The Adventures of Wendy & Jason: Captain Jason's First Flight

Fear. Adrenaline. Pure excitment. These were all of the things running throughout my body as Pilot Paul went thought his pre-flight check with me. With my parents and Wendy snapping pictures like I was walking down the red carpet at a movie premiere at Mann's Theater, the magnitude of the situation began to rock my personal Richter scale.

As I strapped my self into the pilot's seat and made some last minute adjustments to my headset, Pilot Paul informs me that I will be doing everything during take off. After allowing that nervous feeling to travel down my throat, pass my rapidly beating heart, and into my stomach, I stared down what I could see of the runway and prepared for my first ever take off.

Before I knew it, the Tower signaled us for take off and in my headset I heard either Pilot Paul or my brain say "Let's Do This!"

I pushed the trottled all the foward and waited for the dial to hit 59 knots before I pulled back on the yoke. We quickly gained speed, and in less than 15 seconds, it was time for us to start our ascend. With Wendy grasping onto dear life in the back seat, I gently pulled the yoke back making sure that I wasn't climbing the skies too fast. During our ascent, I could not help but look over the side, only to find that we were roughly 1,500 feet in the air. Paul instructed me to keep ascending until about 3,500 feet and who was I to argue his instructions this high up in the air.

The hour flight went by in the blink of the eye. Paul had me do several turns and even assisted me on a 45-degree angle turn that made my mind spin when I saw the low-level clouds hovering over the skies of Half Moon Bay. As the hour came to a close, Paul had me descend back towards the San Carlos Airport where he took back over the reins of the plane to land it.

Overall, it was an outstanding expereince that I will not forget any time soon. I am officially hooked and would love to someday get my own pilot license.