Mayday

Here we are in May already--that's crazy.

I did a Discovery Flight this morning, a woman's first time ever in a small airplane.  She was nervous, but she did a great job with it, was smoother on taxiing and controlling the airplane than most folks are on their first go at it.  Steve talked me into doing his 1:30 lesson for him, and it was in the C-150.  Yeah, I know.  I had to give up a ride in the Cheyenne to do it too.  Bah. ;)  I couldn't remember speeds or anything on the 150, considering I've flown in one twice in the last 15 years or so, but fortunately a look at the airspeed indicator gets you close enough.  I even got the door closed and everything.  Couldn't get the seat to move forward, but that's okay, I just flew it with my legs stretched all the way out. When you're sitting on the floor anyway, that works.  It's a nice 150, actually, with a nice interior and a good panel.  If I liked 150s, I'd like that one.

I landed just in time to pick up Kaylee at the bus and take her to Orange Leaf, the frozen yogurt place.  It's not good for me to go there, because I like to try the different flavors too and I usually end up eating too much.

We had an hour or so at home before it was time to go back out to Kaylee's play practice.  Tonight either Steve or I had to be "Greenroom Monitor", a job for two parents each night.  We were only supposed to have to do it once, but I covered for a friend one night, and we were originally scheduled for tonight.  Steve's behind on paperwork and getting ready for some upcoming events, so he stayed home to work while I went to be Play Mom for 2.5 hours.  Kaylee's BFF's dad was also in the Greenroom tonight, and the mom came in now and then too, and I'd never met the parents before, so it was probably good to have been able for us all to get to know each other better since our girls are starting to spend a lot of time together.

Some folks today from the play were asking me about flying.  One of them is scared to death of flying and airplanes, and was asking some questions.  Another person asked me "have you ever crashed?"  I opened my mouth, and the first person held up his hands and said "I really don't want to know the answer to that question."  So I said "Well, I'm still here."  The lady who asked the question said "I know someone whose engine quit and they crashed in a field and flipped upside down but they were okay."  I said "We call that an emergency landing-it's not really a crash if you land in a field safely, even if you do end up upside down because of terrain."  The one was thinking of trying to get past it so he could let his kid, who is interested and not scared at all, go up in an airplane, but he's just terrified at the thought.  Talk of crashing probably didn't help.  But I don't really want to take any minor flying whose parent(s) is/are that concerned.  Aside from the obvious human reasons to not want to, there is the practical side too.  Flying does pose risks, and if someone is not willing to take those risks but allows it anyway against their real wishes, should anything even minor happen, it's guaranteed bad feelings with a high potential of lawsuits too.  Don't need that.  So I never push anyone to fly who doesn't want to, and I almost never ask anyone to, either.  Usually, if they want to, they can come to me and ask about it.  The exception has been a time or two when Kaylee has had a friend come play at the airport, and the friend wants to go fly, and I call the parents and ask.  Even that makes me uncomfortable, because it's hard to say "no" sometimes when another parent asks you to do something your kid wants to do, and I don't want anyone feeling pressured.  But Kaylee doesn't understand, at all, that some people wouldn't be comfortable with letting their kids go fly.  It doesn't occur to her, and when I tell her, she just doesn't get it.  Airplanes are like cars to her, and why would anybody have a problem with it, right?!  As she gets older she's starting to see that this flying stuff isn't as normal as she thought it was.  :)

Well, it was kind of a long day, I didn't get home until 9 pm or so...