My visit to Canada has been full of new experiences, one after the other, from snowshoeing to skating to skiing. Never had I imagined I would do all these things but I have had an opportunity to do them.

My dreams have always been of being in the air, I want to pursue a career in aeronautical engineering and yesterday I began my career. It was like a dream come true, all those dreams that I had had as a young boy were now becoming reality. It was ‘ one small step for James’.

We met with Jill Steacy’s brother in law, Kevin Debiasio who had rented a small aircraft from the Trail Flying Club. A Cessna 172, 1969 model. I had seen small planes flying in Kenya but I had never imagined I would one day be in one. I remembered how when we were at school, whenever one passed overhead, everybody would turn their heads up to look at it and we would cheer. Now it was me inside it.

He had agreed to fly us over Nelson for some thirty minutes or so, I was very excited for this. It was a four seater so me, Kyle and Nigel went for the first ride. He first showed us how all the parts worked and it was mind blowing. I never expected a plane to have such a simple framework. It had a four cylinder engine and the propeller was joined directly to the crankshaft. The control column was directly connected to the different parts it controlled such as the ailerons and the elevators on the horizontal stabilizer. The controls in the cockpit were to control three types of movements, pitch, roll and yaw. Flying the aero plane to me was quite similar to driving a car except for the fact that you have two extra movements to consider. When inside, he explained all the dials in the cockpit, from the altimeter to the magnetic compass. Everything had a purpose in there, even the smallest switch had a role to play

The flying part was the best one, the view of Nelson from the sky was breathtaking. It looked as if it was small square tiles put together in a neat manner, not exactly what one sees from the ground. The mountains, the snow all beneath us, it was an awesome view. The lake from up top had different colors ranging from brown near the beach to dark blue near the middle of the lake.

The piers on the lake side looked so beautiful. Another interesting part is the communication while flying. I was used to hear people talking in planes in movies and I used to think that they were sound effects but that’s what actually happens, you have to wear headphones when in flight and the sound is altered so that it sounds as if you are listening to a radio.

I was sitting up front and so as we turned back Kevin asked me if I wanted to try flying the plane and I was more than happy to say yes! We first went through another lesson of how the controls work. Everything was quite easy and comfortable until when we did a nose dive, it was a minute of terror, I felt my belly rise to my chest. Once I had memorized all the controls, he let go and I was flying the plane all on my own! The flying was quite easy as all I needed to do was turn the control column when the plane started to roll. That was a great moment for me, the first time I controlled an aircraft. The beginning of my career.

Landing was another awesome part, we flew in a circle to gain the correct altitude for landing and the correct horizontal speed. Landing was not what I expected, it was quite smooth, actually the whole flight was very smooth and I liked it.

One more thing, you never want to fly without enough fuel or you will be gliding down the sky and doing some serious crash landing. To avoid this we had to refuel the plane and I volunteered to do it. It was so much fun, climbing a ladder onto the wings then filling the tanks to the brim. I wanted to do it over and over again.

I’m very grateful to Jill Steacy’s family for this wonderful experience and to Kevin for letting me fly the plane and experience flight in his plane. I’m so thankful for that. Thank you to CST for the amazing opportunity.