He encouraged me to learn to fly, knowing I would eat it up before I even knew...How did he know I would? Because he said you like challenges and it's fun, hun...hey that rhymes...
It's a guy's world at our airport...I changed the stereotype of our home base, the first woman and only woman that wanted to be by my hubby's side and he still loves having me by his side...at least I'm sticking with that ha! I say that as we are unique in our almost 30 year marriage of being best friends and we share and have the same passion, flying ..I am one of the "guys". That is what I like the best...no one cuts me any slack and I wouldn't have it any other way.
The first few years and first 300 hundred hours of flying or so - I was mostly skeered to death....I would stare at the wind sock and if it was just blowing the least bit I would say "maybe tomorrow", you see the wind was a challenge to me...I would see my buds flying and it would bother me as I wanted to be flying with them. So, little by little I would move the line of comfort a bit and while I would grip the yoke of our Aeronca Chief in a death grip I would force myself to fly. If you could imagine this, surrounded with guys (my friends mind you) and they would egg me on....and well I had to be their equal, I wanted this as the raw beauty of our world from above was mine to snag....peer pressure at its finest not meant to be mean, just how it rolls at our home base.
We decided in 2003 it was time to think about buying a plane with electric start for me.....and behold my partner in crime ~ named "Girly Plane" by my buds a 7GCAA 150 hp Citabria. She was brought home to join our family and once again I had another goal to learn how to fly my new plane........and the ante was raised as my buds would raze me about it's ability and yet I was still timid and a newby pilot with a cool plane.
I stumbled with Girly Plane, it was faster than my 65 hp Chief and the first few years were a challenge but, I wanted this! Then one day it just clicked. I was a pilot, I felt as if we were one, she held me carefully and let me test my self imposed limits, I busted through and rose above in the air to meet the joy which was unseen, yet I tasted it. I belonged here, my free fall into freedom...I could fly.
I would love to go to the airport and practice, practice, practice....my hubby would always say to me, you probably have the most landings of anyone I know. I wanted to be good, I needed to prove to myself I had the ability to be a good pilot....when the bar is raised you need to rise and meet it.
Our barn is where I find arms that wrap around me and instill in my deepest part a peace that sometimes is hard to describe, although I feel it deep and my breath is shallow while my eyes take in the view that I never tire of seeing.
It's a guys world at our airport ...AND I'm okay with that....I like hanging with guys, we raze each other and in fact my hubster is one of the worst....but, I dig it...I have my own strong willed confidence and it can't be shattered. It's a struggle for some of the guys...I am even steven and when they throw out a challenge, well I'm IN.....I love to smack them down...yes I admit I have an ego and well, it works here....no tiny tears baby girl, just forge ahead to who you are...be true to yourself and ride the wave. Those that tag along snag your enthusiasm and those that fear it run...stay true..be you.
Why do i like to fly?....it is the freedom thing of getting in the air and being free to do what i want with my plane...I do as I please and it's a confidence builder, although those that know me well, say I have too much confidence, it's not something I really understand, what is too much confidence??? It's simple, I am ME.
The view, my gawd the view out of the window is spectacular at all times and no matter what the weather, it never ceases to amaze me what I am seeing...how lucky I am. It is exciting on each flight and to be able to share this excitement with a chosen few is a favorite part of my life...my hubby and my close buds... I don't have many I let into my inner circle who understand my flying "language" the GAGA I bestow upon those that will listen, it's a special place I harbor my deepest feelings as being held by the air is understood by only others of like sickness.
I am most comfortable with flying...I feel comfortable with the people, airplanes and well our "barn" is home to me...I relax the most when I am at the barn, but more so when I am in the sky where I forget the everyday issues and wander the sky where I feel most at ease in the raw beauty gifted for me to see.
While this flying world might be dominated by men....its a mans place here and I belong here, fit in here and I am home here...and the best compliment is when I hear them say...she is one of the "boys" and it doesn't hurt when I hear in the confines of this mans world, by my close buds, a good stick....respect.
It is for me I float above, it is for me that I want to share this amazing flying art, it is for me that I strive to explore, it is because of him that I found home and he happens to be setting beside me....how lucky I am.
I have lifted my plane...for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth into the air without knowing the uncertainty and the exhilaration of first-born adventure.
Beryl Markham
It's a guys world at our airport ...AND I'm okay with that....I like hanging with guys, we raze each other and in fact my hubster is one of the worst....but, I dig it...I have my own strong willed confidence and it can't be shattered. It's a struggle for some of the guys...I am even steven and when they throw out a challenge, well I'm IN.....I love to smack them down...yes I admit I have an ego and well, it works here....no tiny tears baby girl, just forge ahead to who you are...be true to yourself and ride the wave. Those that tag along snag your enthusiasm and those that fear it run...stay true..be you.
Why do i like to fly?....it is the freedom thing of getting in the air and being free to do what i want with my plane...I do as I please and it's a confidence builder, although those that know me well, say I have too much confidence, it's not something I really understand, what is too much confidence??? It's simple, I am ME.
The view, my gawd the view out of the window is spectacular at all times and no matter what the weather, it never ceases to amaze me what I am seeing...how lucky I am. It is exciting on each flight and to be able to share this excitement with a chosen few is a favorite part of my life...my hubby and my close buds... I don't have many I let into my inner circle who understand my flying "language" the GAGA I bestow upon those that will listen, it's a special place I harbor my deepest feelings as being held by the air is understood by only others of like sickness.
I am most comfortable with flying...I feel comfortable with the people, airplanes and well our "barn" is home to me...I relax the most when I am at the barn, but more so when I am in the sky where I forget the everyday issues and wander the sky where I feel most at ease in the raw beauty gifted for me to see.
While this flying world might be dominated by men....its a mans place here and I belong here, fit in here and I am home here...and the best compliment is when I hear them say...she is one of the "boys" and it doesn't hurt when I hear in the confines of this mans world, by my close buds, a good stick....respect.
It is for me I float above, it is for me that I want to share this amazing flying art, it is for me that I strive to explore, it is because of him that I found home and he happens to be setting beside me....how lucky I am.
I have lifted my plane...for perhaps a thousand flights and I have never felt her wheels glide from the Earth into the air without knowing the uncertainty and the exhilaration of first-born adventure.
Beryl Markham
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