"Get the nose up boy" said Alan Foster, my instructor. I pulled back on the yolk and the nose rose but too fast. "I have control" Alan said as he corrected my feeble attempt to land the plane.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not a bad pilot, I just have this problem with landing. "Try again" said Alan. I did and although it wasn't pretty, we managed a very bumpy landing. At the debrief Alan put a video in the player saying that this is how it's done. He explained that it was his daughter on her first solo.
The plane made a textbook approach, touched down, barely kissing the runway, taxied back to the hangar and shut down. The door swung open and out stepped this slip of a girl dressed in a loose top and grey pants. She turned to face the camera, smiled and waved. She was in her late teens I guessed, with short blond hair and the most beautiful face I have ever seen. She was STUNNING and I was in love! As the video ended Alan explained he had taught her to fly and she had picked up the landing at her third attempt. He went on to explain she was now working at another airfield as a flying instructor. He then asked me if I could arrange for an hour and a half for the next lesson as he would like her to fly with me so they could get together to see exactly what my problem was. I agreed. He looked me in the eye and said "I'm not doing you any favours here, just because she looks sweet, don't think she will give you an easy time; she's a hard taskmaster!"
A little about me at this point. My name is Peter Rice and I'm 25. I live at home with Mom and Dad and use all my spare time for study – they say I should get out more. I work for a large corporate fuel distributor as a management trainee, my first job since university. The company supplies fuel to the area and as part of my training I was sent out with one of our drivers to see how things are done. One of our drop-offs was the local airfield. It was while I was there I decided to take Mom and Dad at their word and learn to fly.
I arrived for my lesson to find that, true to his word, Alan's daughter was my instructor. She was even more stunning in real life than in the video. She walked over to introduce herself. This was the same girl in the video but now in her early twenties I guessed. "Hi, I'm Charlotte" she said. Up close I saw she had beautiful green eyes set in a perfect face. I was truly smitten! I had to impress this girl.
We went through our briefing and with Alan's last comment about her still ringing in my ears, made for the aircraft. I noticed that as she left the flight office she picked up a clipboard, something Alan never did. She started writing as I did my ground and cockpit checks – this is going to be a book, I thought. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the flight was good and the landing was just as before, atrocious. At the debrief Charlotte took me apart and finally gave me the check-sheet she had been writing so I could take it home to study. True to Alan's prediction she had noted everything I did wrong (including several things I thought I was doing right) along with comments on what I should do to improve.
The following week I arrived expecting Alan, only to find Charlotte again. She explained Alan was out of town on business. We went straight to the plane, me in fear and her with the clipboard. I noticed she was not writing as much this time. After the flight she said that the landing had improved and so had my general flying. See you next week she said. I was glad Alan was away, I can tell you! Our lessons carried on for three more weeks then she told me Alan would probably be back next week.
The following week I arrived at the airfield for my lesson as usual and there was Charlotte, deep in conversation with Alan and my heart sank. Although she was hard to please she was still gorgeous and I think I was falling for her in a big way. Finally they both came over and Alan told me that this lesson would be free with no time limit. Charlotte moved toward the plane and with a playful "come along Peter" got in. This was unusual because we hadn't discussed what we were going to do. She took the controls and we took off. After we were airborne she gave me a course to fly. I said "where are we going Charlotte?" to which she answered "call me Sandy – all my friends do –now just fly please." After landing at 'her' airfield we walked to a beat-up sports car and she drove us to a small restaurant where we had a great lunch. Sandy, as I will refer to her now, told me that her dad was paying so enjoy. This is strange, I thought. We talked over lunch like old friends and had a great time. Several times our hands touched, the effect on me was electrifying. I hoped she didn't see this.