“You can choose to imagine the worst; you can choose to be miserable; or, how about this, you can choose to be happy.” -Roger Shelton
“You have to have clouds to have a really pretty sunrise.” -Roger Shelton
Yup! My “Yoda” teaches me more than flying lessons. He teaches me just as much about life. He knows planes and flying like the back of his hand. I truly am learning from the very best there is. I have never once felt scared in a plane with him in there. He also knows the sky and the weather like no one else I know. Sometimes when he’s teaching me all the many details about flying safely, I walk away learning just as much about life as I do about flying.
I can choose to be happy: happy to have a healthy family; happy to have healthy friends; happy that I have food in my stomach; happy to have a roof over my head; happy to have heat in the winter time, and air conditioning in the summer; happy to have clean water; and happy to have a job that I enjoy. And I am also truly happy when I get to see the sunrise in the Mighty Cessna 152 with Roger in the morning. Hmmmm, maybe he had a point. I guess I could choose to be happy.
So today he was trying to teach me to communicate with the Tower in Class C. Class C airports are congested airports. Roanoke is the closest Class C airport here. In order for everything to go smoothly for both the Tower and the planes in Class C airspace, the Tower needs to know that you heard what they just told you. Well, after making initial contact, you’re basically repeating their instructions back to them. Sounds easy, right? Oh, my goodness, I delayed writing this so you couldn’t go to https://www.liveatc.net/ to hear me.
I also practiced doing short field landings – much more precise. I’m learning about so many different things I cannot even begin to tell you. There is no resting on your laurels.
In other words, I now have a whole new appreciation for pilots and all that they have to know. They don’t just think they’re cool, they really are that cool.
So, what did we see today in our adventure? Lots of “ooooohs” and “awwwwws”!
