by ·Comments Off on Wild Blue Yonder…

Well not so blue today. This year as my “Goal” for things this year I want to cross as much off my bucket list as possible. Now that could be quite a challenge but there are lots of little small things on their that I can do easily. One of them that had been sitting there taunting me for ages and ages is:

* Fly a Plane

Well… That is now complete! This morning I took the Left Seat in a Cessna 172 (VH-YRQ) and took to the skies with my hands at the Controls. It was AMAZING. A Dream I have always had was to fly a plane and now I have. Part of me wants to keep going and get my license but I know that If I am going to go whole hog and get my PPL (Private Pilots License) I sure as hell want to go all or nothing. I don’t want to have to stop mid way due to time or money. I would want to set out and go for it. So that isn’t going to happen any time soon.

But it was an awesome experience. The Trial Instructional Flight I did was the best way to do this. About 25 minutes in the Air, an instructor by your side handling the radios and things like that and its a quick, simple way of learning the basics. Hell if I wanted to, they would credit my time in flight today towards my PPL and discount my first lesson that amount!

To be honest, I wasn’t as excited as I thought I would be in the lead up, but sitting in that cockpit this morning, I was all giddy like a little girl, but I stayed calm 😀 From the moment we turned onto runway 10L at Archerfield in “Yankee Romeo Quebec” I was at the controls, hands on, flying the plane. The only time I really went hands off was the actual landing which the instructor Tristan did (mind you he was like 20 and boy did he make me feel old). The whole time in the Air I was in control and even got a few compliments in my skills. I found the hardest part was steering the little cessna on the ground. That was the toughest thing following along the yellow line!

I would so do this again, just now I have to stay grounded! At least I will have a better appreciation for the pilots out there in the real world now!

Trial Instructional Flight

by ·Comments Off on Another Year Gone…

Another year has now almost passed by. This year has gone so fast, and so much has been done that it amazes me. Looking back it was a truly momentous year.

Some of my highlights for 2011:

* Ticking off several bucket list items
* Meetings amazing new people
* Making #1 Sales at work
* Managing to make it through the year at pretty much the same weight I started at (Started the year around 84, hovering around 82 these days)
* Learning to Ride a bike and managing not to kill myself in the process

I have met so many people this year that I can’t even think where to begin. So many people have done some amazing things for me and I can’t believe that looking back so many people did such amazing things for me.

To all my friends and family, here is to a fantastic start to 2012! New adventures to come in the New Year!!!! (secret squirrel on the big ones at the moment)