Come fly with me...

So, a week ago, Ty and I went up to Daejeon for flying lessons. We'd found an ad on Facebook for "Expat Flyers in Korea" and decided to give it a whirl.

Now, when you say "flying lessons" to me, I picture an airport, maybe a few Cessnas or something, and, naturally, Tom Cruise in a leather jacket. It wasn't like that at all, but it was one of the funnest things I've had a chance to do in Korea.

We first had to get ourselves to Daejeon, and from there, to some small town. Arriving in Daejeon on Friday night, we decided to try to find the bus that we'd have to take the next day, just to be prepared. We ended up spending over an hour trying to find the elusive 104 bus, running around in the cold (neither of us was really appropriately dressed for a cold snap), trying to call the guy, Matthew, who was running the flying lessons, and e-mailing. We started feeling like we were on The Amazing Race as we asked someone where the 104 was, then ran in one direction, then had to run back the other way.

In case you're wondering, the 104 is pretty easy to find. Come out of the front doors of the Daejeon station, then cross the street in front of you and continue walking away from the train station, past the corner where the 7-11 is.

Having located the bus stop, we decided to try to find a love motel for the evening. Generally, most train and bus stations in Korea are absolutely surrounded by a variety of neon-lit love motels where you can have a pretty nice room for about $40. We found ourselves wandering around a street market that was closed for the evening. Old ladies, bundled up against the cold, huddling together around small fires made in oil drums... skinny cats darting between wooden shack-like fruit kiosks... shady characters lurking in corners... it was a bit dodgy, but only because we'd never seen anything like it here before. I think we would have been really scared in any other country but Korea (since here, the old bundled up people were more than happy to walk up the street with us, and guide us to a multi-storey hotel).

Once at the hotel, hunger set in but, without anything to eat and with neither of us willing to brave the cold dark streets again, we concentrated on not watching the other person through the glass bathroom door (like, why?)....

Matthew called us to tell us that he'd meet us in the morning at a different subway stop, meaning that the whole cold, confusing search for the 104 bus hadn't been necessary after all.

The next morning, we picked our way between dozens of farmers who were setting up shop in the market (which didn't seem half as spooky as it had been the night before), and headed off to meet Matthew, quite excited with the prospect of learning to fly. The weather was perfect, and it finally hit me that I was actually going to fly a real plane!!!!!!!

We found the subway, and were pleasantly surprised by a photo exhibit of the Masai Marathon (the barefoot marathon that I'd done a few months ago, just outside of Daejeon). Sure enough, Lindsey, Melisa and Nicola's photos were to be found amongst the rows of pics.

Nicola (2nd from left, top row), Melisa (middle row, far right, blue hat), Lindsey (lower left corner) in the Daejeon subway

At 8:15, standing at a subway stop an hour from Daejeon station, we got in touch with Matthew who was surprised that we hadn't received his text message in the middle of the night. His plane had been badly damaged by theives, and he'd been up all night trying to fix it, and he'd canceled his weekend customers.

He called us back and said, "You guys came all the way from Mokpo. I'm coming to meet you now." He was getting a friend of his to let us use his plane. We wouldn't be doing the full flying course, but we would at least get a chance to fly.

Armed with coffee, we set off in Matthew's SUV for the "airport", which turned out to be a few open fields in the middle of nowhere, with a couple of small tent-like hangars. It's a small, private flying club. Flying is an expensive hobby, and Korea is no exception. Flying small planes has become a popular hobby among older professionals, and as there aren't many people doing it, the skies are generally free from traffic, except the odd military helicopter.

Matthew showed us a few of the planes. My first reaction upon seeing the "Angelfish" was to giggle. It was the cutest plane I'd ever seen. Made of aluminum tubes and plastic?canvas? with a Bombardier snowmobile engine strapped to the nose, it didn't look like it should fly. Matthew's plane, which was larger and more sturdier (and with bits of it laying about the hangar) was still out of commission so.... we'd be flying the Angelfish????

