Kourou by Air

Hello again!

Because today is friday I decided to celebrate - I think all friday's should be ballyhooed (what a great word). I resolved to do this is with a french twist... in the form of some tasty pastry. Specifically, a 'pain au chocolat' topped with a cup of freshly brewed coffee from our bran-spanking new french press, which happened to taste even better because I was enjoying it from my own hand made cup. Delish.

 

Now that I have set the scene I can proceed to introduce what this post is going to be about. namely, seeing Kourou and the Îles du Salut by air. Flown by no one else but my very own man *read, extremely proud girlfriend*. (I say that now, but wait and see what we did once up there).

The Aeroclub of Kourou is quite small, but with a very welcoming and intimate atmosphere. We went up in one of their newest planes; now, when I say newest, I do not mean it in the sense of it being the most modern, instead I mean it in the sense of it being the most recently signed on plane to the club. In fact the plane itself dates from the same year of my birth, 1989 -  I did not think this was as charming as Anthony did.

 
Inspecting the plane in detail before the flight. (A propeller, two wings and some nuts and bolts - excellent, everything is in order!)

As much as I love flying I am always a bit weary, especially during take-of and landing - boy was I about to be in for a treat this time! Now, I completely trust Anthony and his flying abilities, I really do (despite having heard some rather unsettling stories about leaving windows open during take-off and such). But I must admit I felt a little more secured knowing we were going to have the flying instructor with us on the first flight.  Not that he could save us had the engine failed but... still.

 
Once the plane has been checked it was pushed out of its parking spot and in we hopped.

One aspect I love about the whole flying business, apart from actually being in flight, is the jargon attached to it. Our plane was a Cessna, a four-seater "named" FOGKQ, in other words, Foxtrot-Oskar-Golf-Kilo-Quebec which just sounds super SUPER cool. Also, the cool headgear is just apart of the general awesomeness of flying. Ahh! Now I want to watch Top Gun.

 
Up. And there we are. Easy peasy.


Most of what I saw on land was what looked like a giant salad, with lots of fluffy crunchy broccoli in it. In the distance is the coastline - where we were headed!

There we have it - Kourou by air!


This was just wonderful! You cannot spot it very well in the picture but the shadow of the airplane is surrounded by a rainbow! Our canvas, a cloud.

 
Of course the instructor was French so most of the flight was conducted in French - but I managed to stay afloat.

 

Voila! The Îsles du Salut! We are still going to visit these by boat but it was really fascinating to fly over them like this. Perspective.

We circled the islands and then headed back to the mainland

... for some training. Including emergency landing, in other words... simulating engine-failure. OH GOODY. Now, there are no pictures of this because I was sitting in the backseat reminding myself to breathe... and inadvertently also thinking that if we were to die, I would hope that my family would take care of Melba for me. We landed, and took off. And then we did this again, and then the instructor covered the instruments with little black pads (of death!) and then we landed again. The instructor climbed out of the plane and told me "You come here now" and padded the front seat. I did as I was told, smiling of course (I shall not admit to fear - Hyvä Sisu!) ... and then he closed the door and left. Anthony plugged in my headset and said "He cleared me on the plane, we can go up alone now". Omg, 30 minutes in a new plane aaaand there you go, have your wings. After having held my breath for the last 15 minutes and thanked the stars for letting us live, I had had enough... either I would get up and get out or I would buckle down, smile and enjoy the ride. I opted for the second option - I figured, there must be worse ways to die.

We surrounded the islands once more and  then flew the coastline at low altitude - I saw where I take my dog for a walk every day, the beach and even, our house, by air. It was absolutely fantastic.

We landed, tanked the plane up and filled in the flight log. Not a bad way to spend a sunday afternoon.

I feel wonderfully lucky, so blessed and so so grateful. So remember to buckled down, smile and enjoy the ride - it will be worth it! :)

Peace & Love.