of things in theory but would never do them in practice. Thankfully, he was a trooper and enjoyed the experience thoroughly. Phew.
I do admit I was very careful about not revealing the whole idea to him so as we turned into the little country lane and he saw the “Panshanger Aerodrome” sign his jaw dropped off but he rallied marvellously.
The North London Flying School have a really lovely thing going on at Panshanger Aerodrome. A great outside space in full view of the planes, some coffee and nibbles, a club house and a real atmosphere of camaraderie. People seem to know each other, joke around and exchange stories and ideas about plane maintenance. The visitors are made to feel very welcome, even though they are so obviously newbies.
Our instructor was Mikey – a guy incredibly skilled at putting you at your ease and explaining things. He made complicated things sound very easy, took care of safety without going all military on us and just made the whole thing extremely enjoyable. The s.o. was given the controls for the whole flight and Mikey helped with explaining, slightly correcting where necessary and making sure I was doing O.K. in the passenger seat and not about to faint. Apparently you feel the movement more in the back.
Like an idiot I used the microphone to say things like “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Captain has switched on the seatbelt sign…” and explain to the slightly bewildered Mikey a scene from a old Greek film in which pulling someone’s hair makes the plane climb. I’m not sure I was helping anyone’s concentration really.
We flew for an hour in a Piper Archer. Before booking I had called my dad (he did maintenance in the Greek Air force for his military service and loves planes) to set my mind at ease a bit. According to him – and Mikey agrees – the Piper Archers are very safe. Light, nimble and they want to stay in the air. My dad also told me”don’t worry at all, even without the engine this plane will fly and land”!!!. I love him to bits but I’m not sure he understands anything about psychology that man.
We were very lucky when we flew as it was a really clear day so we had amazing views of London (the Shard really is something from up in the air). I naturally took a million photos – most of them a bit shaky but I’ve uploaded the best ones.
I should also mention here that the people at the School made the whole thing go very smoothly. They helped me set up the surprise and they called me twice on the day to let me know how the weather was developing and if the flight would happen or not.
All in all we loved our flight and I am afraid that the s.o. will want more and more. They mentioned a day in August when there will be vintage planes and such amazing things going on – keep an eye out on their website if you are interested.
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Disclosure: We went to the Panshanger Aerodrome on 14 June 2014 and paid for our flight. No prior discussion with the School took place.
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North London Flying School
Panshanger Aerodrome, Panshanger Lane, Hertfordshire, SG14 2NH
Fantastic experience I suppose. Not to expect smth similar in Greece …
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