The bug that just keeps biting.
This last weekend I went on a little trip with a friend who has a 1/4 share in a plane. We flew on a pretty long cross country flight (for a small plane) from Atlanta to Mobile. I sat in the right seat and helped him navigate and work the radios. I even got some stick time at the controls. This was the first time I've been at the yoke of a plane in quite some time. Almost five years as a matter of fact. The trip didn't go so well. We had problems with weather, headwinds both ways, and on the way home we were aloft for a whole ten minutes before we had to land at an airport in the middle of nowhere because of a faulty gauge. It would've been cheaper and faster to drive.
The whole trip pretty much freaked L out. I took me some time to build her confidence in my flying skills when I was training back in the day. She has a minor issue with heights. It had been so long since we had been up in a small plane together that she was white knuckled for a good portion of the trip. Especially when we had the mechanical problem. It took some coaxing to get her to hop back into the plane after a mechanic looked at it and determined that all was OK. After we landed back in Georgia, she said that she would never get into a small plane again. This was a blow to me. I love flying and I'll never be able to give it up as long as I'm able to do it. I want her to be able to enjoy trips in aircraft as much as me. And while I know she'll never love it as much as I, it doesn't do me much good to be buzzing around the sky if I can't take my favorite passenger with me. Driving home from the airport, I explained how I would have done many things different if I was the one in charge of the plane. I quelled many of her concerns about the safety of small planes and also made here realize that, at no point, would I have let the guy we went with do anything that would've jeopardized our safety. As a matter of fact, I did exercise my will and prevent him from taking off in marginal weather. By the time we got home she was breathing easy again and told me that I always make her feel safe.
Disaster averted.
Despite the trips many problems, I've been hit (hard) by the flying bug again. I've actually been avoiding exercising my pilot privileges for the past few years intentionally. This is because it's an expensive lifestyle and our financial situation demanded that I avoid it. Now that we're getting back on top of things, I find that my eyes turn skyward more and more. Our little trip has spiked my need-to-fly-ometer. I've been doing a lot of research on aircraft that are within my financial grasp. I even talked a the lady at our credit union about financing options for one of these. Ultimately, I've decided to wait until I can afford to build my own plane which involves buying this kit outright. In the mean time, I'm going to gradually get my skills built back up through rental. It's high time I became a plane geek again and L has given me the green light to do so.
I do love that woman. Without her support I never would've earned my license. The thought of flying without her makes it lose some of it's luster. I'm lucky she's willing to give it another shot.
The whole trip pretty much freaked L out. I took me some time to build her confidence in my flying skills when I was training back in the day. She has a minor issue with heights. It had been so long since we had been up in a small plane together that she was white knuckled for a good portion of the trip. Especially when we had the mechanical problem. It took some coaxing to get her to hop back into the plane after a mechanic looked at it and determined that all was OK. After we landed back in Georgia, she said that she would never get into a small plane again. This was a blow to me. I love flying and I'll never be able to give it up as long as I'm able to do it. I want her to be able to enjoy trips in aircraft as much as me. And while I know she'll never love it as much as I, it doesn't do me much good to be buzzing around the sky if I can't take my favorite passenger with me. Driving home from the airport, I explained how I would have done many things different if I was the one in charge of the plane. I quelled many of her concerns about the safety of small planes and also made here realize that, at no point, would I have let the guy we went with do anything that would've jeopardized our safety. As a matter of fact, I did exercise my will and prevent him from taking off in marginal weather. By the time we got home she was breathing easy again and told me that I always make her feel safe.
Disaster averted.
Despite the trips many problems, I've been hit (hard) by the flying bug again. I've actually been avoiding exercising my pilot privileges for the past few years intentionally. This is because it's an expensive lifestyle and our financial situation demanded that I avoid it. Now that we're getting back on top of things, I find that my eyes turn skyward more and more. Our little trip has spiked my need-to-fly-ometer. I've been doing a lot of research on aircraft that are within my financial grasp. I even talked a the lady at our credit union about financing options for one of these. Ultimately, I've decided to wait until I can afford to build my own plane which involves buying this kit outright. In the mean time, I'm going to gradually get my skills built back up through rental. It's high time I became a plane geek again and L has given me the green light to do so.
I do love that woman. Without her support I never would've earned my license. The thought of flying without her makes it lose some of it's luster. I'm lucky she's willing to give it another shot.
posted by Glenn at 1:31 AM
1 Comments:
Cousin Glenn,
Judging by the way you resurrected that VW bus, I'm sure you could build a pretty kick ass plane. And I like the way you talked Mrs. PlainGeek off the ledge, too. You deserve a plane in your life.
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