The way to love someone
is to lightly run your finger over that person's soul
until you find a crack,
and then gently pour your love into that crack.
~Keith Miller

Saturday, June 25, 2011


Very fun flight yesterday. They were using 18 ... Working some crosswind TO&Ls. I used almost full rudder for the departure. Torque on the roll then opposite rudder to hold the center line once we were airborne. A little Citation jet came in in front of my takeoff, but I really don't think that was a factor ... I padded my rotation speed just a bit ... just in case ... precious was onboard. Her friend really enjoyed the flight ... .6 amounted to a discovery flight for him. I flew it up and got everything lovely for cruise and let him get a feel for the plane. My kid took her headset off ... she didn't want to hear us talking. He did great! Really much better then I expected. I was bad about racking it over when I first started ... steep turns were my favorite. This guy nudged very gently up to twenty degrees and stopped there without any coaching. He'll be a quick study if he pursues this. He's an engineer, so he brings that perspective to experience ... plus, he did say he had read the whole book.. I remember my first flight with an instructor ... He told me I would be taking off and I thought he might be crazy ... Did he realize that this was my very first lesson ... did he understand that I didn't know how to fly?! Man ... He must have had some serious something ... How many times did I hear him say "NO STEEP TURNS IN THE PATTERN!". I was a mess to work with, no doubt. We didn't have much altitude to work with yesterday ... and visibility wasn't that great. I sure did see why the pilot I did the CFI training with was such a "monkey" student as I learned how to instruct. He was given to all sorts of antics ... His favorite of which was to try to flip us over ... . He was very successful in extracting my "when you least expect it" ... I expected it ... I expect it on the flight yesterday. It's so much different to be in the airplane with someone who doesn't know how to fly ... Someone who has never had their hand on the yoke. I liked it ... It certainly had my full attention. Keeping an eye on him, monitoring the airspace for hazards, communicating with other traffic ... Watching everything inside the plane as well ... Lots going on. If I did that as a full time instructor, it very well might fry what's left of my synapse! I think I really need to see about that. It was ... fun. It wasn't a flight lesson, but it was fun.

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