And the hook has been set.....
Thanks to my mom who won a rotary club raffle for a 2 hour flight in her choice of two different planes, my 6 year old son who has gotten the "all things airplane" gene from his old man is on his way!! Of course we chose the single engine Cessna 172 skyhawk II since this would allow us to actually fly the plane as opposed to just being passengers in the multi engine. I started off in the left seat and flew the plane for the first 30 minutes or so when our instructor Betty asked "do you think your son would like to try and fly?" I had no idea this would even be a possibility since he's 6 but she said he could sit in my lap. I turned the controls back over to her, turned around and asked Noa "hey buddy, do you wanna fly this thing?" The look on his face and in his eyes is a moment I will truly never forget. I brought him up front, got him situated and then we turned the controls over to him. For 45 min my son flew that plane. I mean really flew it without Betty touching the controls once and me only tapping the underside of his hands a couple of times, left or right to get him to make the minor adjustments.
The instructor would say "ok Noa let's turn left" and off he'd go. "Now level off" and he'd straighten it out. Climb, descend, turn right, turn left....no problem. I helped out on the rudder since he couldn't reach and the instructor adjusted the throttle a couple of times but that was it. Did I mention that he's 6? At one point Betty and I looked at each other and I could see past the dumbfounded look that we were both getting to ride shotgun during a moment of epiphany for my son. Funny thing is a few minutes into his adventure he says to me "hey dad, this ones the up and down spinner (altimeter) and that one is the speed one (air speed indicator) like in dogfight". Just another reason to love this game

. Of course no first flight would be complete without the use of a complimentary barf bag which he used shortly after being relegated to the back seat for the return to the airport. I told him it was a right of passage and that daddy puked the first time too...not exactly the truth but what's the harm. Got back to the airport and had Betty fill out his flight log book to make it official. Such a great moment! Thanks mom.