They Call Me Brave : Solo Flying

I caught him smiling in the co-pilot’s seat.  It’s hard to catch him smiling in that chair.  He likes to be pilot.  But I like being pilot now, too!

My first solo flight + overnight out of town is coming up.  I’m making Martin review emergency landing procedures with me.  He’s reassigning the engine chapter of my textbook to me, and later we’re going to practice a few touch-and-gos where we land and immediately take off again on the remaining runway.  ”Maybe I should just drive,” I keep telling him.  The airport I’m flying to is incredibly challenging because of the mountains.  I have little fears – the same kind you have on your first drive to another town or first interstate drive on an icy night.

“You are a pilot, Katie,” Martin reminds me.  ”Don’t you want to be able to fly?”

I nod, a bit timid.

I don’t know why I hesitate.  I know this stuff! And it’s not like it’s all in German.  English, Katie – English!  Martin is smart.  He reviews things with me, but he will NOT let me drive.

“You are a pilot, Katie.”

Here’s a question to think about:

What’s something that scares you?  Maybe crawl spaces?  Or getting bit by a dog?  Something bigger? Maybe smaller?  What makes you hesitate or get a little teary?  And if you can… how do you overcome that fear with bravery?

Want to catch photos and scary! stories of my first solo flights?  Here’s my very fist solo flight around the valley, my first cross-country flight stretching 200 miles without any navigation tools besides my maps and compasses, and here’s my first solo flight at a huge airport where I lined up on the runway behind two ENORMOUS airliners.  Oooh.  Those were crazy times!