REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK: Giving aviation a try

The last time I flew in a Cessna, I am pretty sure I had my eyes tightly shut as I repeated the phrase, “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness,” as many times as it took for the plane to reach cruising altitude.

I didn’t have the luxury of duplicating my in-flight routine yesterday when I piloted a Cessna 172 Skyhawk. That’s right, I was flying the plane.

And with the help of a new program from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. — ProjectPilot.org — you can too. The website gives information on more than 3,500 flight training facilities in the country, many of which offer hour-long beginning flights for $50 to $100.

The Orange County Flight Center at John Wayne Airport is just one of 28 such schools within 25 miles of the Daily Pilot’s Costa Mesa headquarters.

“The goal of ProjectPilot.org is to find those people who always had interest in learning to fly, but didn’t know how to get started and to give them the resources they need to get out and take an introductory flight,” said Chris Dancy, a spokesman for the pilot organization.

I have to admit, I never dreamed of a career in aviation, or even flying as a hobby, but I am always ready to try something new.

That’s not to say I wasn’t scared out of my wits as I pulled up to the Aero Aviation Flight School at Long Beach Airport. My flight instructor, James Choo, was quick to calm my nerves, assuring me I would live to tell about the experience.

James gave me a five-minute, pre-flight briefing on flying, demonstrating the basic maneuvers — climbing, turning, cruising and descending — with a tiny toy airplane.

“Your job is to keep your eyes on the horizon and keep your wings level at all times,” he said.

It sounded easy enough and before I knew it, I was buckled in the pilot’s seat with my headset adjusted and my clammy hands tightened firmly around the yoke, or the control wheel. I was having flashbacks of driver’s ed, except this time around, having the instructor there made me less nervous.

“Does this fire the missiles?” I asked James, gesturing to the red button under my thumb, which, as it turns out, does nothing more than control the microphone.

I couldn’t help but utter my prior mantra as the propeller sputtered into action and we accelerated down the runway approaching 100 mph, though I’m sure I’ve driven that fast in a car (please don’t tell my mom).

For takeoff, I remained stiff as a board, figuring if I kept still, maybe the plane, which barely had more horsepower than my Volkswagen Beetle, would do the same. I’ll tell you, 30 degrees doesn’t sound like much until you are making a 30-degree U-turn at 2,600 feet. It took only a few minutes before I was able to relax and enjoy the scenery and the open air. As we headed west for the Pacific, I actually thought, “Can’t this thing go any faster?”

That’s easy to say when you have a pilot with 1,100 hours of experience sitting beside you with his own set of controls.

We caught aerial views of hundreds of miniature homes, the ocean, the Queen Mary and Cal State Long Beach before heading back to the airport. Though I was a little anxious to return to solid ground, I was sad to see my introductory flight come to an end. I can’t say the same for my photographer, who was crammed into the back seat, chronicling the entire experience.

The landing was better than I expected — more like a 3.0 aftershock than the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. I had envisioned myself crash-landing into someone’s game at Lakewood Country Club’s golf course.

Minutes later, after the third SUV cut me off on my way back to the office, I realized flying over the 405 freeway was much more pleasant than driving on it.