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Forget Driving Lessons, I'm Flying

Marcus James Woolley
Sep 4, 2013
3 min read

It was early September, I have only just turned 21 and for my birthday treat I was going to fly a plane, I took a friend of mine called Amy who was going to be my photographer for the day, when we first arrived at Swansea Airport I was starting to get the sweats, I had butterflies in my stomach causing it to turn, it was a beautiful clear day, the sun was shinning on us and the sky was blue, as we were sitting there waiting for someone to arrive, I kept looking up at the sky, I couldn’t believe I was actually going to be flying a plane.

A tall old man came up to me asking if I wanted to come up in the plane with him, but when he saw I had a friend with me he told me “the plane can only hold two”, at this moment I was a bit confused, “but I have booked the two of us”, we realised at that point this was just an old man with a hobby to fly, he was offering me a free trip up in the air.

Finally the plane I was going to be flying arrives, it was a small single craft engine, whilst myself and Amy buckled up inside the aircraft the instructor was giving me a quick overview about all the complicated buttons that surrounded me.

Finally it was time for take off, we made our way across the yard to the start of the runway, at this point I am pretty sure Amy was thinking what the hell she was doing there, trusting me to fly a plane. We contacted the tower to tell them we were about to take off, the vibration of the plane on the handle’s was intense, I moved my bum cheeks to get myself in position, then the message came through, “your all clear for take off”, from that point I pushed down on the lever which caused the plane to quickly gain speed, the craft started to slightly bounce and then we were off.

Swansea airport slowly disappeared beneath us as we went up into the sky, all around us was the green countryside of the Gower and the sparkling blue waters of the Bristol Channel, I tilted left and came across Worms Head and then headed off into the direction of Carmarthen town.

“Are you OK back there” I shouted across to Amy as the sound of the engine drowns out any other noise, “Yh I am all good” Amy replies with most probably the look of horror on her face. The plane slightly bounced in the air against the wind, below us we were just about to cross the county border of Carmarthenshire, in the distance you can see as far as Pembroke Dock which just goes to show how small Wales actually is, to the right of us in the far distance you could see the edge of the Black mountains and ahead of me rolling green hills of the Welsh countryside.

As we were flying over the Loughor Estuary below us was the old industrial town called Llanelli which was surrounded by the wet marshlands that is part of this vast countryside. The town of Carmarthen slowly started to appear in the distance, as we flew over the town all you could see is the roof tops and the bustling streets; the river Towy which snakes past the town shined brightly from the reflection of the sun.

I circled the town about six times, mainly over my workplace where I could see my work friends waving up at me, even today when I am walking through Carmarthen I look up at the sky and think about that day which makes me put a smile on my face as not many people can say that they have flown a plane before.

We started to make our way back to Swansea airport, I can see the runway in the distance and I couldn’t believe it was all over, once again I got myself ready as the plane quickly made it’s way to the runway, the nose of the plane lifted and the back wheels made contact with earth once again, the plane powered it’s way down the runway one last time before slowing down and coming to a halt.

Leaving the aircraft my legs were like jelly, I couldn’t believe I have done it and now I can’t wait to do it again.