Westwind School of Aeronautics

Went here on a Groupon. $ 99 for 45 min. flight and 15 min. training on simulator. My wife got it for a gift knowing how much i love to fly but never got beyond video games.
It started out bad as my reservation was cancelled due to weather and no one called. They said they did but i never got it. Anyways, I wasted a trip there only to find that out. Strike one.
Next week we tried again. Weather was perfect. Our instructor, Steve, was very friendly and patient. We proceeded to the simulator. The deal was for one person, but they let my wife come in and watch and then come along on the flight as a passenger so it really becomes a deal for 2 which was cool.
The trainer explained a lot before i started the simulator. He was quite thorough. I was nervous just on this thing, but I flew that and did fairly well.
Then we moved out onto the flight line. He went through the pre-​flight inspection on our Cessna trainer with me. Boy, there is like a hundred things to check before you fly. But I’m glad because it’s all about safety.
He fired up the engine and taxied over to the runway. As we were waiting for clearance from Clarence he asked if i want to take off? I nearly crapped my pants. They usually don’t let you do things like this but i guess i exuded such confidence. (LOL). We ended up having to hurry out of the way of more traffic so he took control to get us going. Then he had me take the wheel and pull up when we got to speed. It was awesome! I was flying!
He let me fly the whole way as we climbed, banked around and headed to Lake Pleasant and back doing different maneuvers and teaching me about navigation. As I descended into the airport he asked me if I wanted to land. Again I nearly soiled my Fruit of the Looms. I’ve had trouble with the rudder pedals before and declined knowing I could send us into the ditch by wildly swerving left and right. But I got us pretty close to the ground before he took over.
I’ve done this one other time at another facility and they didn’t give me this much control and time at «the stick» or training. If you are looking for something different and novel to do, I highly recommend this. I was on an adrenaline high all day!