To Crash a Plane: A lesson in flying becomes a lesson in paying attention

Date published: 5/6/2008

EVERY SUMMER, my family goes to visit relatives in Illinois. My dad has his own plane, so we fly halfway across the country on our own. There isn't much legroom in the other seats, so I sit in the co-pilot's seat, where I can fully stretch out.

We were somewhere over Ohio on one such flight, when my dad asked if I would like to try my hand at flying. I was terrified. But naturally, I couldn't help myself. After a crash course in aviation, I was flying the plane all by myself. It was fun for about five minutes, but then my mind began to wander. Going in a straight line can only keep a child's attention for so long, so I gave back the helm and resumed staring out the window.

A little while later, my dad told me that we were running out of gas, and I flipped out. It took him a little while to explain to me that we were running out of gas in one of the four fuel tanks, and that he was going to switch it soon. He needed me to watch the fuel pressure gauge and, when it started to go down, then we would switch tanks. I watched the static needle for about five minutes and thought I was going to die of boredom.

It was as much time as it took me to yawn, look out the window and think, "Ooh look, a cloud" before the needle had moved halfway across the gauge.

"Dad!" I yelled. My dad changed the fuel tank, but he was just a little too late. The steady hum of the engine began to slow, as my heart began to race. My eyes got so wide that they almost fell out. We began to plummet toward the earth until Dad reached down and jiggled something, and the engine roared back to life.

Once we leveled off again, it took me a few seconds to lift my jaw off the floor and put my eyes back in their sockets. I looked to the back of the plane and realized that my brother had slept through the whole thing.

The rest of the flight went fine. Even so, I didn't quite calm down until we landed. In retrospect, I think the lesson I learned from this is that adults aren't always lying when they say that you need to pay attention. Every so often, they mean it.

Chris Albert is an eighth-grader at King George Middle School.

Date published: 5/6/2008

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