Time marches on and so do I
December 21,2018
Xmas is approaching and this time it is different. In another week I will retire and a new life starts. Part of me wishes I could stay the same; same house, smae routine, same projects . But I know I would wither away, be more tired, do less. Kerstin and I are moving to Stockholm, at least 6+ months a year and I will form a new life. The winters will be cold. No car. Lots of walking. No familiarity. The positives are I must be alert to function in this new environment. I can see Freddie, my incredibly bright and focused grandchild often. We will be near London and hopefully our new to be granddaughter, Ebba-In Quotes will arrive and we can forge a relationship with her. It is a bit scary because we know that our relationship with our children will largely determine what that rtelationship will be. However, Rebecca sincerely wants us to be a part of Ebba's life so if we can give each other some space it can be as wonderful as our relationship with Freddie.
I will finish with an anecdote as I am not in the mood for writing and I shall return to this task later, perhaps tomorrow.
My life has been a series of preposterous situations I have put myself in. While working toward my pilot's license (a task for which I could not have been more ill equipped or less interested in) I was doing touch-and-goes at Palwaukee airport. I was supposed to check wind conditions which I may not have done and I noticed on arriving that there were virttually no planes in the air. Sometimes I don't ndestand how mindless I have been or how I failed to draw logicaL conclusions from observations I made. I took the plane up and circled the airfield , notifying the tower I was doing this. As I came in to land I angled the plane into the wind as I was taught and upon touching the ground turned the plane down the runway. The wind hit me immediately and rotated one wing so that the plane veered off the runway and headed into the parked plabes as a faire speed. Not knowing what to do and realizing I was about to crash I performed a short field takeoff to avoid hitting the planes. This was a maneuver I don't think I had preacticed much. Throughout my career I have been in situations wher I had to react to unfamiliar situations and was able to perform life saving or life treating procedures with success. This speaks to some ability in me but obviates the issue of why I was oblivious to the dangers or precautions of what I was doing in the first place. Perhaps a little shaken I again flew around the airfield and I imagingine spoke to the tower and came in to land. Again I crabbed into the wind, again turned the plane to the runway upon touching ground, and again was turned off the funway heading into the parked planes. Once again a short field takeoff saved me (I apparently was going fast enough to accomplish the maneuver) and again began to circle the airfiled. The wind apparently had changed directions somewhat and I was neither skilled enough nor aware how to deetect it nor to ask for help from the tower. For reasons never discerned the tower never told me to chnge runways. So on the next approach I decided to bleed off my speed by flying only a foot or so above the runmway and to stall the plane into falling on the runway. This I did and the plane rolled to a sop at the very end of what turned out to be a short runway at the limiting gate. The wind was bent due to the trauma of falling out of the sky and I turned the plane around back to our landing spot knowing I had excaped my uncertain demise but not realizing why until much later reflection.
And now that I have started I must continue to relate my short career as a pilot. I was bored and lonely and I needed something to do when a group of doctors at Holy Family Hospital decided they would buy an airplane and learn to fly. I figured I would join them as I had little else to occupy my time. I met our instructor to be at Palwauki airport outside of Chicago, the second busiest private airfield in the U.S. I think. We walked to the plane and I thought "This is a bathtub with wings". Indeed I had no idea a plane could be so small. Anpother thought I had was that this would help me overcome my fear of heights. No such luck. Flying in the plane was a false sense of security since my feet were supported and my vision was largely straight ahead. It was surreal. Perhaps all would have been well except I forgot I was not one to study and study is what it takes to be a fgood pilot. I said good because it is not so hard to be a pilot and not be good. Just as my mother was legally blind and had a license to drive in Florida I certified a pilot who was learning along with me to fly although he was blind in one eye.
And now the narrative continues. I did not love flying. All but one of the doctors dropped out and since I had nothing else to occupy my time I agreed to pay half of the plane as well as its maintenance and to take lessons. I am not sure how I survived. My teacher was aformer jet fighter pilot who was very calm and gave me confidence that all was well. We did things not included in standard training such as putting our Cessna 150 into a death spiral. As I saw the ground coming toward me in a spiralling fashion I knew I had to push the rudder (I dn't remember in what direction) but instinctively I reached out with my right hand and grabbed his crotch or thigh as I pushed on the rudder. Or did he?? One of our lessons was flying ands landing at night. My legs quiver as I think about it. I sighted the runway and flew straight for the runway. The teacxher said nothing until maybe 50 feet abover the "runway" when he abruptly pulled us up and out of the pattern. The runway I was attempting to land was in fact a lighted row of an outdoor movie theater which fortunately was devoid of c ars at the moment. I have trouble navigating from my house to the food store without conscioulsy mapping out in my mind which store I wished to visit. Ya think navigating an airplane is more difficult. I am king of the unconscious and this scares the shit out opf me. But there is more:
Xmas is approaching and this time it is different. In another week I will retire and a new life starts. Part of me wishes I could stay the same; same house, smae routine, same projects . But I know I would wither away, be more tired, do less. Kerstin and I are moving to Stockholm, at least 6+ months a year and I will form a new life. The winters will be cold. No car. Lots of walking. No familiarity. The positives are I must be alert to function in this new environment. I can see Freddie, my incredibly bright and focused grandchild often. We will be near London and hopefully our new to be granddaughter, Ebba-In Quotes will arrive and we can forge a relationship with her. It is a bit scary because we know that our relationship with our children will largely determine what that rtelationship will be. However, Rebecca sincerely wants us to be a part of Ebba's life so if we can give each other some space it can be as wonderful as our relationship with Freddie.
