By Lochie Ferrier  

Young Lochie Ferrier recently took time away from his beloved remote-controlled aircraft and PC flight simulator to experience his first real flight in a Cessna 152. Despite becoming a ‘celebrity’ amongst his mates after experiencing a seat malfunction on takeoff, the 14-year-old can’t wait to go again. Lochie explains.

I’d flown RC planes and helicopters and landed 747’s on Flight Sim. I’d flown in an airliner and a Robinson R44 helicopter. But when a friend asked me whether I had actually flown a real plane (that is, controlled one with my own hands) I could only answer no, I had never flown a plane.

But then my opportunity came along to go for a fly in a Cessna 152 at Sydney’s Camden Airport. I was one of about 40 kids who travelled from Canberra and Goulburn to do a trial instructional flight with the Australian Air Force Cadets (AAFC). These flights are designed so that you can feel what it’s like to take the controls of a real aeroplane before committing financially to a flying course.

We each flew a Cessna 152 which looked like it was built sometime in the 1970’s. The dials (instruments) were old and faded with no GPS in sight and the only computer display was my watch and the radio, which didn’t work particularly well. 

There were two seats which stank of sweat and a roof with suspicious bulges. Other cadets swore that they had heard the old engine missing a beat every couple of seconds in midair. This was no F-35 or Cirrus SR22.

My grandfather is a doctor and he was quite worried about my recent attempts at model rocketry (I say attempts as the rocket engine wouldn’t light). If he knew what I was doing at Camden, he would have had a fit. But I happily climbed into the plane and sat in my seat. The pilot told me where to put the radio mic, how to adjust the seat and then she quickly showed me how to bank, pitch and yaw.

“Clear!” the pilot shouted out the window as she flipped the magnetos and pushed up the throttle. We taxied out onto the grass runway at Camden and waited for a clearance from ATC before starting our takeoff roll. We gathered speed until the little Cessna’s nose began to rise. But after lifting just a few metres off the ground,  the pilot’s seat suddenly slid back until she couldn’t reach the controls.

“Put your hands on the control column,” she said, “and keep the plane in a climb while I fix this stupid seat.” Well, as the world rushed by in a blur I thanked Bill Gates for inventing a flying game that included the 152! I may as well have been flying IFR as, at my height of 149cm I couldn’t see anything over the windscreen. So I lined up the yellow dot with the first line on the attitude indicator and kept the wings level while the pilot fixed the seat. After a while she managed to fix her seat and, relieved, she regained control of the plane.

Over the next 20 minutes we did climbing, descending, turning and combinations of the three. It was a totally different experience to being a passenger in an airliner where you don’t see the cockpit and pilot. As a passenger in an airliner you don’t have a cockpit with dials and controls in front of you, and the only way you get any idea of what the pilot is actually doing is when you see the flaps and ailerons move out on the wing. It was also a totally different experience to sitting at my desk flying Flight Sim on my computer!

Like most cadets that day I had a big grin on my face as I climbed out of the plane and couldn’t thank the pilot enough. I was the only cadet to experience a seat failure and on the bus ride home I was asked about it too many times. That was my first experience of flying in a light aircraft and if I have my way, it definitely won’t be my last.

I haven’t told my grandfather the story and my dad interpreted it as a near death experience so now he’s hesitant about letting me go on a gliding camp or two later this year. But with any luck I will this year obtain my GFA (Gliding Federation of Australia) Certificate A in a Blanik L-13 and next year I hope to earn my PPL in that same Cessna 152.

I just hope they’ve fixed the seat by then.