Come Fly Like a Bird
Created | Updated Jan 24, 2005
Beginnings
It started because everybody has a story and every story has, somewhere along the line, the opportunity for something great to happen. If you miss this opportunity you will have no experience of great things happening around you or to you.
One day that 'great thing' came to my door, knocked and I opened it. By doing this I also opened the opportunity for great things to happen to me.
He was a very handsome gentleman - the man who knocked on my door. Not long afterwards he turned out to be a 'girl's dream' who had everything a single girl could wish for. I was divorced, single and still young which is a perfect situationto be in for 'great things' to happen - especially when reaching for the sky is on the cards.
The 'great thing' in this story was that I became an aviatrix. Well, this is a slight exaggeration as I became a co-pilot flying next to a wonderful pilot in his own airplane. The plane was not for pleasure but used for business purposes where one had to fly long distances to different locations.
I was a designer in New York City. My job also involved frequent flying so flying was familiar to me, though not in a private plane. It certainly helped that had no fear of flying. Without a second thought I was anxious to get involved in co-piloting his plane.
It was wintertime - when most people living in the City like to go to a warmer climate to escape the nasty winters which often invade this Metropolis. Soon I found myself to fly to Florida in a private plane and learning to fly. Actually I never took a flying lesson and he, let's call him Leo, had no intention of teaching me. He was a very highly educated engineer, with lot of discipline when it came to flying. All these are very helpful factors when conducting a successful flying carrier business. He was the most knowledgeable pilot I could think of and he expected me to just pick up the knowledge of flying that single engine airplane. No questions were asked. I sat there, watched what he was doing and listened to the communications going on between the pilot and the ground. This was how I learnt to fly.
The most important factor in learning, however, was to develop an unshakable discipline and a cool head no matter what happened. The axiom that 'there is no room for mistake when flying an airplane because just one mistake and you are dead' was made clear to me from the outset.
