After takeoff, we flew about 7 minutes out to the practice area, which is out of flight paths and is very lightly populated. Uughh! That last item makes me worry some.

The view was gorgeous on the way out and all I could think as I looked around and asked Rob stupid questions was "Wow!" In this little plane with a gas tank in front of me and a smoke oil tank between my legs was, "Wow, this is how flying should be."

You can feel everything, and with your head in the little glass canopy, the view is awesome. Connected, free, soaring -- words really fail you here and this was just the beginning, although some people might find this the best part. It really is special and I enjoyed it far more than the other small planes I have been in.

Once out there and at 5,000 feet or so, Rob did a few maneuvers, each time describing them to me and making sure I understood and was ready. He also made sure I wanted to do them and was doing ok. I am not sure I have all the names right but we did rolls, a loop, a hammerhead stall, flew upside down, and flew some "tumbles." During the hammerhead, I think at one point we were actually flying backwards but it might have just been really slow.

He pulled it straight up into a vertical climb and when we stopped, I think he put in a lot of tail rudder and throttle and pivoted it off to the side, rotating us 180 degrees and aiming us straight at the Earth. I have never done 0 to 200+ mph that fast in my life.

To prepare to do a loop, Rob instructed me to flex all my leg muscles and abdominal muscles to tighten up and help keep the blood in my brain and upper body. Why did he ask me to do this you ask? Because we pulled 4.5 g's entering the loop. It was less over the top since we were upside down but strong in the climb and coming back down -- very strong. You can feel the flesh pull on your face and the blood try to drain out of you and the views while doing this are phenomenal! Adrenaline junkies sign here!

We did rolls and more and then Rob had me take the stick and do some maneuvers. I did rolls and pulled some turns and other stuff. I banked it over pretty far and pulled back what I thought was HARD -- barely registered 1.5 g's and already it was sort of hard to hold the stick as smoothly as I wanted to.

The stick is so sensitive in this plane that you can hardly believe it. After I did a roll or two, Rob instructed me to really pull the stick over to the left harder and further than I had. So I pulled the nose up just a little and wacked it to the side pretty far and fast. The plane did 360 degrees so fast I barely had time to catch it at the top. I thought we were going to roll, like, 420 degrees and end up sideways, but when I centered that stick the plane just stopped rolling, and I can't emphasize "stopped" enough to explain the preternatural responses.

At one point we flew upside down for a little while and I looked straight up over my head at a small lake, way cool!

By now, my body and brain were reaching their limit, but I thought I had a little more left in me and was having so much fun I did not want it to stop. Once again, it wasn't just the speed and stunts it was the "connected" nature of this experience -- and the freedom. Hell, on the drive up to Nashua I was worried about speeding in my truck and here I was doing over 200 mph with my hands on the controls and the only thing I was worried about was soaking in the view and watching the landscape sweep by.