It was the early 80’s and I was taking my first long cross country. It was near Christmas and there wasn’t a lot of air traffic. My instructor and I would be flying from Maple Lake to Rochester, MN, home of the Mayo Clinic. We took off in the clear and cold Minnesota air. The Cessna 152 loved the freezing temps. Air is more dense the colder it is and engines and wings love the dense air. We made it to our destination without any problems and landed without incident.
Rochester had commercial airline service. Northwest Orient Airlines had a 727 at the gate and it looked like it was getting ready to leave. After I topped off our fuel tanks we, too, were underway. The big jet and I were both headed toward the same runway. I was a little ahead of the jet and was going to make it to the taxiway first.
Just then we heard over the radio, “Cessna 150, this is the first officer of the Northwest 727. We’d like to get ahead of you and take off first.” My instructor turned to me and said, “Don’t let him do it. If he goes first you’ll have to wait for his wake turbulence to clear before you take off.” I wasn’t sure what to say as I’d never talked to an airliner before. So I replied, “This is the captain of the Cessna 152 and we will be departing before you.” I revved my engine and took my place ahead of the big jet. My instructor got a big laugh out of it. I felt like a captain that day.
Rochester had commercial airline service. Northwest Orient Airlines had a 727 at the gate and it looked like it was getting ready to leave. After I topped off our fuel tanks we, too, were underway. The big jet and I were both headed toward the same runway. I was a little ahead of the jet and was going to make it to the taxiway first.
Just then we heard over the radio, “Cessna 150, this is the first officer of the Northwest 727. We’d like to get ahead of you and take off first.” My instructor turned to me and said, “Don’t let him do it. If he goes first you’ll have to wait for his wake turbulence to clear before you take off.” I wasn’t sure what to say as I’d never talked to an airliner before. So I replied, “This is the captain of the Cessna 152 and we will be departing before you.” I revved my engine and took my place ahead of the big jet. My instructor got a big laugh out of it. I felt like a captain that day.
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