There are few freedoms as liberating as being able to fly, which is why humans spent millennia inventing the airplane and why penguins are so very, very bitter. Exceed evolutionary shortcomings with today’s Groupon: for $57, you get a Discovery Flight Package (a $113 total value) at Middletown Regional Flight Training Institute.

From its home base at Hook Field, Middletown Regional Flight Training Institute helps amateur aviators visit clouds in their natural habitat under the wing of a fully licensed and certified instructor. The Discovery Flight lesson begins with 45 minutes of ground instruction that introduces students to the fundamentals of flaunting gravity, including pre-flight procedures, instrument interpretation, and in-flight movie selection. Next, fledgling pilots clamber into the cockpit of a small Beechcraft or Cessna plane and spend the next 30 minutes in the air with their hands on the throttle. Under the watchful eye of 17-year sky veteran Tim Epperhart, nascent cloud jockeys will taxi, take off, and actually fly the plane themselves, practicing basic maneuvers such as turning and waltzing with albatrosses. Once back on terra firma, Tim bestows a logbook on each student that contains an endorsed entry detailing flight data and descriptions of cool dreams the flight instructor had the night before. The flight counts towards a pilot’s license for customers who choose to continue training.

Pilots must be 16 years old and weigh 239 pounds or less. Participants must sign a waiver.