Shortly after taking off from London, we found ourselves flying above the most enchanting concoction of clouds. For those who enjoy such things, here is a visual “cloud poem” of the first ten minutes or so in the air…
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If there was ever any doubt about my desire to continue flying, it vanished without a trace when the Air Canada pilot pulled back the yoke on a busy runway at YYZ this evening. Enroute to Germany (via France) with my kids and their dad, I pondered my current break from flying. It seems so long ago that I was studying for and blogging about my written exam, even though it was only last summer that I finally wrote and passed that beast! The months that have passed since I have had to step back from finishing my PPL due to weather, time and financial reasons have been hectic, and I have tried to suppress my desire to be behind the controls of a Cessna by busying myself with other projects: Focussing on my Math/Tech research at work, redesigning my twins prenatal class website with a friend of mine, and developing a series of related podcasts to supplement same, preparing for my upcoming move to Argentina for the year… Sometimes I almost manage to convince myself that it's not such a big deal that I probably won't ever finish my PPL, that it doesn't really matter that I've never fly again, that it was nice just to be able to say I flew a plane once (a few times), by myself when I was in my 30s... Argh, but being back in an airplane, even a giant, impersonal, commercial airliner like this one, makes me hungry for piloting an aircraft by myself once again. (Did I really venture out on my own to complete a cross-country flight that included three different airports, without the safety of a competent flight instructor by my side? I’m not sure I’d even be able to fly a circuit now, with or without an instructor, lol!) One of the great and glorious things about transcontinental travel going from here to there is discovering that night has miraculously turned to day several hours before it normally “should”… Towards the end of a fitful sleep, when someone nearby invariably opens their carefully-closed-by-the-thoughtful-flight-attendant-only- a- few- hours-prior-window just a sliver, and lets in the splendid light of the European morning sun, it is as though a whole new world has been quickly ad wonderfully formed overnight while we were sleeping. The midnight sky is suddenly a brilliant blue, and gone is the darkness of the North American continent we so recently left behind! Soon, most of the windows are open, and those of us lucky enough to have window seats are gazing out at the wispy clouds drifting along below, roving lazily above the denser, puffier cloud cover beneath them, like feathery nomads without a clear destination in mind. Sleep deprivation is erased by the welcome morning light, calling our tired bodies into a revised daytime mode. Periodically, there are breaks to be seen through the clouds, and a bit of land or sometimes even a river appears underneath. (like clouds? click to enlarge!)
As I listen to Doug Riley’s “Peace Dance” (from his 1990 Freedom album) through my headphones, and look out onto the rolling white cloud hills and pale, thick cloud blankets below, I yearn to be looking out at them in the distance rather than from above; my suddenly desperate preferred perspective is about 15-20 thousand feet below, from the left seat of a Cessna, in control of whether and how close I get to these mysterious and often dangerous creatures. If only there were a way.... Miraculously, we flew today! My brilliant plan from two weeks ago, after having to cancel multiple attempts at cross-country due to unfavourable weather conditions, seemed in the end not-so-brilliant. Even shorter, review flights cannot be flown in 2 miles visibility or 600 ft ceilings, and I have had to cancel 3 lessons since my last blog post!!!
Happily, the exact time when I was flying this morning happened to favour us with ceilings above 1600, good visibility, and even a decent horizon, as we reviewed circuit procedures and specialty take offs and landings. As an added bonus, the sky portrait was a phenomenally beautiful distraction, with a Monet-like colour palette, hues all blending together, and a Dali-esque sun, a clearly defined golden disc, peeking out through a veil of gauzy greys and blacks as we turned crosswind each time on 08. Very nice. Neat to see birds upon birds upon birds in ground effect just skimming the water on the north side of the Toronto Islands yesterday afternoon! (Click photos to enlarge.)
So hard to believe, looking out on the soupy mess that defines this evening's skyline, that only yesterday I was soaring (albeit somewhat bumpily) along the shore, looking down on a creamy, aquamarine Lake Ontario, the occasional stray strand of wispy cloud nearby. Such a sky and water I have not seen -- or at least, not noticed -- since my early days of training. It was a nice visual treat before I had to put on the hood and proceed with my first instrument lesson.
The contrast of the departing geese
and the arriving multi-engine from Porter filled the sky (and my mind) with potential. Those of us who were grounded continued biking to the airport, where we would take flight in neither a Big Porter Plane nor a small goose (although I did fly with one of the latter) ! Squeezed in a few circuits this afternoon after work... bizarre mist/fog/low clouds...
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Welcome to Vera's Flight Brain...Here I will attempt -- hopefully not in vain -- to share my connections to previous knowledge. Or I might share a few random thoughts loosely connected to flying, too, as well as any useful resources I may stumble across in my studies.
AuthorVera C. Teschow is a certified teacher and mother of twin boys Alex and Simon. In addition to documenting her flying lessons, she also blogs about babies, teaching and life in general. Categories
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September 2013
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