June 12th 2013: Learning to Fly a Plane in Mansfield

Today after work, I had an appointment to learn to fly an airplane at the Mansfield Municipal Airport in the town of Mansfield with King Aviation Mansfield.

I decided to go grab some takeout dinner at Sakura, a Japanese Chinese restaurant in the town of Attleborough, where I decided to get the Angel Maki (tuna, roe and cucumber inside, wrapped with salmon, eel and yellowtail, topped with tempura crumbs, wasabi mayo, spicy mayo, eel sauce and scallions)

and the Moo Shi with Special Pancakes (Baby Shrimp).

This place is pretty decently decorated, with both Japanese and Chinese influence.

On top of that, they allowed me to have my meal in the restaurant even though it stated that it could only be used for takeout.

Both dishes were actually pretty decent, although I feared that I would be late for my flying experience, so I got the Moo Shi to go.

At the airport, which is really small and does not even have a control tower, I was early, so I decided to take a few pictures of the place while waiting.

 The dark clouds were rolling in,

but they told me I could still go up, and I definitely wasn't going to chicken out at this point anyway.

Finally, it was time to head out to the plane.

There was a long checklist of things to verify on the plane, like if the right switches were in the right position,

there was no water in the gas tank, there were no cracks anywhere on the plane body, all the flaps and ailerons were functioning properly, etc.

I even had to climb up to the top of the plane to check if there was fuel in the tank.Finally, it was time to get strapped into my seat and get ready to lift off. Thankfully, I did not need to do that, so I was able to take pictures while we were doing so.

The awesome views of the buildings below,

including the Comcast Center which I had tried and failed to gain access to before

and the forests I took before I had to take over the controls to fly for the very first time in my life, follow.

It was time to take over the controls. Like with the helicopter, I had to keep my hands on the controls at all times, because it was so hard to control keeping it level, turning left, or turning right, using the horizon as a guide instead of staring at the controls which simply just distracted me because I had no idea what I was looking at. As a result, my instructor had to constantly be on the controls as well. According to him, it takes most people about 4 hours to get used to staying level on the plane, and I was only up in the air for half an hour.

Finally, it was time to head back down to the ground, upon which my instructor took over the controls, and I was able to take pictures again of us heading back and landing.

With that, my interesting but sometimes scary lesson came to an end, with the only records that I flew it being my pictures, a picture they took of me, and a logbook which noted the time I was up in the air.

From here, as the daylight was still present, I decided to do some sightseeing on my way back to Attleborough to try out another restaurant in town, a Thai place named Sala Cafe, passing through the town of Norton

Norton Reservoir,
Mansfield Avenue and Freeman Street

Norton Water Tower,

55 West Main Street

St. Mary's Church

Barrowsville Pond,

~40 Power Street

Norton Middle School

J.C. Solmonese Elementary School

and a few places in Attleborough itself

Attleborough Advent Christian Church

Attleborough City Hall

Veterans Memorial Commons,

Pleasant Street and Emory Street

2nd Congregational Church

Before heading for my second dinner, at a small diner like place located within an industrial section of the town.

Using my groupon, I had to get 4 dishes in all, getting the Satay Beef (Tender strips of marinated grilled beef on skewers served with peanut sauce and cucumber sauce),

the Yum Nua (Grilled beef mixed with red onions, lemongrass, and scallion tossed in spicy dressing served over cabbage),

the Happy Pancake (Vietnamese crispy crepe stuffed with shrimp, chicken and vegetables served with dipping sauce)

and the Chicken Liver (sauteed spicy sauce and vegetables).

Except for the satay which was a little dry in my opinion, the rest of the dishes were pretty good, especially the tangy and tender meat in the Yum Nua, and the slightly spicy liver.

With that, I headed home for the night, content with my experience flying a plane for the first time.