Back in the Air

     So I made it home Monday afternoon after driving through the night, and stopping to see a friend in Tallahassee.  It is good to be home and back in the air.  I had a lesson this morning, Charlie and I flew up to Ocala airport then headed toward the coast on the Gulf side.  I was mostly flying with just instruments, he had me put the hood on so I couldn’t see of the windows and I had to maintain a certain heading, at a certain altitude, etc.  It was pretty fun.  At one point he had me shut my eyes and try to fly straight and level, this was to teach me to trust my instruments, when I looked up thinking that I was still flying straight and level I found that he had put me into a turn with a pretty hard bank on it, I was pretty surprised I must say.

    Then on our way back he pulled the throttle back to idle and said, “your engine is dead, what you going to do?”. It wasn’t too rough seeing that he did it at a high enough altitude and close enough to the airport that we could just use a runway, but as we got closer, we realized that we were not going to make it to the runway we had planned on cause the headwind was too strong.  We ended up using a runway that was slightly closer.  Overall, it was great to be back in the air;12 days is far too long to go without flying.
    Last night, I went to the singles meeting at my church in Ocala, and, as always, we went to a restaurant afterward.  Last night was the first time that we all agreed on where to go: Ihop.  It was National Pancake Day, and we all got free pancakes.  Free food was extremely appetizing to me since I didn’t have time to eat dinner before we left for the meeting and I forgot to stop somewhere on the way up.
    It was great to see everyone. I sat near Travis and Molly who are getting married May, 1.  They are a lot of fun, he and I had just about everyone in our singles group come over to my place about a month ago.  We ordered pizza, watched a movie, and some of the guys stayed afterward and hung out with me, Johnathan, and Ryan.

    Finances have been pretty tight lately due to rising gas prices, air fuel prices have also gone up. Our Airport has the cheapest fuel in Florida and we just jumped to $3.95 a gallon the other day. Flying  lessons are possibly going to be more expensive as well, my instructor said that it was a possibility during my last lesson.  Your prayers and financial support would be really awesome, thanks so much.

    Thanks so much everyone for your prayers, and your support, I am very grateful. I had an incredible time in the Village, I was very drained when I first got there but I felt very much recharged after I left. Thanks.  I love you all and already can’t wait to see you again,

Your brother in Christ ,

Austin