“I’m scared!”
“No, you’re not! Just excited. It’s a new challenge.”
“Daunted then. I have a knot in my stomach.”
In fact, I couldn’t remember having been on edge like this about flying for a very long time. The reason? I was about to have my first ever instruction on a vintage PA22, fulfilling a year-old promise. It wasn’t the instructor I was worried about, it was me. Would I cope, would I make a fool of myself. Other, newer pilots had managed to land this old lady aircraft first time around, but would I? I knew my way around my own plane, which I had been flying for nearly a year and a half now, but this one had an awkward throttle, a different stick and you needed to remember to keep the revs at half of what I am used to.
It got me thinking about birthdays and marking milestones. I started writing a blog about flying, fun2fly.blog, just after I had finally got my pilot’s licence to track my progress in one of the most difficult journeys of my life. Birthdays are moments to celebrate. They are also a point at which you should take stock. Look forward and back, to see how far you have come and plot your route ahead.
I am a firm believer that one should celebrate the small wins, because if you only look at who raced ahead of you in getting their licence or now does long distance with seeming ease, you won’t appreciate your own unique journey.
We are all so very different, and no instructor, or friend, can fully understand what it takes for you to embark on today’s lesson. Only you and your own grit are going to determine how long it takes to get comfortable with a new concept. When things are easy, or effortless, to some, you may be struggling with the basics. So cut yourself some slack. You are only up against your own inner voice here, and if you practise cheering yourself on, rather than that stream of criticism, you may surprise yourself.
I could have had this first lesson a few weeks ago, but I had stupidly let myself be completely thrown by a comment about how I was going backwards as a pilot. Instead of taking it as encouragement and placing it in the context of what I have in fact achieved, I felt intimidated and I didn’t want to fly. I missed an opportunity there, because the weather was perfect that day.
And that lesson in the PA22? Well, I wish I could tell you how I had fared with landing that heavy old thing. It’s just that was the day when a rather iffy forecast actually meant the cloud-base stayed resolutely at 400 feet. All I managed was a full instruction on the dashboard, and endless cups of tea. That’s flying for you!
Make sure you grab the opportunities you get when they come your way. They may not be there when you are ready.
Thank you for reading!
Reframe Coaching 