I live about a mile from the airport as the crow flies. Years ago we had a pool in the back yard and you could stand on the diving board and see the planes take off and land at the airport. I can remember standing on the diving board and saying to myself “someday I’m going to learn how to fly”. There are actually two sides to this part of the journey, the side that couldn’t wait to take that first flight and the side that said in my head “you will never do it because you’re scared”. So this conflict kept me from getting started for quite a few years. Then I received Flight Simulator for Christmas one year from one of my kids and for the life of me can’t remember which one it was but that got me started thinking that maybe I could do this after all. After my birthday in February Donna told me she tried to get me a discovery flight at the airport but nobody was there so she couldn’t do it but it got me thinking more and more about trying it.

I was at work one day, a Saturday I believe, and I was on my way to the deli to pick up lunch when I looked to my left and saw a bunch of airplanes. I had stumbled on the Caldwell airport. I made a quick turn into the parking lot and went inside to talk to someone about learning how to fly. As I was standing at the counter talking to the girl behind the desk one of the instructors, Rick Perez, happen to drop in and she asked him if he could spend a few minutes explaining the program to me. He said sure and we went out back and sat in an airplane and he took about an hour and went over some of the controls and covered what it would take for me to get my license. I thanked him and before I left I scheduled a discovery flight for the following week. When I scheduled the flight I really wasn’t sure if I could go through with it and the scared side said “you can always call and cancel” so I made the appointment without any real intent to go through with it no matter how bad I wanted to.

The day of the flight there was no decision to be made because the weather was horrible, brutal cold with snow and wind. We were going to Florida to spend the week with Donnas’ mother and sister so I called the FBO (Fixed Base Operation) and told them I would call them when I got back from vacation and reschedule. I was never so happy to see the wind and snow because I was terrified. LOL