If someone told me this morning I would fly a plane today, I'd think they were nuts!

At about 3:45, Jon came over and said "Hey, I know this is short notice, but I have a plane rented for 5:00 today if you want to go."

How could I say no? He took some of our other co-workers for a ride before and I had seen a video, so I had told him I was interested in flying sometime.

I met him at the airport and we went outside to the plane to do all of the pre-flight checks. This took about ten minutes. We got in and he briefed me on some safety stuff and other general things I'd need to know. We also filled up with some gas, but next thing I knew, the control tower cleared us for takeoff!

We flew west and passed over Armstrong. I was able to spot my building and the baseball stadium from up there. We kept heading west toward the Susquehanna River and Jon asked me if I'd be interested in taking the control. Why the heck not? So he quickly told me how to go up, down, right and left. I took over figuring that it would be sort of like riding a bike -- I'd get a feel for it. I was totally wrong, as soon as my hands were the only ones on the controls, I nearly panicked. I immediately tensed up completely and wanted to do nothing but maintain the height and direction of the plane. Despite my efforts, I dipped and rose, and swayed right to left. I was so freaked out I barely moved until Jon coached, "pull back... tilt right." I was able to successfully pull off a 10 degree turn over the river before I told him I was ready for him to take over.

The rest of the time I enjoyed the amazing view. We did "touch and go" landings where we'd land and take off again immediately. We did about 4 until we landed for good.

Definitely an unexpected but amazing adventure!

This is the model of the plane we were in: