Here we are again… but with pictures!
I know you’re excited.
The pictures above are all almost exclusively from the day I soloed. I thought since there were quite a few I would just put them as a gallery instead of full sized pictures, so bear with me as I explain each one to you starting with the top one of the left and working my way right. As promised, I am going to explore briefly each person I’ve been working with recently, so instead of just pictures of me doing cool and interesting things, I included ones that featured the other students/instructors as well.
Courtney: The first picture is of my instructor, Courtney, and myself in the plane. I don’t know if you can tell from that picture, but Courtney is what I affectionately termed “the cantankerous old grandpa I never wanted” my first week here. He’s the kind of guy who ran the Small Town police around in circles as a kid. He also spent something like twenty years flying acrobatics, has actually crashed a plane and lived through it and his brother used to date my grandma back in highschool. My favorite story he’s told so far was last week at this fish fry we were all at (yeehaw, good times) — apparently one night as a young lad, while hanging out in his usual haunt, he decided the town was too quiet. So to spicen things up a bit, he called the police station, asked who was on duty and then proceeded to tell that person that if they wanted some action, he’d recommend they check out such and such road. Courtney proceeded to leave the bar and head up to the aforementioned road… driving about 120mph. The cop in waiting took off after the blue Chevy convertible but was left in the dust. That night, the police showed up on his doorstep. His parents were out of town and so his little brother answered the door. When they asked for Courtney, the kid led them up to his room where he was sound asleep– where they promptly arrested him.
Realizing he was in trouble, he got himself a lawyer. Unfortunately for the police force of Small Town, they had to drop the case because they had never been able to catch up with the blue Chevy convertible and therefore had no license plate number to prove it was him.
There’s also some story about letting live chickens loose in a bar– but I haven’t heard that one all the way through yet.
Dick: The second picture is me studying with Dick, he is co-manager of the airport with Courtney. He is also a CFI (instructor) but Courtney is the primary one. He mostly works with students on ground school and runs the airport. He’s a pretty nice guy and very business minded. He is always looking for a way to make the airport more popular. Which means for a tiny little airport, Small Town has a lot to offer. Things like a courtesy car or free icecream/malts. Flying is pretty much just an excuse to go get some food in an unique way, so you’d be surprised how many people the icecream actually brings in. In any case, in that picture I’m neither eating icecream nor discussing the courtesy car (though apparently I look like I know something about it since I get asked all the time)– I’m working on ground school. Ground school is basically all the rules you have to learn before you can fly, like airspace or cross-country planning. Flying is a bit like memorizing an encyclopedia. Imagine that you’re taking a college class, but instead of being able to forget all the information immediately after the final (and admit it, that’s totally how college works) you have to keep remembering it, because if you don’t… well, you could die.
After the solo: The third picture on the far right is Courtney and me again, after my solo. That picture is a brief moment in time where what you don’t know is that I was really glad to be back on the ground, and really excited that it had gone well, and really hot because when you get nervous you get warm and it was one of those rare October days where it peaked at 80+ so the cabin with my sweater on was toasty to begin with.
The little plane: The little plane picture is obviously me landing. If you look really close you can see me focusing super hard on not hitting the ground at a horrifying angle and dying in a fiery splash of color.
He is God: The final picture is everybody’s favorite. It is the picture we improvised of all the girls who soloed bowing down to our mentor. From left to right: me, Joy, and Katie. I’ve never seen anybody blush harder than Courtney during this moment. Even though he’s cantankerous, he has a heart of gold and was absolutely terrified for all of us during our solo. Afraid he hadn’t taught us enough or that something would go wrong. He grows on you.
Katie: Katie is a senior at a local university that wants to go into commercial flying. She has plans to fly for some type of shipping service (FedEx, UPS) to make some “serious” money before devoting her life to flying other people.
Joy: I don’t actually know a lot about Joy. She has a husband who is a pilot and I think that’s why she wanted to get into it, and the first day I met her was the day of our solos. I’m pretty sure she just wants to learn how to fly for kicks and giggles, but I will let you know if I find out more.
So there is a more or less comprehensive list of people I have been dealing with the last few weeks. All of them are extremely nice and amazing people, and of course, I’m especially fond of Courtney. He may be cranky old bat, but he’s my cranky old bat and he’s one heck of a teacher.
To Be Continued… My next entry will consist of my cross-country planning (cross country is really only like 60 miles). I have done all the preparation (which I will share with you) and as soon as they get the front tire replaced on the plane (it’s tread is a little thin) and there’s no wind– I’m off. So, look back soon for some interesting tidbits about how to fly like the crow.
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