Saturday was my 30th birthday, and what a birthday it was! My wonderful wife, who was celebrating her 29th birthday on Saturday as well, booked me some time with aerobatic pilot Elgin Wells in his Super Decathalon. The Super Decathalon is one of the planes that I've always wanted a ride in, and what a ride I got!
Elgin picked me up at the Flying Machine restaurant at the Lawrenceville airport. There were three sets of straps holding me in -- one for the parachute (!!!), one set of straps holding me to the seat, and a final set with a rachet tightening device holding me to the airframe. It took almost 15 minutes to get me strapped in.
We took off and proceeded to the practice area. Elgin talked, and I flew! It was great. I haven't been at the controls of an airplane in five years, and it felt so good to just fly around. When we got to the practice area, Elgin talked me through the aerobatic manuevers. We started with a barrel roll, which is crazy easy. We went on to do a loop, a half cuban eight, four point rolls, half cuban eight with a roll, hammerhead turns, and a half cuban eight with a point roll.
I had Elgin demonstrate a snap roll, and that's what finally got me. I didn't get sick -- not even close -- but I felt a small knot develop in the pit of my stomach. I knew that I wasn't going to hurl, but I also knew that if we kept on, I was going to feel worse. I had been having such a good time that I didn't want to take a chance on ruining it by feeling bad. We headed back to the airport.
I can't thank Leila enough for such an amazing birthday present. I'll post some screenshots from the DVD of my flight that is coming. This was so much fun, I may have to do it again!
