Life’s Flight

Posted on by Fred D

Wan-a-be Pilot
Denali

Flying has always fascinated me. As a child (some claim I still am 😊), the adventures of Sky King, a WWII aviator turned Arizona rancher, kept me glued to our family’s state-of-the-art, oval, 13” black and white TV.

My time in the USMC as an aircraft electrician heightened my flying passion, and early in my teaching career I began taking flying lessons to become a pilot. Eddie, a young, nerves-of-steel flight instructor became my newly revived, in-the-flesh, Sky King. I’ll never forget his calming words of reassurance after my initial, erratic, 3-bounce landing,

“Every landing is a controlled crash. Let’s go around and try that again Fred.”

One blue-bird day, anxiously waiting for my pre-solo flight lesson with Eddie, his dad and flight training school owner approached me with tears in his eyes,

“You need to go home Fred.”

On a helicopter training flight with a major network journalist the tail rotor malfunctioned. Eddie and his student tragically perished.

Returning home, I shared the sad news with my wife. Her prudent words sealed my pilot aspirations,

“Fred, we have four young children. No more flight training.”

Other than another ‘Eddie’ flying me to my favorite mountain’s base camp (pics) a few years ago, my only solo flight has been a sky dive . . . personally exhilarating, but not exactly inspirational to others.

David Gibbs is a lawyer, founder and president of the Christian Law Association, and a pastor. This 8 minute You Tube video is to his truly inspirational, white-knuckle, Alaskan life ‘flight story’. May it inspire you as it has me to always listen to the Voice of your Flight Instructor on your ‘flight’ through life.

Keep Looking Up . . . His Best is Yet to Come!

Window View

Posted on by Fred D

Traveling skies at 600 mph holds a serene solitude foreign to those traveling highways at 60 mph 40,000 ft. below. Such was mine to embrace returning to the Last Frontier.

I M Blessed . . . May U B 2

Bigfoot😊

Posted on by Fred D

Mt. Rainier

On approach into Seattle, WA Mount Rainier impressively dominated the majestic Sierra Nevada Range panorama, and got my thoughts  to a-wandering . . . somewhere down there in the wilderness Bigfoot reportedly roams.


Somehow, ‘Bigfoot’ doesn’t sound female ‘Cinderella appropriate’. However, the thought of a few ‘hes’ representing the sole members of the species lacks romanticism. Surely somewhere down there must roam some ‘shes’ who could fashionably sport pairs of size 18-20 high heels to boot Bigfoot dudes in the rump when they stupidly step outa’ line and forest to get photographed . . . Petite-Feets?


Oklahoma is currently considering legislation for a 3-million-dollar bounty for the live capture of a Bigfoot . . . what are they drinking? This has me contemplating becoming a wealthy, gerontological bounty hunter. But what would be the optimal Bigfoot capture technique . . . a mega-enhanced version of “Building a Better Mousetrap”?


Personally, I support allowing Bigfoots and Petite-Feets to continue to roam wild and free. Being so scarce in numbers, the actual capture of one would immediately classify them as an Endangered Species, and us Homo sapiens have sadly already  mastered that process. Besides, having survived the traumatic childhood trauma of discovering Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were mere myths, us ‘adults’ need a mythical fuzzy fantasy reprieve this hectic world . . . lets keep the Bigfoot myth-information going!


Oops . . . we’re about to land and have been instructed to “Please turn off all electronics devices”. . . Long Live Bigfoot and his Petite-Feets!


PS – My wife is pondering if it’s possible to contract a strange form of altitude sickness while zooming through the skies at 400 mph in high-speed aluminum tubing . . . or if this is just another episode of my dementia? 😊                                 
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Keep Looking Up . . . His best is yet to come!