Look, ma, I can fly

I moved to Budapest in 2024, September for the purpose of redoing my BSc studies, to give it another go. And yeah, just as I expected the university experience still sucks. I hate waking up at 6am just to sit through 4 to 7 hours of presentation or someone talking while people are playing on their phone and commuting back to home. I thought the pressure might be useful for me to learn rough edges of Computer Science I am lacking at the moment: discrete math, calculus, and stuff that I don’t even know exists. Well, I gave it a chance and I hated every moment of it. I know the problem is mostly me. I didn’t study properly, I learned just enough to go through exams and then forgot everything, like most other students. I was starting to feel like I am going to waste my years in Hungary for no particular life improvement.

An accident

Around the last quarter of 2024 I got interested in aeroplane accident reports and watching analysis videos on YouTube. I didn’t had any particular interest in flying previously. I started overconsuming the same kind of content more and more, watched all the videos of some channels and somehow learned just enough to have rough idea about what’s going inside planes (very rough and overconfident estimate).

Over time my curiosity started wandering more about the planes, so I decided to start playing Microsoft Flight Simulator (MSFS) 2020. MSFS 2024 was already released at the time but the reviews was pointing out major bugs and stability issues, so I just ended up with one generation older version. I started playing around, trying different planes, pressing random buttons on the cockpit dashboards to figure out how they work.

From the accident investigation videos I got some basic understanding of flight control interfaces and some aviation lingo. Still though, jumping right into a virtual Airbus A320 cockpit was not particularly a good idea for a newbie sim player. I couldn’t even start the engine. The game had an incredible training section which taught basic controls, airspace procedures, and navigation briefs. I spent around 4-5 hours on the training section and got somewhat used to flying Cessna 172N models. I was lucky the virtual tires was not burtsting after my steep landings.

What if …?

I started sharing a lot of stuff from the games and plane facts to my friends. Then were jokingly chatting about piloting actual planes. After some time I started to take those jokes more seriously and started asking, “what if I really got invested into piloting?”. I love and hate “what if?” questions at once. I hate them because they linger off on my brain until I get a definitive answer. I love them because they are usually concrete questions that I can actually try to find an answer, and they usually push me to try out new stuff, I can use them as an excuse.

I wasn’t particularly serious, but I started researching about pilot training process. I think I just looked at a few reddit posts and ads on the flight school websites. I didn’t put much time into it. I had a rough idea about the process but that’s it. I wasn’t going to study anyways. I was just entertaining the idea on my head though since my studies are not going well, I felt like I can still turn the Budapest experience to more fulfilling one.

On January 2025, I visited my friends and family in Baku. I was still joking around it with friends. I was getting annoyed that I didn’t have access to my PC to play some flightsim when I was in Baku. After returning on a reddit post I saw someone mention something along the lines of “Here’s how you can fly a plane without having a license”, and the answer was “If you attend a demo flight at a flight school, they might let you fly the plane as well”. For some reason I just found a random flight school not so far away from me, emailed them about the possibility of a demo flight. Got an answer back in a day, and somehow I ended up scheduling a flight.

Demo flight

My flight was scheduled for 11 February, 2025. I booked a taxi to the airport. I had never been to a small airfield before, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. The ride went smooth, we found the place easily, I walked down the field while reading tables in front of hangars, found the school’s hangar.

There were some people inside the hangar. I approached them, introduced myself. The instructor that was scheduled to fly with me was also in the hangar, he noticed me and approached to introduce himself. We had some chatting, went over what’s going to happen next.

We then went to check the airplane and tow it out of the hangar to start preparing it for the flight. It was an Aero AT-3 model two seater, low wing plane, with HA-VOA registration. It was a cold morning, and the plane had not been flown before on that day. Its engine had to be heated before starting operations, so after towing the plane out instructor used an electric heater to start heating the engine. Apparently it is necessary to keep the engine running smoothly to reduce wear&tear.

After the preperations has been completed, the instructor went to fill up the necessary documents. He then did a quick briefing about the flight. Tha plan was flying to the training zone and doing some basic maneuvres, then returning back to the airfield to do traffic circuits and landing. The flight was planned for an hour.

We removed all the covers, had a walkaround and boarded the plane. I had a chance to take the following off-angle photo while the instructor was busy filling up aircraft techlog header before the flight. Turns out that’s going to be only photo I was going to take from the aeroplane that day.

Then he started the engine, and boy my brain started freezing, I wasn’t taking it seriously up until this point. It is real and I am on board of a small airplane, minutes before takeoff. I was there, but it felt surreal, my brain was skipping some frames. Time went very quickly that I only remembered brief moments after the flight. Takeoff was stressful for me, we took off from a grass runway which wasn’t smooth. So I felt all the bumps while accelerating to 50 knots (~93 km/h). When we reached the target speed, oh boy that moment I still remember what it felt like. It wasn’t anything like takeoffs on the commercial planes. It’s very hard to explain it with words, I felt acceleration in both forward and upwards directions, it pushed me more to the seat. And the plane felt all the “bumps” in the air. So it was not feeling stable at all. I was happy that it happened very quickly since I didn’t even had time to realize I was scared at the moment.

I tried to look cool both to the pilot and to myself as well. We continued climbing to around 1000 feet above the ground (~300 meters). The instructor then demonstrated basic maneuvres. I was still feeling a bit scared but was also enjoying the moment. He then let me do some maneuvres on my own. He instructed me to climb to certain altitude, turn to certain heading, etc.

