Insert Cirrus word play here

Earlier today John posted that he needed to do a quick run to Skagit and asked if any of his funemployed friends wanted to ride along. For those who don’t know him, John owns a flight school training people to fly small planes. So a quick run to Skagit with John means hopping into a small plane, rather than driving. I’ve done that trip driving many times, it’s not so exciting. Flying it probably isn’t for John either. But I’ve only been in small planes twice that I can remember, and once in a helicopter.

So I hopped in my car and drove to Boeing field. I watched John and Chase pull the plane out of a hangar barely big enough to hold the plane, and go through what appeared to be a very thorough checklist. John had me sit in front, rather than Chase. Which meant he explained to me how to kill the engine and deploy the plane’s parachute in the unlikely event that he went unconscious and we were headed toward the ground. (Which he did not.)

Plane ride was uneventful, other than the normal taxiway in Skagit being closed so we had to take 5 to 10 extra minutes to go the long way around to get to the airport buildings.

On the flight back, John let me fly the plane for about 10 minutes. I don’t think I showed it, but I was hella nervous beforehand. I played Microsoft Flight Simulator in like 1991 and things did not go well. But I figured he wouldn’t be letting me do anything I couldn’t handle, so what the hell. It was fun. If I was that kind of rich, I’d totally blow money to buy a plane and learn how to fly.

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