about Saturday. Cosme was scheduled to check out on a bigger, faster, higher powered plane. He asked me to come along so I went. He let me know when we were almost there that he might be required to do a few things that I probably wouldn't be excited about. I told him these were things he needed to verify before I got on that plane. He asked and it was confirmed. He would have to do two stalls while we were up there. The instructor explained everything in detail, while my hands were sweating and I couldn't quit laughing. (I'm pretty sure that nervous laugh of mine is eventually going to convince people I'm crazy.) Anyway, they both assured me that it would be fine. I figured what the heck and went along. Our destination was Rockport. We weren't landing but just doing a touch-and-go. I was doing fine, just reading in the backseat and then they let me know. We were about to do our first stall. I probably should have told them in the beginning to not warn me but just do it. Seriously, chances are I would've been too preoccupied on my iPad to notice what was going on. Anyway, here came the first stall. I knew it would involve flaps doing something and then the nose dipped a little. The plane reminded me with the warning "STALL, STALL, STALL". OMG. No worries though, Cosme recovered it all just fine and we went on our way. I knew one more would happen so I tried to get distracted again with my iPad, seriously dreading the next stall because I knew it involved the nose going up. (I seriously just had shivers thinking about it.) Anyway, I got preoccupied and then they let me know again. Here it comes. Imagine this. Imagine a roller coaster, which by the way, I hate. So imagine that roller coaster that people love at theme parks. Now imagine it not really being a ride at a theme park but you're 4500 feet in the air and this is real life. The nose went up, "STALL, STALL, STALL...", my hands were sweating and as I had a
death strong grip on my camera and iPad, Cosme recovered. Deep breath. Stalls were over, then we hit an air pocket or something and I almost lost my camera and iPad. GULP. At this point I knew I was ready to land and be done with it. Then it started raining. No biggie, there wasn't any lightning. We made it to Rockport.
By the way, do you know anyone who can spot an unfamiliar town's bakery from the air? I doubt it but guess who did. So we touched and went in Rockport and were headed home, avoiding rain clouds. I think we took a longer route back to avoid a certain area on the radar where lightning was. We landed and then I had a margarita.
Here are some of the pictures I got from the ride. I know a lot of them look alike but really, they're not.
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| The sun is trying to break through. |
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| Scattered showers |
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| Rain |
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| Along the coast |
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| Rain to the left, not to the right. |
Now just stop a minute and look at this runway. This isn't where we landed but it definitely caught my attention. Look at it.
No, really. Look at it. How close is the bay side to the water? (Not that the coast side is terribly far from the other end.) Now think about this for a minute. In order to come in for a landing, you'll need to get set up. Not only does that involve lining up for it, with either side being over water, but you're also going to be getting lower... OVER WATER. I can't think about this. I just know I never want to land there.
I think this entire post makes me deserving of a really strong Coke.
