Hello....

There was an article in AvWeb today about flying illegally in China. Apparently it is very difficult and usually illegal to fly a general aviation airplane in China. But a small group of Chinese are doing it anyway, a tiny subset of individuals that chooses to bypass protocol altogether. Those pilots are called "black fliers" (think "black ops") for their habit of taking flight on the sly. "Secret flying is like secret love. You do it, you don't tell people about it." People get arrested and fined huge amounts of dollars if caught doing it, but getting permission to take a flight can take days, and even getting separate permission to land somewhere else is tricky. Black fliers to illegally take to the skies on the sly because the government won't let them. Why do I think that if that happened in America, it wouldn't be such a "small subset" of pilots around here?

I tend to be a little less than kind with myself sometimes when it comes to goofing up. I hate goofing up, whether it be being late on something, doing poorly at something, forgetting something important, any of it, and I don't like talking about it afterwards, either. So this morning I was driving along after taking Kaylee to school, thinking about some of these things I had goofed up this week, feeling a little embarrassed and annoyed at myself, and suddenly I had a random thought out of the blue. Between Friday and Sunday, I flew formation with two different P-51 Mustangs flown by two different friends. How many people can say that? No matter what else went down that week, I had an experience most pilots never will, and I had it twice in a 3-day period. What a gift...

Here are the photos from Kaylee's school program, the few I got with my little camera. Tomorrow is Kaylee's last day of 4th Grade. Her school is having a "Carnival Day" tomorrow. The kids made up games, they have bouncy houses, are getting burgers and hot dogs for lunch, and all in all will have a fun last day together. Then it's School's Out For Summer and Hello 5th Grade! :)