Flying High for Father's Day!

Sandy surprised me on our trip to Chicago with an early Father's Day gift: An hour of flying in a Piper Warrior airplane with my brother-in-law, Chris. He is a certified flight instructor and was very patient with me and my hundreds of questions. We flew out of Schaumburg airport northwest of Chicago, headed east to Lake Michigan, turned south down the lakefront to and past downtown, west between O'Hare and Midway airports, and back north to Schaumburg. We saw lots of landmarks like Wrigley Field, Soldier Field, John Hancock building, and Sears Tower. Here are a few pictures from our outing.

WARNING: Flying for the first time results in irrepressible grinning.

Our brother - in-law Chris. He's flown enough to overcome the grin reflex.

Flying over South Chicago with US Cellular (White Sox) field below.

Heading south down the Lake Michigan waterfront. It was an incredibly clear day, so we could see for miles.

I was only responsible for watching a couple of the gauges. Do you want to know what those gauges said? "Hey, buddy! You're FLYING!". Okay, so I took this picture on the ground, so these gauges said, "Hey, buddy. You're landed," but you get the idea.

Chris doing the preflight checklist on the rental Piper.

It was a great experience. Chris is an excellent pilot and did a great job of explaining what was going on. There's lots of radio traffic in the Chicago area, so there was plenty of activity on the headphones. There were terrific views from the plane. There wasn't a single dull moment.

The flight seemed to go by so quickly, but I enjoyed every minute of it. When Chris was flying, I took the time to look around. I learned how to scan the sky for other airplanes, for example. It's actually not as easy as it sounds. There's a lot of sky up there! When Chris gave me control of the plane, I was able to do some gradual turns, hold the altitude level, and track a heading. I know there's a lot more to flying that the little I did, but the little I learned was extremely fun.

I highly recommend that you talk a relative into marrying a certified flight instructor. It's far better than your family member marrying, say, a mortician or a postal worker. Or accountant.