Bucket List

Andrew shows up today for his Trike/Motorized Hang Glider flight lesson and he is excited.

64 years young and its time to start knocking off bigger items out of his bucket list, he says.

He had a ride in an ultralight 10 years ago and thinks about it all the time. In fact he bought enough pieces over the past few years to build a trike and he bought a wing.

Before he flew it he thought he should have a lesson because he really knew nothing about flying. I told him that was a VERY good idea and he better let me look it over before he tries flying it.

He found the number for Raven Aviation, called and now he was here and ready to fly. We pulled the trike out of winter storage, ran it up, set up the wing, gave it all a good pre-flight inspection talked about our first introductory lesson and buckled him in.

We taxied down the freshly rolled grass taxiway to runway 36 and back tracked to 18 at the Freedom Flight Park.

We sat in the sun and went through the pre take off check list and then opened the throttle to full power.

300 feet down the runway we broke free of the grass and we were climbing like home sick angels in the cool 6 degree spring air. We flew over the town of Lumby and then over the hang glider launch on Saddle Mountain.

The thermals were lifting us higher. Within 2 minutes we were 2000 feet above the Flight Park and going through lessons one and two, shallow turns and straight flight.

After 30 minutes of practicing Andrew was getting it all real good and it was time to get back to terra firma and warm up. I demonstrated a couple of tight 360 turns so he could see how maneuverable the wing was. He was thrilled.

He could hardly wait to experience the landing though. We touched down on the bulls eye at 25 mph.

When we rolled up to the hanger he was very happy and looking forward to getting back for his next lesson.

I swear he looked 10 years younger after that flight. His smile was wide and he had a boyish kind of perma grin going on. An extra skip in his step. I am sure he will be thinking of that flight over and over until he makes it back. And so he should. Its another way to practice.

Flying is like a reminder for some people about what its like to really be free.

Especially when you wait 10 years between flights. Not sure I could have waited that long : )

Its all a great reminder for me too.

I feel blessed that I have chosen to do what I Love and I love what I do.

RauckOn