Learnin' to Fly (#1)

I have to be honest.  The idea for my #1 on my 30 Before 30 list was a Groupon for flying lessons that came across my email while I was living in NYC.  At the time, I was like, why not?  And then work got in the way, of course.  Anyway, now that I have weekends (well, this one may have been my last before the bar exam), I thought it would be perfect to do.  Fortunately, Groupon cooperated and had another special. So in December, I purchased flying lessons for the bargain price of $169.  I sort of just bought the lessons without thinking through the fact that I would be UP IN THE AIR thousands of feet above the ground where I could plummet to my death if something went awry.  This did not enter my mind until I was in the flight simulator part of my lesson (good timing, right?).  At that point, it was too late because we were already walking to the plane.

For those of you that knew me in high school, me taking flying lessons would crack you up.  I was the girl that took drivers' ed at 16 and didn't get my license until almost 4 months after my 17th birthday.  I was rather busy in high school (extracurriculars and whatnot) and had a boyfriend who was a year ahead of me and thus could drive me to school too.  I also was the girl that burst into tears when her drivers' ed instructor told her to turn on the car.  Yes, this same girl flew a freakin' airplane on Saturday (and started the propellers all by herself)!

I should also note that my hubby is deathly afraid of flying.  He gets very nervous/ anxious in commercial planes.  I'm SHOCKED that he came up into the plane with me.  I'm also very proud of him.  He made a decision that he didn't want to miss me crossing something off my "bucket list" (that's what we call it to people we don't know. 30 Before 30 is harder to explain).  What a sweet guy and good for him.

So, the photos.

Me in front of the 4-person plane (so tiny!).

Erik while we were loading up.

The instructor was going through pre-flight stuff while I was so responsibly getting my photo taken.

The feeling of being in the air is indescribable (at least by me).  It was so peaceful up there.

We flew at sunset, which was perfect.

SFO
Doesn't this look like one of the sentry robots from the Matrix?

Me flying without the instructor's help.  Watch out for hills!!

Downtown SF

Golden Gate Park

Focusing.  You can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the background to the left.

Golden Gate Bridge

Alcatraz at 2,000 ft.  I was surprised at how built up it was.  Not sure why that was surprising...

SF

Getting ready to land

We made it!

I am SO SO THANKFUL for this experience.  I'm thankful for having the money to be able to swing the lessons and thankful for my "just do it" perspective.  I think that one thing my father's early passing taught me is that we never truly know when our time is going to come so we should live each day to its absolute fullest.  Sure, I probably should have been studying and sure, we probably should be saving our money for a new home, but you know what? I wouldn't take that hour back for anything.  I flew a plane.  Flew it.  By myself (for some of the time).  I'm so happy that I put this on my 30B30 list because I'm not sure I could have justified it otherwise, which is also silly.  I want to go up again sometime (maybe not very soon because I do need to start focusing on passing the California bar exam).  I think I may actually pursue my pilot's license, or at the very least, take a few more lessons and see what I think since they will count towards the license anyway.  It was a little difficult to keep up with all the gauges and radio communications, but I'm sure that gets easier with practice.

At any rate, I'm going to check this one off the list and consider myself a badass for at least a little while.  I think I've earned the basking in my own glory for at least a week. :)  I'm sure Erik will get annoyed with me soon and then I'll come back to earth again.  In the meantime, I have a new happy place -- a feeling of weightlessness and floating on air.