Grant Percival

2nd hour
February 3, 2011

How to Fly an Airplane

You might think that flying an airplane is pretty hard, but the truth is, it’s just as easy as

driving a car. A plane acts a lot like a car, except, obviously you’re not on a road, you’re in the

air. A plane requires three things for you to know how to do: The first thing is taking off, the

second thing is moving it around in the air, and the third thing is landing, and all of these things

are relatively simple. The trick is practicing them with an instructor; He’ll keep you from

crashing.

Before you take off in a plane, you have to do what’s called the pre-flight check. This

consists of checking your planes mechanical systems to make sure they’re all in order, just like

what you’d do if you were about to go on a long car trip. Starting the plane is pretty simple;

there are two switches you have to turn. The first one is the electronic master switch, this turns

on the avionic equipment that keeps you oriented, and the other switch is the magneto switch,

which is basically the on/off switch for the engine. After you start the plane, you’re going to taxi

to the runway, before you actually get on the runway you have to make sure there are no other

planes using it. Once you get on the runway all you have to do is let go of your brakes, which

are your foot pedals, and put up your throttle. Wait to get enough speed, and pull back on the

stick and, Presto! You have got the plane up in the air!

Alright moving around in an airplane is pretty simple, since a plane can really only do

four things: It can go up, down, left and right. To ascend in an airplane all you have to do is push

your throttle up, this is the left side lever in the middle of your airplane, and pull back on the
controls, so the nose of the plane is pointing up. To go down, just put your throttle down and

this the controls forward, so your nose is pointing to the ground. Turning an easy plane is easy,

there are lots of ways to do it; but let’s just stick with the basics. To turn the plane to the right,

you just turn the controls of the plane to the right, just like a car. To turn an airplane to the left,

just turn your controls to the left. Alright! You now know how to move an airplane around in

the air! But now you have to learn how to land.

Landing the plane is probably the hardest thing you’ll have to do. The first thing you’ll

have to do is lower your flaps, and power down on your throttle, lowering your flaps will

provide the extra lift to land softly. The next thing is checking to make sure they’re no other

planes using the runway. Next you’ll want to lower your landing gear, that’s probably a good

idea. Once you line up with the runway, you’re going to softly gliding down to the ground. Just

before you hit the ground, you’re going to want to pull back slightly on the stick, this will point

your nose upward so you don’t flip the plane. Once you’ve hit the ground, you simply taxi to

where you’re going to park the plane, and turn off the two switches. There! You’ve just flown

an airplane!

Okay, so maybe flying isn’t as easy snapping your fingers. It something you have to work

at, but it’s worth it if you stick to it. Learning things like taking off and landing are things that

take practice. Just learning the physics behind what makes an airplane go up, down, left, and

right can take tedious memorization. It’s worth the trouble though, you can get places faster,

and you don’t have to worry about a big traffic jam on the highway. Once you get the hang of it

flying an airplane is a fun an easy thing to do.