Photo by I | Thomom
Mickey Duke, the chief flight instructor at McKenzie Flying Service, has been flying since 1972.
Flight school puts reporter in control
By B.J. Thomsen
Of tlw Km.r.ld
The plane was tiny, like a
gnat, compared to the immense
United Airlines jet parked far
ther down the tarmac. The
cockpit was well under an arm
span wide, and the dashboard
was filled with an alarming ar
ray of switches, numbered dials
and lights.
I strapped myself into the
seat, with the help of my in
structor pilot, Mickey Duke. I
was apprehensive but eager
about the flight.
As the wheels of the small
plane left the black asphalt run
way, a feeling of detached
freedom and a new understan
ding of how an airplane flies
became one in my mind.
1 had flown before but only as
a passive occupant, much like
one would ride a bus or the
train, without a complete
understanding of what was
happening.
The controls on an airplane. I
discovered, are nothing like
that of a car. and as the pilot let
me take control of the little
Cessna 152, 1 felt like an infant
just learning to walk.
As the plane continued to
climb toward the gray-and-blue
patchwork sky, 1 fought to keep
straight in my head the func
tions of the ailerons, flaps, rud
der and elevators.
"Flaps are for roll?" I
wondered aloud. "No, flaps are
used to increase lift,” Duke
reminded me. "Ailerons are for
roll.”
1 remember back to the film
strip 1 watched as part of the in
troductory flight I was taking at
McKenzie Flying Service before
going out to the plane. Sure
enough, ailerons, the flaps on
the wing that move opposite
each other when the wheel is
rotated, allow the pilot to tip the
plane either left or right.
The rudder, the moveable
vertical section in the tail,
allows the pilot to turn left or
right by moving footpedals and
serves the same function as the
front wheels on an automobile.
And the elevators, the
moveable part of the tail's
horizontal section, allows the
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pilot to nose the plane up or
down.
I found it difficult enough just
to keep the plane flying straight
and level, and when I tried to
bank left, I discovered that not
only must the wheel be turned
to control the ailerons, but the
right pedal must be pushed
down to turn the rudder. If 1
turned the wheel only, the
plane began to roll but not turn,
and if I pushed the pedal only,
the plane began to slide
sideways without banking.
Finally, as Duke guided me
through the maneuver with his
set of controls, I managed a
banking turn to the left, with
the right wing pointing high
above the horizon and the left
wing pointing to the winding
creeks of Kern Ridge Reservoir
1,400 feet below.
"That's about an average
turn,” he told me as he took the
controls and put the plane into
an even steeper bank.
I found myself clutching the
armrests on my seat, certain that
the plane was going to suddenly
slip out of the sky. He smiled
reassuringly and leveled out the
plane.
He then began to throttle back
the power to the engine and ask
ed me if 1 knew what a stall was.
1 wasn't sure, but I knew that it
must be more serious in a plane
1,000 feet above the ground
than in a Volkswagon at a stop
sign.
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He didn’t seem to think so,
and he continued to slow the
plane until the stall warning
began to buzz. Suddenly we
dropped as if we had hit an air
Turn to Flying, Page 11
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