Now a Pilot

It's amazing how much your flight lessons can get in the way of blogging about flying. My flight instructor had to leave for the summer so there was a mad panic to get me up to snuff and ready for my flight test before I was left stranded with no way to fly for two months (something that's going to happen soon enough with the snow and winter, but I won't think about that right now). But ready I was and I passed. Although, it's rather surprising how the things you knew so well could come apart so easily and the things you thought you didn't know (or couldn't do so well) could finally come together for you at the last possible minute. Now I just have to stop dwelling on my mistakes and move forward.

I can't really describe what it was like to take that first flight as an actual pilot. Actually, I can, it was just like a normal lesson but with a much happier, much more relaxed instructor. I needed 0.5 hours of instrument time before I could actually get my lesson, and my instructor was leaving the next day, so my first flight as a new pilot was with him...in very windy, gusty, and stormy conditions so I learned a lot. And I also thoroughly enjoyed myself since the pressure was off. It's amazing how instructors can lighten up once you've gotten through the test. I'm not sure if they're all like that or not, or if mine was simply more relieved than I can guess (because then that would mean he was much more worried about me not passing than I first thought) but once that test was over he was an entirely different person. Lessons can actually be fun when you're flying with an instructor who actually has a sense of humor!

So, now I am a full fledged private pilot. Although, I don't really feel any better than before. Just a little bit more lonely. I didn't realize how much the security of supervision reassured me in the air. Every bump or cloud or odd weather didn't seem like such a big deal, after all, I never would have been allowed up if there was anything to be concerned about. But now, that final decision is mine, and I'm not really sure how exactly I got the know-how to make it, but someone thinks I have it so I better pretend I know what I'm doing.

Earlier this evening I was making calls, trying to find someone willing to fly with me (new eyes always makes the same landscape more exciting) and not having a great deal of luck. I figured they were a little nervous flying with a new pilot, and they have every right to be a little worried. I was too when my friend took me up for the first time. "And," my husband told me, "most people don't realize how much work goes into getting your licence. It's not like when you're sixteen and continue to stall your vehicle out on a hill or can't quite get into that parking stall." What I didn't tell him was that, it is. Or at least it feels like it is. But at least if you stay up high enough you'll have plenty of time to recover from that stall!