Flying a Plane Over Storrs

This past week, I casually decided to fly a plane over campus.

This was all thanks to the UConn flight club, which allowed me and 20 other members to go up in a plane at no charge. Two students and one instructor would fly for about 20 minutes, and they would simply rotate out students. Controlling the plane in the air was fairly simple, and did not require much attention. In fact, I was allowed to just take photos and fly at the same time, as I am quite unlikely to crash into anything but clouds. Below, I will go over some of the basic controls I had to learn on the spot. Afterward, I will paste in the rest of the photos. I hope this experience could inspire others to reach out to programs so they too can partake in events that also sound crazy on paper.

First is the steering yolk. Steering it left/right will bank the plane in that direction. Pulling it forward/backward will lift the nose of the plane up/down.

The throttle (what controls propellor speed) is the black, “wedge-shaped” lever on the right.

Important instruments (left-to-right-top-to-bottom): clock, air speed, pitch/balance, altitude, fuel/oil, pitch/balance, GPS, vertical speed, compass.

Pedals (not shown): Steer the plane without having to bank it.

From there, all you have to do is not crash. Here are the rest of the photos I took of campus, and the plane: