Reporter gets first taste of flying as Sky-Fest kicks off

From 4,000 feet in the air, Wal-Mart on Mount Cross Road doesn’t actually look that big. VIR looks pretty neat, and on a clear day you can reportedly see Smith Mountain Lake.

“Don’t worry,” said my flight instructor Robby Rowland with a laugh as I nervously placed my feet on the pedals in the PA28-161 Piper Warrior. “I’m not going to let you kill us.”

Well, that’s comforting.

As Sky-Fest gets under way and air traffic races over Danville, it’s definitely interesting to see what these pilots see, both inside the plane and the view outside, and to learn just how many switches there are to flip before you can get in the air.

Little did I know that as airplanes taxi, at least the little one I was in, you actually steer with your feet. Those cool looking handle bar steering wheels only coming into play as you take off. And despite its size, the plane is very sensitive to the slightest of pedal pushes.

Before we took off, Rowland took me through the external preflight check of the aircraft.

“I’d much rather know here on the ground than up in the air that something has gone wrong,” said the Averett University flight instructor.

Me too.

We — OK, I watched while he — checked the fuel pump, the magneto, the strobe lights on the side of the plane, and the blue-colored fuel gauge to make sure we were good to go.

We climbed in the small craft and put on our headphones that allow us to communicate over the roaring engine and get feeds from Air Traffic Control.

“All right,” Rowland said, “just use your feet and make sure the body of the plane stays over that line down the middle of the runway.”

Um. Sure. No problem?

It was kind of like those driver’s-ed cars with an extra brake pedal for the instructor to hover over. As a one-time flyer also responsible for taking pictures and notes, I’ll admit I wasn’t entirely focused.

Technically, sure there were moments when I was flying — after Rowland checked and flipped and switched the myriad gizmos and buttons in front of me. And there were times when I was steering — with Rowland still gripping his steering bars as well.

Thank goodness.

When he told me I was keeping my altitude steady. I was quite pleased with myself, but realized that I didn’t know which of three gauges was actually measuring that. He told me the best indicator was that dropping feeling in the stomach. He was right.

Though I walked in with a little trepidation, Rowland completely put me at ease and happily pointed out Danville landmarks.

“I’m not really an office kind of person,” said Rowland, who graduated from Averett’s aviation program in 2006.

In addition to instructing the 60 or students currently in the program, he also teaches through PilotProject.org, the General Aviation Industry’s program to recruit more pilots. Through the program, pretty much anyone can sign up for lessons locally (like at Danville Regional Airport, for example) and learn to fly.

For more information, go to www.projectpilot.org.

• Contact Sarah Arkin at (434) 791-7983 or sarkin@registerbee.com.