Matthew and Ty inspect Matthew's plane ....

.... while I take glamour shots next to the pretty pink plane.

The Angelfish

Ty and the Angelfish

Inside the cockpit

Our Korean Tom Cruise, Mr Lee, arrived. He'd been a fighter pilot in the Korean Air Force (and there were photos of him in uniform and his camouflage Top Gun-type helmet in the office) and the little bright pink Angelfish was his. He was more than happy to help Matthew up and take Ty and I for a spin.

I was first, and the first challenge was, really, getting into the plane. Of course, you have to be careful where you put your feet and hands and such, and you're climbing into a wee door designed for elves. Once inside, you've got a stick between your knees and foot pedals and such. I'd already decided that I was not going to touch anything, trusting the guy who used to fly MiGs instead of me to handle the controls, but rather take photos of the whole experience.

Here is my video of takeoff:

Flying! I let Mr Lee do most of the work....

Our "airport" - you can see Ty standing near the car

Coming in for a landing. The prop is going slow enough to see.

It was a short flight, maybe about 20 minutes, where we circled over fields and hills, small villages and construction sites for larger complexes. We could see cranes taking off from the Keum river, and graves and temples tucked under the trees of the mountains surrounding the airfield. Surprisingly, it wasn't really that scary!

Ty squishes himself into the plane

After I was safely on the ground, it was Ty's turn. He did actually take the controls a bit more than I did, and managed to get a few good pics of himself in the cockpit as well.

My handsome boy flying a plane...

Needing parts for his plane, Matthew took us back to Daejeon where we, ravenously, made a beeline for Papa John's Pizza, where I fell in love with the garlic dipping sauce (which I dubbed "Garlic Pudding") ...
...then headed to the same hotel that I'd stayed at for the Masai Marathon.

The next day, Matthew met us and brought us back to the airfield. We were pretty impressed with him for going the extra mile for us. Flying, like scuba diving, never carries a 100% guarantee, since you are dealing with environmental forces like the weather, winds etc. Being safe sometimes means not going at all. Planning a weekend flight school means that, if you aren't prepared to wait for good conditions, or if you expect everything to run according to a tight schedule, you'll be disappointed. If you're willing to chill out and, as we did, sit in the sun and watch 5 Korean men try to fix a plane, you'll have a better day.

Flight School

In between fixing his own plane, Matthew gave us some flight theory lessons. It was all about drag and lift and wings and ailurons and rudders and controls. Basically, there are forces that work on the plane to keep it up in the air. By manipulating how those forces (of lift and drag) hit the bits of the plane, you either go up, go down or turn.

We were a bit sad that we couldn't give Matthew's plane a try. I'd been humming "Snoopy and the Red Baron" for 2 days now. Once again, Mr Lee took us up in his Angelfish. This time, however, I would have to actually use the stick and the pedals to turn the plane. I could no longer be the princess in the pink cockpit, just along for the ride and enjoying the view.

Well, I'd like to say that I steered the plane and all, but it would be more accurate of me to say that my hand touched the stick thing and my feet rested on the pedal things and Mr Lee did all the actual work.... which is fine by me. Ty said that Mr Lee actually took his hand off the steering stick thing and let Ty fly the plane all by himself. I'd say that Mr Lee is a very good judge of character and a very smart man.

With a long trip back home ahead of us, Ty and I got Matthew to drop us off at a town near Daejeon, then took a taxi ($25!) back to the KTX train station and a train back to Mokpo.

For a weekend thing, it's lots of fun. If you're coming from anywhere further than Daegu or Seoul, you do need to give yourself ample time to get there and back. Matthew has a lot of experience with planes and flying, and is a really interesting guy to talk to. Don't expect a very tight schedule, and take it as a nice relaxing weekend, and you'll have a pretty good time. For more information, take a look at Matthew's site, or shoot me an e-mail if you want to know more about it.