Here’s the small Cessna plane in which I made the round-trip journey from St. Louis, Missouri to Kirksville, Missouri a few days ago. It was a seven-seater for Cape Air, having three rows of two seats for passengers and an extra passenger seat next to the pilot’s seat. That seat once held a co-pilot, but, so I was told, cost-cutting measures eliminated the second pilot. That, of course, means that if the one pilot has a heart attack, we’re in trouble. When I asked a flight-attendant friend what would happen if the pilot became incapacitated, she giggled and said, “You’re going down.”

But we didn’t, thank Ceiling Cat. And on the return leg I begged for (and got) the co-pilot’s seat! It was a great view, even though I had to keep my arms and legs retracted so I wouldn’t touch the co-pilot’s stick and rudder pedals.

And the kindly pilot allowed me to take video from my seat.  So I took three short movies with my camera. 

Takeoff!

Descent through the clouds. Note the altimeter dropping (dial at extreme right, top):

The landing, which you can see was a bit turbulent until the end:

Here’s a shot of the cockpit; pilot readers will be able to gauge (no pun intended) the age of the plane. It did have an autopilot, but the pilot was constantly adjusting things, so I think he flew it manually. On the left can see the pilot’s hand on the “steering wheel” (I’m sure some reader will give me the correct name), while on the right the legs in jeans are mine.

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