The 30th of April will always resonate with me. I was still nursing a slight case of the birthday blues and was in need of a serious pick-me-up when all of a sudden I was offered the opportunity to fly a plane.
They say be careful of what you wish for, well, they were right.
I took it as a belated birthday present, but it actually was a genuine case of coincidence.
It had to do with the then upcoming World Environment Day on June 5 with Red Ribbon Days initiating a campaign to help reduce our carbon footprint by increasing awareness of the various activities that are available here in Malaysia.
As such, they invited personalities to partake in these activities and I couldn’t resist the invitation to do my part for Mother Nature.
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| Sanjeev (left) and Captain Adli inspecting the plane prior to flying it. |
I chose to be a pilot for a day, an experience that certainly appealed to the adrenaline junkie within and arrived at the Subang airport early on a Saturday morning.
After filling in the usual indemnity forms, Captain Adli, took me out to meet my ride, a Cirrus SR20 plane. Now I must admit, I can hold my own talking shop in the paddock, but out there in the airport hangar, I was clueless.
Captain Adli nonetheless patiently talked me through most of the specs as I followed him around the plane while he performed his pre-flight check.
One thing that did register is that this four-seater plane was powered by only a 200hp engine. Now I’ve sat in racing cars with at least four times more horsepower! All of a sudden, the thought of taking to the sky with only 200hp to keep us afloat seemed unnerving.
But before I knew it, I was buckled in right next to Captain Adli complete with my set of headphones and was listening in on the pre-flight communication with the tower before take-off.
The cockpit itself was very compact, with various different gauges, buttons, levers, pedals and what looked like a joystick. There was an identical set on my side, which I was to use once we were airborne.
For now though, I watched as Captain Adli manoeuvred the airplane to our take-off position and once we got clearance from the tower, he revved up the engines, increased our speed and proceeded to take off.
We were probably 20 metres off the ground before I even realised that we were airborne.
Once we reached cruising altitude, Captain Adli explained how to use the joystick to manoeuvre the plane left and right or to climb and descend. And then it was my turn to fly.
I’d be lying if I said that my palms weren’t sweaty.
In fact, I gripped on to the joystick for dear life as if I had to carry the weight of the plane with one hand. Captain Adli then guided me and when he said so, I pushed the stick to the left.
The left wing dipped and we were turning to the left. I then straightened up and turned to the right before pulling back on the stick to take us higher into the sky and back down again.
The adrenaline rush that came with the realisation that I was in control of the aircraft was unbelievable!
After a few more minutes of flying, I handed back the controls to the good captain who then asked if I’d like to experience a little more excitement. Never one to say no, I was in and he warned me to hold on tight.
Before I could gulp in anticipation, he pulled back on the stick and we were pointing to the sky and accelerating hard upwards.
It felt like I was on a rollercoaster shooting for the sun and I was pushed deep into my chair. Then all of a sudden we changed directions and it felt as if we had just driven off a cliff and were free falling down into a canyon below.
I could see specs of dirt and dust off the carpet float up and hover unnervingly around me. I was experiencing zero gravity!
The opportunity to control an aircraft was sublime in itself, but to have it coupled with the rush of screaming towards the sun and to be then be blown away by the weightless feeling of zero gravity, I have to admit it had me bouncing around long after we had touched down.
This has to be one of the best adrenaline rushes that I’ve ever experienced.
And the best part is that this is one ride that almost anyone can experience for themselves. And if you do, then just like me, you’ll never forget the day that you did.
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Sanjeev Palar is a presenter for the popular motorsport magazine show Engine Block. Catch more of his motorsport adventures every Monday at 10.30pm on STAR Sports.