A few flying stories for you. Read them all or pick and choose:

1. How Steven’s mock checkride went/what’s next
2. A a ha moment for me afterward
3. That’s not him!
4. Status of the Abel Island runway

I feel like there was a fifth but I forgot!

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How Steven’s mock checkride went/what’s next

His mock checkride was yesterday morning. I had fun tracking him on flightaware.com and watching all the whoop-de-doos he was doing, and was wondering what maneuvers they were. He text me when he was done and said it was “interesting.” Later when we had a chance to talk he told me about the difficult parts that were things he never learned – turning on a power-on stall, stopping short on a number, and a few other things (major props if the first two mean anything to you! (Ha! Props! Get it?!)). He told me about a few of the things that went well too (I’m sure there were many more than he told me – he’s a classic Enneagram 1 who focuses on what needs improvement much more than successes).

All that being said, he’s still on the board to get a time for his final checkride and oral exam but those are scheduled a few weeks in advance so we’re looking at the end of July. He’ll work on maneuvers with his instructor until then.

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A a ha moment for me afterward

Last night we were talking about how we both had a hard time falling asleep Sunday night. He said for him it was probably because he was nervous about his flight. And he asked if that was why I had a hard time falling asleep too.

I told him no – I’m never nervous about him flying (or being prepared) and have 100% confidence that he knows what he’s doing. He told me thank you then I went on to hypothesize about why I had problems falling asleep. Such interesting conversations we have, huh? Ha.

Anyway, telling him that made me think, I wonder how often someone hears that someone else has 100% confidence in them, and whether that is encouraging, or if it makes them anxious. Think about it and tell me! Has anyone ever told you that? How did it make you feel? And imagine, there may be people thinking that about you and NOT EVEN TELLING YOU.

I feel grateful I have a partner I feel that way about, in all arenas of our life, not just this one.

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That’s not him!

Oh my gosh, you guys. So it’s the end of my working day today and I hear an airplane outside and pull up flightaware and put in the tail number Steven usually flies and sure enough it’s his tail. So I go outside and watch him fly by (he had logbook review/lesson today). I get so excited when I see him!

Then I finish work and drive to the preserve to run and think there’s a slight chance I’ll see him again. If he flies by the house on the way out he typically does a different approach back to the airport, but you never know.

So I am tracking him and see a plane overhead and sure enough, it’s him! For whatever reason he crossed the track he came in on. I was at the red dot when he flew by.

I sent him a screenshot of the tracker and of his plane and said “Ha you totally flew over me 😊 I saw you at the house too!”

My text dinged back right away and I thought that was odd – he doesn’t see texts when he’s flying. But it was him alright: “No we’re in ma and haven’t taken off yet.”

HA!!!! It was not even him! He usually flies in ES (Echo Sierra) and I was tracking ES, but for some reason they were flying MA (Mike Alpha) and hadn’t left yet (longest lesson ever, he is still not home, it’s 6:40 and he left at 2:30).

Anyway. So then I tracked MA. And DID see him fly over the house when I got back. HA!!!!

Did you find him?

I was laughing at myself for getting excited seeing someone else fly by.

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Status of the Abel Island runway

The Abel Island runway, where we would land if we flew to Guttenberg, Iowa is hella flooded right meow:

Photo credit: Michael Bauer

See those two rows of houses? With the water between them? That is the grass runway 🫠 Crazy. I hope they can still have the fly-in in August.

Here’s a photo of it when we flew there last August – it’s the brown patch of land in the middle of the photo.

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I still can’t remember what the 5th thing was but I haven’t flown with Steven since December and really miss it and can’t wait to get up there with him soon!

I’m hoping if he is able to get his license this summer he can take me somewhere fun for a birthday celebration! But if not that’s okay too. Getting on the schedule has been really out of his control. Maybe me writing about it here will make it happen. Ha.