Add blog post about taking time off from flying
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layout: post
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title: "You're Grounded!"
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tags:
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- flying
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- vfrpilot
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- aviation
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---
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"It's better to be on the ground wishing you were in the sky, than in the sky
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wishing you were on the ground." One of the many sayings that gets told and
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re-told in the aviation community, has been gnawing at me for the past couple
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of years. When you're flying regularly, it is certainly a truism. When you're
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not flying regularly, or at all, it rings false, deafeningly false.
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I haven't piloted an aircraft in almost two years.
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Another aviation saying, one which I like, is "you start with a bag full of
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luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience
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before you empty the bag of luck." This isn't _entirely_ true, you start with
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three bags: one full of luck, another full of money and an empty bag of
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experience. The trick is to fill the empty bag with experience before the other
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two run out.
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I look skyward at each aircraft passing overhead, attempting to identify
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the make and model, before guessing where they're flying. Having experienced
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the joy, frustration and stress of flight, sitting on the ground looking upward
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is unpleasant.
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Learning to fly taught me as much about myself as it did the mechanics of
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powered-flight. However, the amount of flying that would make me feel
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comfortable as pilot-in-command, far exceeds the amount of money I'm willing to
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convert into thrust and lift.
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In the time since I last pulled the yoke back, flared and landed on a runway, I
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have: taken my first *real* vacation, helped a friend get their footing, and
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purchased my first house.
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None of which were easy, or cheap, especially in Northern California.
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I find myself reading old posts tagged
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[vfrstudentpilot](/tag/vfrstudentpilot.html), reminiscing over the fears,
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concerns and delights that went along with flight. In the present, there's not
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much to blog about. There's nothing inherently exciting or interesting about
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home ownership, financial stability and long term planning.
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How boring and responsible.
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---
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If you hang around any airfield long enough you'll notice two general groups of
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people: the young folks, bright-eyed and energetic, many with
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shiny-jet-syndrome aspiring to be airline pilots. The second group: salty older
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pilots who are usually retirees and/or folks with as much time as money to
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burn for avgas.
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I've got the salty part down, so with luck I'll be able to eventually join the
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second group.
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For now, unfortunately, I'll have to sit on the ground, looking up, wishing I
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were there.
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