Becky was a wonderful person.\u00a0 From the moment I first met her, she was on her way to becoming one of my favorite students.\u00a0 Becky came to me by way of a fellow airport bum and friend, Dave, a pilot, mechanic, a homebuilder.\u00a0 He is a true aviator in addition to being one of Becky\u2019s business clients.\u00a0 The first day I met her, she stood outside the door of the little country FBO where I worked as a flight instructor.\u00a0 As she rubbed her toe in the dirt, she asked, \u201cDo you think you could teach someone as old as me to fly?\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked back at her, and countered, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u00a0 What do you think?\u00a0 Do you believe someone your age is still capable of learning?\u201d\u00a0 She smiled and knew immediately what I meant.\u00a0(She wasn\u2019t that old.)<\/p>\n
Becky had her very first airplane flight with Dave in his Wittman Tailwind.\u00a0 The experience was an experience of a lifetime.\u00a0 It was one of those defining moments in the course of a life, a turning point.\u00a0 After the flight, Becky asked Dave if he could teach her how to fly.\u00a0 Dave said no, he did not teach, but he knew someone who did.\u00a0 That is how I met Becky that fateful late summer evening in 1979.<\/p>\n
She was not the most technically talented, nor was she as skillful as other students.\u00a0 However, what she lacked in skill and knowledge, she more than made up for with enthusiasm.\u00a0 I knew she would be a great student and, as I would find later, a wonderful mentor.\u00a0 I would teach her how to fly and she would teach me some of the important lessons in how to live life.<\/p>\n
When we first met, she told me about her first airplane flight with Dave.\u00a0 Becky could not contain herself as she recounted the flight in Dave\u2019s Tailwind.\u00a0 More than once, I heard the phrase, \u201cI wish I had gone up the first time he had asked me.\u201d\u00a0 Becky said Dave and his wife had been trying to get her into the airplane for a ride for years and she had steadfastly refused.<\/p>\n
She also said it was the very first time she ever left the earth in any form of flying machine.\u00a0 This amused me; after all, didn\u2019t we live in modern times?\u00a0 And I was intrigued as to how her first airplane flight was not in a \u201ccertificated\u201d airplane, but in one lovingly and patiently hand crafted by one man and his sons.<\/p>\n
As she finished talking about the flight with Dave, I knew she would be an active student pilot.\u00a0 She was not one to do something halfway.<\/p>\n
I soon found myself looking forward to Becky\u2019s lessons.\u00a0 She studied hard and studied well.\u00a0 Her enthusiasm was infectious and her joy at flying unpretentious.\u00a0 Through her experiences, I was able to remember my own trials as a student pilot.\u00a0 It was on a return from one training flight that I fully became the student and Becky the teacher.<\/p>\n
We had been working on slow flight and stalls.\u00a0 The lesson was complete; it was the last flight of the day, which gave us a little more time to enjoy the return home.\u00a0 Becky looked to the west and seemed content with where she was and what she was doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know,\u201d she began, \u201cwhen I was a little girl, I had a chance to ride in an open cockpit biplane.\u201d<\/p>\n
I looked at her, surprised she had been so close to the barnstorming era of aviation history.\u00a0 She went on to say she and her cousin watched a biplane land in a field near her cousin\u2019s farm.\u00a0 She talked at length about the airplane in a way a novice would describe it.\u00a0 The complete picture was like a page out of an aviation history book.\u00a0 The pilot offered the two little girls a ride, $3 each.\u00a0 Becky had only $2.75 and her cousin said she would give her the balance.\u00a0 Becky agreed and the barnstormer began strapping the two into the front cockpit.<\/p>\n
As her cousin settled in and Becky waited her turn, Becky had second thoughts and decided not to fly.\u00a0 She kept her money and the barnstormer lost a fare.\u00a0 As Becky stood in the field that day, her cousin enjoyed her ride all alone.\u00a0 As it turned out, for Becky\u2019s cousin it did not amount to a ride of a lifetime.\u00a0 It was not a turning point in her cousin\u2019s life \u2013 as it would have been for Becky.<\/p>\n
Sitting in the cockpit of the Cessna 150 more than 50 years later, Becky was about to teach her young flight instructor a lesson in life.\u00a0 As she deftly piloted the Cessna into the sunset, she said, \u201cYou know, if I had been brave enough to fly with that barnstormer so long ago, my entire life would have been different.\u201d<\/p>\n
The gravity of the statement did not escape me.\u00a0 I knew there was a very strong truth to what she said.\u00a0 I had no doubt about it.<\/p>\n
I think if Becky had flown in the biplane that day so long ago, she may have become very active in aviation.\u00a0 She might have been a WASP.\u00a0 She may have become a contract instructor with the CPTP, or she probably would have started her own aviation business.<\/p>\n
As she piloted the 150 for home, I wished I had a way to go back in time so I could entice the little girl into the front cockpit of that biplane, to tell her it was safe and fun.\u00a0 To reassure her.<\/p>\n
That time, that chance, that opportunity is gone.\u00a0 However, there is nothing like making the best of the time that is now.<\/p>\n
This is precisely what Becky is doing.\u00a0 She is grabbing a hold of life and not letting go.\u00a0 She is aware of the time that has slipped by and how different her life could have been.\u00a0 I have a feeling she will never make the same mistake again.\u00a0 Additionally, I, her aviation teacher, I am taking careful notes.\u00a0 In one regard, she is my student and in another, I am hers.<\/p>\n
I think of all the other people who have uttered the words, \u201cIf only I had . . .\u201d\u00a0These are the people whose lifetimes contain great regrets.\u00a0 I do not want to become one of them.<\/p>\n
So I make a vow to myself and a promise to those who would, but cannot.\u00a0 I will not allow myself to become one of those people.\u00a0 Becky\u2019s lesson included slow flight and stalls.\u00a0 My lesson included so much more.<\/p>\n
After we land and taxi in, Becky shuts down and we sit quietly watching the last of the sunset slowly slide away.\u00a0 Neither of us talk for a moment, we just listen as the gyros unwind.<\/p>\n
Finally, we leave.\u00a0 We get out, tie the plane down, and walk away.\u00a0 It is very quiet on the field; you can hear the frogs and the bugs waking up for the evening, commencing their nocturnal music.\u00a0 For my services, Becky will pay my boss the regular dual rate.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, I realize it is not about money, it is not about flight time in the log.\u00a0 I walk away from the Cessna knowing it is about teaching, learning, shared lessons, and friends.<\/p>\n
I know I cannot possibly repay Becky for the life lesson she has just taught me.<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Becky was a wonderful person.\u00a0 From the moment I first met her, she was on her way to becoming one of my favorite students.\u00a0 Becky came to me by way of a fellow airport bum and friend, Dave, a pilot, … Continue reading