First Pilot Lesson | Flying from Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto

There are few perspectives that can truly capture the beauty of Toronto like a flight departing/landing from Billy Bishop Airport.

Several weeks ago I got to take this experience to the next level by actually being the primary pilot through a 45 minute lesson at Island Air Flight School on a Cessna 172.

While I've played Microsoft Flight Simulator quite a bit on my Xbox and have flown drones pretty extensively for the past 8 years, this was my first time sitting in the cockpit of a plane with full controls.

After a brief safety rundown from my instructor, we went through how the plane functions and what I'd be responsible for on the flight (aka almost everything).

This included checking the gauges, starting the engines, taxiing along the runway and making our radio calls to the control tower.

All of this before we even to got take off!

As we taxied to the end of the runway, my adrenaline started racing.

A voice crackles over the headphones "full power."

The engine whirs & the planes shudders as we hurdle down the tarmac.

Before I know it, we're off the ground!

Quickly the runway disappears and water emerges as we rise over Lake Ontario with the city skyline whizzing past us.

We made our way east out along the shoreline over the Scarborough Bluffs before turning north at Port Credit towards the Toronto Zoo.

It was at this point when I had the most surreal feeling.

I had flown this exact path in Microsoft Flight Simulator & what I was seeing out of the window in real life matched precisely what I saw in my game.

That was when I got calm all of a sudden and the nerves started to subside.

It felt natural, like I've been there before.

We then practice some 360 banking turns before heading back towards the city centre where we got to do 2 loops around the Downtown core.

This was super cool as we got to go over all of the big landmarks including Nathan Philips Square, the CN Tower & St. Lawrence Market.

As we made our way back over Lake Ontario, the nerves started rising again while we began our descent.

Taking off in a plane is one thing.

Landing a plane is another.

Thankfully my instructor calmly walked me through the process & I'm quite happy to say that I landed it largely on my own (with some help on the tarmac when braking)!

Overall this was truly an amazing experience that I would highly recommend to anyone that has any sort of interest in flying.

The flight itself was 35-40 minutes long and you can take 2 guests with you which make it a really great value.

Be sure to check out Island Air Flight School for more details!

Rylie C.