Flying with Wotring

i have a list of things i want to do in life. they range from the spectacular (becoming president of the united states) to the mundane (overcoming my fear of drive throughs). somewhere in the middle is learning how to fly a plane, so when kathleen reiland, chair of the airline and travel careers program at cypress college, told me how much it would cost for someone to take me up i decided to do it. frankly, i was surprised how inexpensive it was, or maybe i've been wanting to do this for so long, it was worth it. somehow, i thought that flying was a luxury only the rich could enjoy.

kathleen hooked me up with daniel wotring, an aviation instructor at cypress college, and we went flying today!


i brought john with me because i thought he would enjoy this too. he once told me how he wanted to be a navy pilot, but his dreams were shattered at the tender age of four when he found out he need glasses. sad huh?


john flew first since i wanted to sit back and take some pictures for a while. we flew right over my house despite tita lei explicitly telling me not to do that (in my defense, i didn't know we were over the house until it was too late - besides, daniel was flying). once daniel got us to a nice cruising altitude he turned the yoke over to john. i'm not sure how long john was flying for before we flew to another airport where john and i switched out.


flying is one of the most exciting experiences i've ever had, a cross between that instant just before the roller coast starts going down the track and the moments leading up to kissing someone for the first time. i think i'm in love.


it took me a while to get the hang of flying. i kind of take driving for granted, i don't have to do much to keep the car going straight, but not so with a plane. there was a lot more adjusting than i thought there was going to be. needless to say, john did a much better job his first time up. damn him!

we flew to cypress college and i have to say google earth has nothing on actually flying over a place. john got this shot of the college.


after buzzing over the college for a few minutes, i saw enough. i was ready to go back, but just as we were about to daniel suggested we fly out toward the coast. really? i get to fly some more? hell yeah! i headed toward the pacific shore and that's the moment i knew, i really knew, that i want flying to be a part of my life.


i flew along the coast until we reached the huntingtong beach pier. there, daniel pointed out beach blvd and told me to follow it up back to the airport. we were going about a hundred miles an hour when i mentioned to daniel that this was the fastest i ever got to go up beach. he smiled, leaned over the controls, increased the speed, and said now i could say i went 120 miles an hour on beach.

when we got back to fullerton airport i was beaming. john took a picture of daniel and me. i must have been excited because, until i saw the following picture, i had no idea i had my arms around daniel. i'm a bit of a hugger when i get excited.


incidentally, daniel is proposing to his girlfriend tonight. i wish him the best of luck even though he told me that she will say yes. whoever she may be, she's a lucky girl. daniel is a sweetheart. daniel made me feel comfortable since the first moment i met him. he has a way of talking to you like you've been friends for years, even though you just met.

if you are ever interested in flying, consider having daniel as your flight instructor. learning to fly with him was definitely less traumatic than having randy teach me how to drive (i love you honey!).

next on the list - scuba diving... and i think i know just the person to teach me.