fromtherightseat.com

Is anyone still out there reading this? Probably not. My updates have been few and far between, I know. Well, if you are reading this, I hope you will enjoy sharing vicariously in the fun I had last Friday afternoon with my friend, Tham. It was the first time in many months that I spontaneously said to someone, “You want to go flying? Right now?”

The afternoon was warm, the company was excellent, the plane was full of gas… in other words, I had no good excuse for not flying. Tham immediately got on her cell phone and canceled her meetings, and within 30 minutes we were enjoying the pure pleasure of just being airborne.

This was Tham’s second flight in 7PW. Peter took her up for a ride about a week ago and she loved it! So of course I knew she’d be game for some more Cirrus time. I unofficially put my instructor hat on and held her hand, so to speak, while she did some medium bank turns, descents and an approach into the traffic pattern. I took over the controls at about 100′ AGL and landed the plane. Tham did a great job! With just a little bit of coaching she kept us on the glide path and on the centerline.

It gave me incredible pleasure to see Tham in her element, and to feel that I was helping someone have a happy day.

The lesson for me was that you can’t sit around and wait for happiness to come to you. You have to go out there and get it, and seize opportunities when they present themselves.

Let’s face it… 2008 was a very difficult year for many Americans, and those of us in general aviation are certainly not immune from the global economic crisis. Our industry was hit particularly hard because, for the most part, general aviation is about fun and pleasure. And fun costs money that all but the most well off pilots don’t have as much of anymore.

The number of people showing up at the airport to take flying lessons has dropped dramatically. Even among the members of my flying club, people are thinking harder about whether they can afford that $100 hamburger on a pretty Saturday afternoon.

I’m no exception, as evidenced by the absence of any entries in this blog since Thanksgiving. My personal flying hours have fallen to the lowest levels ever, and there just hasn’t been a whole lot going on that I’ve felt compelled to write about. That made me a little bit sad.

So, I’ve decided that in this New Year of Hope and Change I’m going to pout less and fly more, some way, some how. I’m going to find new ways to keep my students excited and engaged. Scenario-based training will help, by making each lesson a trip with a mission, a goal. We’re going to travel, not just bore holes in the sky. We’re going to explore new places and open ourselves to new experiences. I will renew my vow to them to make every second count.

Last weekend I bought a review book for the Airline Transport Pilot certificate. This is going to be the year I become a student again, put myself in my clients’ shoes and challenge myself to excel. I’m going to see the sun rise over the Chesapeake Bay, and watch it set behind the Shenandoah Mountains. I’m going to revel in nature’s beauty and wrestle the courage to face its wrath as a more mature pilot. I’m going to remember why I got into this business to begin with.

Some of you have asked me why I haven’t posted since AirVenture. Yeah, I know, it’s been way too long. I guess I just haven’t felt inspired to write here for a while. Life gets in the way. You know how it is. But yesterday, that all changed.

I decided to take Maddux to New York with me in the Cirrus, to celebrate Thanksgiving with my parents and my ailing grandmother. It was a gray afternoon, with a thick overcast blanketing the route. All signs indicated that there would be icing at my usual IFR altitude of 7,000 feet, so instead I flew VFR below the clouds. Visibility was great, the air was smooth, and the frequency was relatively quiet. It was an easy 1 hour and 10 minute flight from takeoff at Gaithersburg to touchdown at White Plains, thanks to an unsolicited shortcut through the New York Class B by a very jovial controller. Given the highway traffic that had already started to develop on my drive to the airport, who knows how long it would have taken to drive here yesterday, but if I had to guess, probably at least 6 hours.

With the autopilot doing its thing, I turned back to reassure Maddux that all was well. (Doesn’t he look handsome, by the way, in his new fleece-lined harness?) The Cirrus is a bit louder inside than the Skylane, but the trip is much shorter. I thought about getting him a pair of Mutt Muffs (doggie hearing protection), but there’s no way he’d ever wear them. He was fine.

I was fine, too. I turned on the XM Radio to the all-Springsteen station (did they make that just for me?) and sang my way to New York. Somewhere abeam Morristown the battery on the XM remote control died, so I couldn’t mute the music, and although I could have easily changed the battery, I decided to just let it go. I cranked up the volume on Com1 and sang “Prove It All Night” as I descended on final approach to Runway 34. I made one of the best landings I’ve made in a long time.

Life is good. Sometimes it takes a kick in the pants to make you realize what’s really important in life, what happiness really means, and how lucky we really are to be alive.

Keep flying. Keep living. Keep smiling. Be safe, and happy Thanksgiving.