little aero-planes

I was driving home yesterday; thinking about whatever and then almost ran into the car in front of me. I applied the brakes and avoided hitting the other car. Which then got me thinking of the foot pedals in small airplanes and how while you are taxiing on the ground all the steering and braking is done with your feet. Steering is with left and right pedals (rudder pedals) and then the brakes are at your toes at the top of the pedals. You have to apply pressure to both brakes equally to stop straight otherwise you’ll flip the plane around sideways, which if you are meaning to turn then that’s good otherwise its not so good. But pretty much while taxiing I sat on my hands so I wouldn’t be tempted to try to steer with the stick (thing like a steering wheel), but then your speed is controlled with the throttle which is a knob on the dash so you can’t sit on your hands long. Ofcourse in the air the stick is very important along with the rudder pedals as those two things pretty much control whether you stay in the air or not. When learning to fly I was kindof disappointed that I never got to do a barrel roll – my instructor wouldn’t let me. Sure I would have probably stalled out and run us nose first into the ground. That wouldn’t have been so cool. I did get to do wingovers which were kindof fun. Pretty much its just a quick way to turn the plane around 180degrees if you are headed straight into a mountain or building or something. I always lost some altitude though so we had to make sure we weren’t too close to the ground. I got to fly an F-15 simulator once and would get off the runway a few hundred feet and then nosedive into the ground. Glad it wasn't a real plane. :0) Well, enough about flying and little airplanes. Guess I’ve been thinking of it since I just got back from flying to Virginia in a big ol’ plane and while I was home my dad asked if I’ve ever thought about getting back into flying. If the opportunity presented itself I might try flying again but it’s not something I just have to do or something. I’d have to re-learn pretty much everything and I am not as daring as I was 14 years ago. I am glad I did it as a youngster though.