Two weeks ago, a Saturday dawned bright and clear. I got ready for my morning routine of tennis after a big breakfast (I’ve been gravitating, so to speak, towards heavier breakfasts of late). I had also recently started cycling, but on that particular day, I had other things to do. I packed a couple of sandwiches, and off I went.

The tennis was okay. My good friend since my college days, MB, had come back from India and, as usual, was at the court playing with the others long before I had even reached there. I waited a few minutes for my turn: we were five in all playing doubles, and it was one man out after every four games with a certain partner. One of the regulars had to leave a little early, and that suited me fine. Eventually, we broke up, and after our byes and the usual friendly banter, I got on the bicycle and started pedalling away.

The countryside where I live is beautiful. Green rolling meadows, brooks, huge fields, tall trees, fresh air, friendly people, lovely dogs, kids running around (spring was on!), elderly couples strolling by chatting away happily, young women going on horseback, and polite motorists giving way for pedestrians and cyclists, and all this just a couple of miles from the town centre: it makes you wonder how people can yearn for city life! I’ve been here just a few months, and I can’t imagine wanting to live in a bustling city like London, though I’m sure it has its charms too. Give me greenery any day!

Half an hour later, I reached my destination: Panshanger Aerodrome. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the Practical Idealist who Believed He Could Fly was going to make his dream come true! And fly I did, for about an hour on a single-engine, twin-seater Piper Cherokee. I even did a few manoeuvres all by myself, though of course my instructor was keeping a very watchful eye out for any mistakes! In the skies, as we pilots know, it takes just one mistake to bring you down crashing, quite literally ;-)

I flew a Piper Cherokee (PA-28-140), and my plane’s “name” was “G-BEFF” (Golf Bravo Echo Foxtrot Foxtrot, in pilot-speak). The manoeuvres that I got introduced to were: bank (this is when the aircraft rotates about an axis that’s along the fuselage), turn (this is when the aircraft rotates about an axis that’s perpendicular to the fuselage and the wings), climb / descend (this is when the aircraft rotates about an axis that passes through its wings). To get a little more technical, you operate the ailerons when you want to bank (and eventually turn); you operate the rudder when you want to turn the aircraft (this, I believe, goes along with the banking);

If that was a bit too technical, here’s a simpler version. You have a control column, that resembles the steering wheel of a car, except that it’s not a wheel and it also can move up and down. Moving to the control column to the left or right banks the plane in the corresponding direction; moving it in or out raises or lowers the nose of the plane. There are also pedals that you can use to turn left / right. That’s it – those are the main controls of an aircraft. Not very difficult, is it?

Here are some pictures of the aircraft that I flew.