…so, you wanna go flying… and I promised you in the last issue of this awesome rag that  I would tell you how you can fly for less $$ than you think it would cost you… and just be-cause you are reading my col-umn I am going to tell you how you can fly for almost free… the operative word here is “almost”.  O.K. listen up…

First you need to assess your rendezvous with flying in the fol-lowing category. 1)  I have a great passion for flying and I will do anything to “slip the surly bonds” ( oh yeah, have I got a deal for you) ! 2)  I have been thinking about learning to fly ( Stop think-ing, start calling that flight school … if  I say, “just do it” I might get sued by Nike. So, “just call”). 3)  I love to fly but I am afraid of heights (we have a cure for that!) 4)  I walk the dykes and I look up above and I wander what that buzzing noise above me is (Have I got a flight school for you to check it out!!) 5)  My kids are on the computer every minute of every hour of every day playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 and I think they wanna be pilots!!  (GREAT NEWS… a pilot in the making!!)

OK.OK.  Now you’ve assessed yourself. So, here is how it works….. If you have a great passion for flying, then show your passion by hanging out at the hangars … you live close to one… go to any one of those hangars out at  the Pitt Meadows Airport (CYPK) …preferably mine, of course, and  you will be sur-prised at how all of us here share our passion with you. That is why we are here. We don’t just like flying. We have a genuine passion for flying. The inherent meaning of the word passion is that it must be shared. The MW online dictionary describes pas-sion as something like this: “intense driving or overwhelming feeling or conviction for an activity or an object…..” That would be my category. I love flying and I love planes.  As an ardent passionate lover of both,  I would love to visit and talk and share with people with the same inclination.  So, if someonesays to me…. I love flying … but I cannot afford to pay for it, guess what I would do? You got it!  I would say: “Hey, buddy, next time the weather permits ( I fly VFR, and that would be Visual Flight Rule in Aviation lingo) come on down to the han-gar and I will take you flying on my time and cost.  Did I not say have I got a deal for you?  It is “almost free” … all you needis guts to knock on the door.  And you might add, why is she so altruistic…?  Oops!!  I’m out of space again…looks like you will have to read the next issue of this awesome rag again next week to find out why I’m so altruistic!!

AND stay tuned to find out how you can GO FLYING ( for al-most free) if you are in the other 4 categories….. 

For now dream flying till you knock on my door to share your passion with us @ Cobalt Aviation located at CYPK ( airport identifier for Pitt Meadows). Until then, here is Erissa saying Adios; and Blue skies and safe flight to all pilots and soon to be pilots out there….. 

Yes, at the airport (Pitt Meadows Regional Airport)

Please attend this sunday august 20th. there will be EAA young eagles flight where children 8 to 17  can fly for free to taste flight!! 

Come and visit us at the cobalt aviation booth too !!

Well, I‘ve been asked to write about FLYING for this rag. I like to talk flying and planes. Paul, the Editor, sensed my passion when we talked!!  However, I like the “Hangar-talk”, so, my stories will be that in nature. I will not bore you with the nuts and bolts of planes and the technical aspects of flying. I will leave that to the CFIs and AMEs (that would be “chief flight instructors” and “Aircraft Mechanical Engineers”, in aviation lingo)!! So, if that is what you want you will have to go buy yourselves some “real” flying magazines. This is just a community paper, apparently.

Writing is not quite my forte. But I have so much to share about flying that unless I can talk to you all at once, I will have to share it by writing it somewhere where you can read about it and what better place to start my story than in this paper? Why this magazine you say?  Heck, because Paul seemed like a genu-inely nice guy and has been courting my advertising dollar for quite sometime now!! So, I better put my mouth where my money is.   Yeah! I have all these clichés, like, what should the title of my story be?? Should I call it “Romancing the plane”?  Or, “Why the fear of flying”? … Guess not!!  Paul and I might get sued by Michael Douglas and /or Erica Jung if we became popular, or Heaven forbids famous, and rich because of my story and arti-cles. You know how it is. When your pocket gets deep, people become “sue-happy” (Hey, I just made that phrase up too)!! 

Talking about “deep-pockets”…. Maybe here is a good place to start talking about flying. The general public… you included, yeah, you, I’m talking to you…(now I might get sued by DeNiro)  always assumes that in order to learn to fly or experi-ence flying, you have to have money or a deep pocket. Well, you are right, and wrong at the same time. There is a saying in aviation…. It goes like this. “How do you make a million from aviation? The Answer is “You start out with two million”. Right, if you want to go into an aviation business and you let your passion in planes and accessories run away with your dol-lars… and there is no end to all those beautiful planes that are coming out of air shows and all the new avionic and GPS you can buy with which to adorn your plane.  They will make a non – aviation enthusiast drool, never mind someone like me!!  BUT if you just want to learn to fly or fly for fun or have a sight see-ing flight here and there, it is not more expensive than any other hobby you might currently have, such as your indulgence in computers, new technology, that flat 48” screen you hang on your wall,  or Xbox,  or skiing or heck, having an affair or pas-sion in any number of people or activities……not to mention eating out or mere keeping up with the “Jones’s herb or flower garden” …. 

Oops! I am out of space for this edition…….so, stay tuned for the next edition of this awesome rag for the continuation of my story on how I learned to fly and how you can too for less $$ than you might think…… 

For now dream flying till you can share the reality of your passion with us @ Cobalt Aviation located at CYPK (airpoIdentifier for Pitt Meadows). Here’s Erissa saying Adios till next week!!  Blue skies and safe flight for pilots and soon to be pilots out there ….