I did one other thing. Ethan emailed me today saying "we will be flying to places in the Caribbean like Grand Cayman, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, St Croix, Cancun area etc….you get the picture" and that I needed to figure out what we needed to do as pilots and for the plane both in order to be able to do that. So I checked my passport, and it's still valid until 11/25. You also have to have an FCC Restricted Radio License, which you have to apply for online, and it's not super intuitive or simple. So I hunted down that procedure, and applied for that for $35 today. Supposedly I should have that in a couple days. So that's a couple of the things I need. I also need to figure out how to get a Custom's sticker and register the plane for that. And figure out how to file the flight plans and get the right maps and figure out what equipment is required and where all to go about all this. But I have to admit, it's pretty exciting to think I may be flying to these places! I've never been to any of them. :) I hope it works out!
Someone posted "What is your most proud aviation moment", and I thought and thought and I really don't know. I've gotten to do a lot of pretty cool things. But what am I proudest about? It feels like a moving target. I can think of things, like...flying three different warbirds in three different segments of the world's largest airshow, that's cool, but not one moment but a series of them. Being one of the few T-6 instructors in the country and as far as I know the only woman, is cool. I am kind of proud that I fly all sorts of different things and am good at a variety of different kinds of flying, but that's not a 'moment' either. I think mostly I'm waiting for my proudest moment. I don't know what it will be, but I feel like I try to keep growing and improving and doing better. Maybe it won't be one thing in the end, but an accumulation. Regardless, I'm not cocky because I know how human I am, how sometimes you're not fast enough, nor lucky enough, nor perfect from mistakes, and also because I know where I came from in the beginning. Maybe that should be my proudest moment. Not quitting when I probably should have. When I was a punch line to a group of people, when people had a nickname for me, went out of their way to sabotage me, when someone in authority told me I probably should consider not flying, when I didn't even really believe that I should be there. So maybe that's it. The quiet little moment when I decided...no. I'm not quitting, I'm going to try again, and I'm going to get better, no matter what people think. Thank goodness. Trying to imagine my life without aviation, Steve, Kaylee, probably SMA, all of it would be completely different. So weird to think about...
Well, there's a tornado watch in our area so the TV station was taken over by the news guy talking about the storm. It's fabulous, he says the same thing over and over. If I wanted to watch the weather I'd watch the weather channel. Put a thing on the bottom of the screen. Or off to the side. But cutting off the TV shows halfway through just to show us radar for an hour straight is SO ANNOYING. Don't worry, most of it will miss Kokomo.
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