When I was young, I never even imagined that someday I would simply be mad about aircrafts
and flying. On my first trip abroad, to Singapore, I bought the Observer's Book of
Aircraft by William Green, this changed my world completly. It had all the different
kinds of airrafts one could see at that time with their full specifications. The book
increased my vocabulary, I got to know technical details of various aircrafts, their
type, seating, powerplant, cruising speed, armament, country of origin, dimensions,
service ceiling, endurance, range, etc.
Soon I was nicknamed pilot by my friends, whenever they used to see any aircraft,
they used to enquire about it from me. I started to correctly recognise even those
aircrafts which were flying at very high altitudes. Even my ears got trained for the
slightest sound which resembled the drone of an aircraft engine. I could tell well in
advance that whether the approaching aircrat was a piston engine, a turboprop,
a jet or a chopper.
Just a single book changed my whole life, I became an aviation enthusiast. Soon I
started to buy all the good books related to aviation I could lay my hands on. By the
time I reached the age of 18 years, that is the time I finished my schooling, I had a
library, full of books on aircrafts and other related fields.
One day when I was passing the airport, I saw a Glider flying overhead. Immediately
I made up my mind, and that was the begining of my passion for flying. The next day
I went to the office of the local flying club and enrolled myself as a student pilot.
Within 4 months of my joining or after exactly 45 launches, I was ready to go solo,
all alone, no one would accompany me, it would be just me and my glider, flying free,
like a bird. I readied for the launch, checked the elevator, ailerons, rudder and
airbrakes, they were all working, checked the altimeter, variometer, slip-skid indicator,
pitot tube, speedometer, hooks and the cable for any problems, they all seemed well.
I opened the canopy, climbed into the pilot's seat straddled myself up, checked and
shoved the joystick, front and back, right and left. Placed my feet on the rudder
pedals and moved them back and forth. When everthing seemed right, I indicated my
fellow students to lift the tilted left wing and hold it level to the ground. The cable was
attached to the glider, the flagsman signaled the winch operator to tighten the slack.
I felt a small tug when the slackened cable, tightened. I gestured to the flagsman that
everything was okay and he signaled the winch to start the takeoff roll.
Everything was silent inside the cockpit but my heart was pounding hard. Many a questions
had come up in my mind, what if something went wrong, what if the cable snapped,
what if??? The glider started to roll on its single wheel under its belly, within seconds
it attained the right speed, I slowy pulled the joystick back and it rose up in air,
still tethered to winch through the cable. I could feel the groan of the winch
through the cable, at 700 ft. I felt that the winch had finally stopped pulling,
immediately I pushed the stick forward, eased off the back pressure and released
the cable from the hook, I levelled up at 600 ft. Now I was free like a bird, all alone
in the sky, but WITHOUT ANY ENGINE... I was falling down at the rate of 100 ft. per
minute therefore I calculated that I would remain in air for roughly 5 minutes or so.
At this rate I could easily make one circuit of the airstrip below. It was a mindblowing
experience for me, those 5 minutes were the longest I have ever felt. There I
was aligning myself with the gliding strip, readying for the feathersoft touchdown on
a SINGLE BELLY WHEEL... The ground was coing near so fast, at around 200 ft.
from the ground, I slowed my speed to 40 mph from 60 mph by using the airbrakes.
At approximately 10 ft. I gave a check by pulling back the joystick a bit levelling the
glider to the ground. Just before touchdown I flared up, it was a smooth touch down,
after rolling for about a hundred metres I used the front skid to stop the glider.
The wing slowly tilted and glider lay on its right side. I unstrapped my seat belts,
unlatched & opened the canopy and stood up on my feet. Now I could call myself
a PILOT, a real AVIATOR ....MY DREAM COME TRUE...
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