After around 30 minutes of maneuvreing in the training box he asked if I was okay to continue with stall recovery demonstration (he was going to demonstrate). From the previous sim experience I had a rough idea what’s going to happen. For context when the wings are no longer able to lift the plane, it’s called stall. Stalled wing causes the plane to lose its lift and it starts losing altitude, if not recovered the plane might end up crashing to the ground. To recover the pilot has to pitch down to gain some speed and to decrease the angle between the airflow and the wing (Angle of Attack).

But I wasn’t expecting the procedure to happen that fast and abrupt. And obviously I wasn’t expecting to feel negative G forces¹ (you feel like the ground falling off from you) since the sim wasn’t providing any feedback to my body. Not gonna lie that was the most adrenaline pumping moment of that flight that I remember to this day. We then returned back to the airfield, configured for approach (meaning changed airplane configuration to fly at lower speeds for smoother landing). I was kind of hoping that it’s going to end now. Not because I hated the experience, but I thought that’s enough adrenaline for today. Instead we did a touch-and-go instead, meaning after touching the ground we accelerated and climbed again. After another circling around the airfield we landed and fully stopped.

I was planning to return and continue working that day, but my brain was exhausted that day. I didn’t have the energy to continue so after coming back to home I just took that day off. And that’s the only memento I left with from that day:

I sincerely thank Milán H. for the flight. It’s because of you that after a week I spontaneously decided to register for flight classes. Yeah I might sound like it was all just a scary adrenaline pumped experience, but not really. It’s my lack of English dictionary knowledge that I can’t express my feelings properly.

So we’re doing this now?

Yeap. I emailed back the school’s salesperson and asked to proceed with the registration for Private Pilot License (PPL) training. Before moving on if you’re interested how the licensing process works in Europe (EASA) region, check my PPL guide.

I paid the initial installment then completed the registration admin work around early March and got access to the ground school materials. At first I wasn’t properly studying but after around 20 days I decided to aim for finishing everything by April so ideally I could finish my training by September. It was a kind of a boring process, lots of stuff to memorize and the LMS platform was hell of a pain to use. Today I wish instead of it, I learned from proper resources, have I done that I would have saved so much time because I ended up re-learning them again to prepare for exam.

I finished my ground school material and proceeded to the actual practical flight training around the second week of april. That’s going to be my first proper training flight. For training I have been assigned to Tecnam P2002 JF model aeroplane and another awesome instructor Danila B. Before the flight on the first day we did a long briefing, going over the training process, required pre-flight documentation, aeroplane basics, how to prepare aeroplane for flight, walkarounds, basic operational procedures and so on. Then we went into the plane. I sat on the commander’s seat this time (left seat), started the engine, before taxi checklist, radio check and continued with some taxi training on the ground.

Then we taxied to the runway, and announced:

Hotel November Julliet, at holding point runway one two, lining up and taking off. Two persons on board, pilot in command ___, task Isaszeg training area.

The takeoff and the rest of the flight was kind of similar to the one I had during the demo flight, but because this time I was concentrated on the training process, the turbulence wasn’t bothering me as much. I become even more relaxed as we continued the training. My instructor told me that it’s usual for newbies to feel weird on first few flights, because your body is experiencing these sensations for the first time and the brain is trying to adapt to them.

First few flights was mostly about maneuvres. Basic turns, climbing, descending, applying correct procedures, radio callouts, etc.

We then moved to recovery procedures, recovery from stall and unusual attitudes. I noticed when I am flying the plane myself I was able to withstand unusual attitudes and G forces way better. I guess my brain becomes ready for what’s coming when it’s under the control of the situation.

Anyways, the flight went on, I started attending the practical trainings semi-regularly. The weather was not on my side, so I had to cancel lots of scheduled flights. Almost half of the scheduled flights have been cancelled until today.

Nowadays, I am learning emergency procedures to recover from any possible engine failure on the ground or during any flight phase. After finishing 5 hours of emergency procedures training I will be able to start flying solo. But before solo flights my current school requires me to pass CAA theory exam (all 9 subjects). So nowadays I have been going through test banks to refresh my knowledge before the exam.

Then what?

I started and invested a significant amount of time and money into this endeavor. It all started from small harmless jokes, then “what ifs?” and now I spend my free time online browsing used airplane sale websites, imagining owning one of them one day.

Owning a plane is not my motivation for the training. I enjoyed to process as a whole. The community both online and offline in the school is amazing. My instructors are really amazing people to hang around with.

It filled the emptiness I had from my disappointing BSc. classes. It feels more professional, both instructors and people coming in to learn are committed, are not there just to spend time.

Flying is freedom, I feel in control of my own destiny.

I enjoy complex systems, I enjoy trying to be on top of all the variables to have a general view. Planes are complex machines, you have to control them in 3 axes at once, while maintaining the correct power settings and using flaps & trim to your advantage. All that while monitoring that engine is working properly and you have enough fuel for your trip. Oh and you’re not flying alone, both inside (optional) and outside the plane. You need to keep track of planes around you, both visually and consciously. Keep your eye and ear open for new inputs. You also need to be one step ahead and be in control of everyone around you as well, make sure they are aware of you. Those are all the variables you need to be on top of, analyze and make sound decisions. So much so you need to be 1 step forward and predict what might be going to happen and be ready for it!

There’s more fun stuff as well if you want! Like being aware of the laws which changes from place to place, and knowing your own limitations like the fact that brain doesn’t always have a good perception of position, oh and the weather of course!

All in all it’s a complex system that I’m willing to get better at simulating on my head. That’s why I love software engineering, that’s why I love music making, and now flying.