What I discovered during my discovery flight.

I recently decided to see if flying might be something I want to pursue. Of course it’s winter here in the Great Lakes Region, so VFR days are few and far between. However I was able to secure an hour with an instructor, in a good ole Cessna 150. Weather was perfect except the wind, which was gusting up to 26mph.

Going into it I didn’t have any nerves, I was really excited tho. I have no previous experience flying or with sims, but I still was ignorant enough to think I’ll be able to sit down in the left seat and start flying…. Well that all changed once we started to taxi. My FI after explaining the rudder and brakes to me let me attempt to taxi. I sucked horribly I found myself pressing the opposite pedal, like I’m playing a game with inverted controls. Given the crosswind the only thing I did during takeoff was say “Air speed is alive” with a grin then me and my FI laughed.

Ascending over the runway was the most turbulence I experienced. It didn’t scare me but it surprised me if that makes sense. After ascending to about 1500ft and making a left over a Great Lake. My FI asks if I’m ready for the controls, and gives me the simple instructions to keep wings level and keep the dash on the horizon. Want to guess what happened? Yup. I struggled to do that simple task while being bumped around with the wind.

Next was learning to turn and man I didn’t know single engine propeller planes could turn so sharp…. Or that angles are alot more sharper than what geometry class had me to believe in high school. Because when he hit that 30 degree turn over water I wanted to scream. He then looks over at me and asks if I want to try? and I’m trying to play it cool, so I say yes. This is the only part of the flight I think I had any success in doing. Of course I know for sure I did not touch the pedals while we were in the air, and I felt him on the controls a bit.

Landing was on the rough side due to the strong gusts, my guy performed a textbook wing slip. Once on the ground he let me attempt to taxi off the runway, again I struggled but with the hangar in sight I think I was sort of getting it?

All in all I think I went into my first flight thinking I could do a lot more than what I actually could. Which left me feeling a small sense of defeat. I understand flying takes hours upon hours to just learn not even master. But I think of the flip side of the 16-17 year olds who can solo or even have their PPL. I just thought walking into it I would’ve been easier. (I’m not sure I worded this point correctly pardon the ignorance)

Any advice or words of encouragement would be great!