Monthly Archives: June 2010

EEP!

Well, not quite today – but on Monday I sure did. I went to a press conference at the Lloyd Richards’ Hangar at the Timmins Victor M. Power Airport (quite the mouthful, eh?) for Young Eagles Day, which is coming up this weekend. I was expecting a quick shoot – bing, bang, boom, vis, interview, done. But, when I arrived, one of the local newspaper reporters had arranged to fly with one of the pilots – and asked if I wanted to go along. Um, YES PLEASE!

Now, I’ll be honest here – I just could not turn down an opportunity like that. But I’m a nervous flyer. I’ve flown a whole total of 6 times in my life – two when I was so young, I can barely remember (both times to Flordia). Another two times to NYC – and yes, I was nervous then. Especially on my most recent NYC trip with friends, when the airline decided to put me miles away from the boy AND my 2 buddies we travelled with (not so fun). Actually, make that 7 times – I just remembered I took a sightseeing helicopter ride over Niagara Falls once, and yes, if I recall correctly, it made me feel pretty sick too. Especially when the pilot turned the damn thing sideways to “give us a better look” at the Falls.

Yup, THIS was what I flew in.

And lastly… two times from Timmins to Toronto, on a little Air Canada Jazz plane – and I thought THAT small a plane was nerve wracking. Let me tell you, it was NOTHING compared to the little guy I was in a few days ago.

But the nerves, the shaky hands, the hours it took me to get my “ground legs” back, and the waves of nausea were so. totally. worth it.

Sitting in the front seat was actually really fun, and I felt fine. Sitting in the back however… lets just say I should have remembered how sick I’d feel as a kid in the back seat of my parent’s SUV before getting into the back of the plane. Let’s just say the plane was 300 times worse. I can liken it to the dizzy, sick feeling I get after spinning around in a desk chair for a good 3 minutes.

It actually was so bad towards the end I couldn’t look out the window for more than a few brief seconds – and let me tell you, there was NO way I could have held my camera steady to film a shot. Sadly, that meant missing out on some potentially amazing shots of the Xstrata Met Site (which is WAY bigger than I ever could have imagined), the open pit Dome Mine, and some other mines in the area. My dad (who used to fly with my grandfather when he was a kid) says it has something to do with not being able to see the horizon – I guess the horizon keeps you feeling more “grounded”, which would help explain why I felt fine when I was in the front of the plane (plus, I had controls and, you know, FLYING THE PLANE! to concentrate on). Good thing I’m not an astronaut  -there’s NO horizon out there to save me! (which possibly explains why 50% of astronauts in NASA’s space program get sick in space).

Now, onto the most important part of my flight – flying the plane! So, our amazing pilot Yvon asked me if I wanted to give it a whirl. And I mean, how could I say no? So, I grabbed the wheel… and he promptly let go. Gulp.

Allow me to show you, rather than tell you, what happens next.

Yup. I might have scared the beejebus out of the newspaper reporter who kindly offered to film my flying attempt (and I may or may not have squeaked “OH MY GOD I CAN’T DO THIS!” at the pilot… but he just said “Hey, I’ll level out the plane for you and then keep trying”. Yvon was really patient, helpful, and trusting  - which was awesome. When I finally got the hang of it, I was so excited – and it felt amazing to be FLYING 3,000 feet in the air, all by myself. Very cool moment. I did give the controls back to Yvon after only a few minutes though, since we were approaching a dark cloud and some rain.

I now totally want to get my pilot’s license one day (and then I’ll fly myself to Bermuda! Or somewhere balmy and warm ;)