I had mixed feelings about doing this experience. Both good and bad.
Good - because how often do we get the chance to help fly a plane!? Super exciting! and;
Bad - only because I really really hate rollercoaster rides and the feeling of turbulence in a plane feels like that; so I was worried that I would feel queasy. I even took a motion sickness pill before my ride! haha how bad is that.
BUT..so far I've never turned down an offer to try out an experience. I've been through White Water Rafting, Abseiled down a building, ATV-ed through muddy jungle tracks, went through a Skydiving Simulator and even Zorb-ed!! which by the way was wayyy worse than a rollercoaster ride..Sherin could tell you how loud I screamed which I think made her temporarily deaf coz she was in the ball with me..haha!
Sooooo I thought..how bad could this be right? Turns out, it wasn't all that bad at all and I have not one ounce of regret trying it out..again, this is something I would never forget and the feeling was surreal, especially when you are trying to face your fear.
We started out with an on-ground briefing. The captain explained to us pre-flight checks that are usually done to a plane before flying. He also explained some technical parts of the plane (like the wings and flaps..hahaha sorry I didn't take notes!) which helps control and manoeuvre the plane. He also went through the control panel and oh boy were there were a lot of buttons and controls and to be honest I paid little attention but only because I was nervous of the actual flying experience!
Then came my turn to fly...oh boyyy..i was turning pale. I entered the cockpit, put on the headphones and was a bit amused at first and distracted by the voices from the control tower. It's amazing how a pilot can know which command or instruction to take note of because you'd hear so many voices and instructions for other planes as well! But they have like cool nicknames for each other which sounded like 'Eagle 123' or 'Sparrow 456'...hahaha ok those were not the exact names but it sounded something like that. Like from a scene in TopGun..hahahah..
Anyway, back to my fear of flying…we were about to take-off and the pilot told me to manoeuvre the plane on the runway..Obviously I forgot which pedal to push and which way controlled the direction so I kind of nearly steered it off the runway for a while...hahaha..plus to distract myself I wanted to take a video of the take-off. Then suddenly it was time to actually take-off....and it happened quite fast and smooth actually.
In the air, there were times when the wind was a bit strong and the plane shook a little. I have to admit I was kind of scared at this point, and I actually told the captain to land the plane like 5 minutes after we got in the air! Haha..So ‘chicken’ of me. But I kept myself distracted by admiring the awesome views from the above.
I kind of had the feeling that the pilot had just a bit more fun then I did – watching me squeal and scream every time I felt a bit queasy. He even said he was being very nice to me by not nose dipping the plane or making sharp turns. Well, I think he didn’t think he have a choice because I said I’d scream to the control tower if he did…hahahahah
Eventually came the time when we had to land and again, there were mixed feelings. Just a teeny tiny bit of relief but alsovery sad as I felt that I was going to miss the awesome view and the feeling of actually being in front of the plane’s control panel like an actual pilot – well, minus the squeals and cries for help..haha!
But I can totally imagine how great this gift would make for husbands, boyfriends or even daredevils alike. It’s such a rare opportunity and an awesome chance to fulfil someone’s dream. To date, this experience still remains as one of our best sellers and I’ve just come to understand why til the day I actually experienced it myself.
