Flight plugin help

I am very new to java just so you know, but I am eager to learn!
I'm messing arround with something that I want to make for fun. What I'm trying to do is make a plugin that allows you to fly when you are not in creative mode. The way that i think I would do that would be to use:
player.setAllowFlight(true);

However that does not seem to be working. Does anyone know were I could find more information on this or have a solution?