I will finish with an anecdote as I am not in the mood for writing and I shall return to this task later, perhaps tomorrow.
My life has been a series of preposterous situations I have put myself in. While working toward my pilot's license (a task for which I could not have been more ill equipped or less interested in) I was doing touch-and-goes at Palwaukee airport. I was supposed to check wind conditions which I may not have done and I noticed on arriving that there were virttually no planes in the air. Sometimes I don't ndestand how mindless I have been or how I failed to draw logicaL conclusions from observations I made. I took the plane up and circled the airfield , notifying the tower I was doing this. As I came in to land I angled the plane into the wind as I was taught and upon touching the ground turned the plane down the runway. The wind hit me immediately and rotated one wing so that the plane veered off the runway and headed into the parked plabes as a faire speed. Not knowing what to do and realizing I was about to crash I performed a short field takeoff to avoid hitting the planes. This was a maneuver I don't think I had preacticed much. Throughout my career I have been in situations wher I had to react to unfamiliar situations and was able to perform life saving or life treating procedures with success. This speaks to some ability in me but obviates the issue of why I was oblivious to the dangers or precautions of what I was doing in the first place. Perhaps a little shaken I again flew around the airfield and I imagingine spoke to the tower and came in to land. Again I crabbed into the wind, again turned the plane to the runway upon touching ground, and again was turned off the funway heading into the parked planes. Once again a short field takeoff saved me (I apparently was going fast enough to accomplish the maneuver) and again began to circle the airfiled. The wind apparently had changed directions somewhat and I was neither skilled enough nor aware how to deetect it nor to ask for help from the tower. For reasons never discerned the tower never told me to chnge runways. So on the next approach I decided to bleed off my speed by flying only a foot or so above the runmway and to stall the plane into falling on the runway. This I did and the plane rolled to a sop at the very end of what turned out to be a short runway at the limiting gate. The wind was bent due to the trauma of falling out of the sky and I turned the plane around back to our landing spot knowing I had excaped my uncertain demise but not realizing why until much later reflection.
And now that I have started I must continue to relate my short career as a pilot. I was bored and lonely and I needed something to do when a group of doctors at Holy Family Hospital decided they would buy an airplane and learn to fly. I figured I would join them as I had little else to occupy my time. I met our instructor to be at Palwauki airport outside of Chicago, the second busiest private airfield in the U.S. I think. We walked to the plane and I thought "This is a bathtub with wings". Indeed I had no idea a plane could be so small. Anpother thought I had was that this would help me overcome my fear of heights. No such luck. Flying in the plane was a false sense of security since my feet were supported and my vision was largely straight ahead. It was surreal. Perhaps all would have been well except I forgot I was not one to study and study is what it takes to be a fgood pilot. I said good because it is not so hard to be a pilot and not be good. Just as my mother was legally blind and had a license to drive in Florida I certified a pilot who was learning along with me to fly although he was blind in one eye.
And now the narrative continues. I did not love flying. All but one of the doctors dropped out and since I had nothing else to occupy my time I agreed to pay half of the plane as well as its maintenance and to take lessons. I am not sure how I survived. My teacher was aformer jet fighter pilot who was very calm and gave me confidence that all was well. We did things not included in standard training such as putting our Cessna 150 into a death spiral. As I saw the ground coming toward me in a spiralling fashion I knew I had to push the rudder (I dn't remember in what direction) but instinctively I reached out with my right hand and grabbed his crotch or thigh as I pushed on the rudder. Or did he?? One of our lessons was flying ands landing at night. My legs quiver as I think about it. I sighted the runway and flew straight for the runway. The teacxher said nothing until maybe 50 feet abover the "runway" when he abruptly pulled us up and out of the pattern. The runway I was attempting to land was in fact a lighted row of an outdoor movie theater which fortunately was devoid of c ars at the moment. I have trouble navigating from my house to the food store without conscioulsy mapping out in my mind which store I wished to visit. Ya think navigating an airplane is more difficult. I am king of the unconscious and this scares the shit out opf me. But there is more:
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