Who’s flying the plane?

I’ve done some dumb shit in my time (see previous post on picking scabs). I may have even led others to do equally (if not more) stupid stuff.

This picture was taken not long after I obtained my private pilot’s licence (PPL) in Cyprus. As you can see… no one if flying this aircraft.

Now this isn’t a Boeing 737 on autopilot in the picture. It’s a dinky little Cessna C172 with no autopilot or any of the fancy features you get on a modern aircraft. In other words, you have to sit and fly it. All the time.

In an encouraged bout of stupidity, me and flying mate Tony (who also recently passed his PPL), decided to see if we could trim the plane out so it would ‘fly itself’ whilst we took a picture from the small back seats. By the way, getting to the back seats is not that easy, think trying to climb from the front to the back of an old mini without opening the doors.

If you’ve studied weight and balance, you would realise that if all the weight goes to the back… the nose will pitch up. Which it did. Rather aggressively. Throwing me and Tony further backwards away from the controls. Making the issue worse. The plane then stalled (lost airspeed), at which point I managed to throw myself forward to push the nose down enough to recover.

Heart rate on the way down. But not the stupidity. There’s more…

What we should have done is climb back in the front, recover the aircraft and confessed our stupidity to the flying club.

But that wouldn’t have got the picture you see here.

So this time, we trimmed the aircraft 100% nose down and balanced our weight in the middle before sitting back and taking the picture. Giving just enough time to enjoy it, grab the controls in time to get the nose down, and then jump back in the front to land.

I’m sure I could include something witty about pushing the envelope or knowing your limits. But it’s just as easy to say we sometimes do dumb shit and laugh afterwards. 

I’m thankful that I don’t take life too seriously. It helps to be able to reframe events, which is a skill everyone can learn. So try and laugh at the dumb shit, or get someone to teach you how.

I’ll never forget Tony who was equally dumb that day. Sadly, he is no longer with us but his ability to laugh still makes me smile.

Share this blog if you have equally done dumb shit and laughed. Especially to those who were with you.