I never did write about my last flight. We went up to practice stalls and commit them to memory. I had spent over a week memorizing the procedures on paper and now had the change to execute the procedure in the air. Let me tell you that memorizing something line by line and then having to translate it to motor skills is a lot more difficult than it sounds. I think it involves learning the procedure originally with one side of your brain and having to transfer it to the other, which speaks a totally different language. They didn't become second nature by the end of practice (which is where they need to be), but I was firing them off quite quickly.
I was quite pleased with myself. I was becoming more confident in the plane and learning to connect with it more. That was September 18th. The next three flights were canceled, due to mechanical issues, weather and weather. Then my instructor took off a week to get married and go on her honeymoon. I tried to schedule time with her for when she got back, but she said to worry about that when she got back.
The weeks stretched on without a word from her. I had my practice pre-solo tests I was working on and I studied whenever and wherever I could. No word.
I saw that the school had set up a tent at an air show a couple of weeks ago. I talked with them and asked if she was back because I hadn't heard from her. They said she was and would contact me soon. Nothing.
Finally, a week ago, I get an email from her and we set up something for this past weekend (the only time she had for the remainder of this month). Saw her yesterday and she apologized - said she's been busy with post-wedding stuff and the school had another Groupon out, so they were flooded with people coming in to use them. I was a little taken a back - new business is good, sure, but shouldn't they provide service to their current customers and give them preference over the Groupons?
I took a deep breath and didn't let it upset me. After all, I'm not flying for her - I'm in it for me, for that plane, for the feeling of soaring through the air. It's been 5 weeks since I last flew and I feel like I'm missing apart of me without it.
So we get in the plane and take off. The weather was perfect flying weather and the sky was a perfect, clear blue. We got up in the air and I got the feeling that this is what I was born to do. I smiled, remembering my first couple of flights where I was really scared but now I was completely at home. It's as if my soul forever remains in the sky and I'm reunited with it when I physically go up there. I completely feel alive in the sky and unlike in everyday life, I am completely in the present. We all go through the motions of everyday - worrying about the future or thinking about the past. There's NONE of that up there in the sky. There can't be - I need my full concentration when I'm up there. At that moment, nothing else matters.
The wind was mostly calm, but there were a few times a big gust of wind blew us to the side. I rode on the back of it, feeling it as it glided over the wings. I had the perfect partnership with it - comfortable enough with it to go along with it, but in enough control of the plane that I didn't let it take control. Like a tigress carries her cubs - not loose enough to let them get away, but not tight enough that it will hurt them. The delicate balance of nature. Even though I am operating a machine, when I am up in the sky, it is like I am apart of nature... as much as she will let me be anyways.
We practiced ascents, descents, and turns. God, how I love turns. The graceful, coordinated movement and getting the chance to see the beauty of the landscape below. Bambi wanted to turn around at this point, but I balked. Ascents, descents, and turns, really?? You've got to be kidding me. At least practice some stalls or something. So we got in one power on and one power off stall. They were a little rusty, but considering that I was just getting the hang of them the last time we flew, it was okay. I'm frustrated that we seem to be... stalled, for the lack of a better term. I don't seem to be moving forward at all. She was upset that the lesson took about an hour and a half.
Bambi would also make comments in the plane that made me think, "Did she really say that?". For instance, one time, she said I was off a little to the right and needed to correct it. I started to shift a little to the left when one of the huge wind gusts came up and REALLY turned us left - almost vertical. "I didn't mean that much", she snapped. She had some other zingers up there that I really felt like she was talking down to me like a child. First going MIA for 5 weeks and then talking down to me? Not cool. I don't pay someone that much money to talk to me like that. Not to mention that everyone at that school seems to have problems answering emails and returning phone calls. Another time, we're on the ground and she takes over taxiing and saying that she's going to park the plane. I mastered this a few sessions ago. So she takes over and says "Taxiing", pauses and says it again, pauses and says it again and yet once again. I have no idea what she's doing. Then she yells that I need to listen to her because if she's talking and saying something over 4 times, then she means what she says and isn't just talking. I wasn't ignoring her - I just didn't know what she meant by "Taxiing". Turns out, we needed our lights on because we were taxiing. Maybe I was having a slow day, but I didn't get that by someone repeating "Taxiing" in my ear like a parrot.
I'm really considering going to another school, where my partner from the FlightSafety seminar taught. He and I got along really well. I want an instructor who is as excited by flying as I am. I plan to be one of the 20% that make it all the way through. I'm not letting a snotty-nosed girl kill my enthusiasm.
