3. Backcountry flying
Craig explained my predicament to Richard, a backcountry CFI with a beautiful Cessna 182, to see if he would take me flying, at least help keep me in the game so I wouldn’t lose my training progress. Richard agreed to take me up sometime and we exchanged numbers. A week went by, and then one late night I got a text saying a student cancelled and there was an opening if I wanted to fly early in the morning. YES I DO! I was so excited to see what flying in a 182 was like, and in a beautiful 1960 high performance airplane Richard restored from the ground up himself. The first thing he asked me when I arrived was if I wanted to do some flying in the canyons or would I rather work on maneuvers in the valley. I couldn’t contain myself “I would love to go fly in the canyon!”
After that, the adventures didn’t really ever stop. We kept flying, and I got more and more comfortable understanding how to operate the constant speed prop.
In early August I had my first experience landing on a short grass runway. It was just as thrilling as my very first flight, and I’ve come to realize that every new experience reinvigorates my excitement and love of flight. As I shut down the airplane and stepped outside onto the grass to peer out across the valley, my hunger for adventure consumed me. I wonder what is just over those mountains. Backcountry airstrips of the world, here I come! Shortly after that, the adventure gates into the Bitterroot Mountains beckoned, and Richard and I returned to the river valley that first stole my heart. This time, I’m flying the airplane! My heart was beating so fast as Richard coached me low and slow, snaking down the river. Suddenly the airstrip came into view around a final bend, the airplane set up at a perfect approach. Richard said “alright, land on that goat trail, Kelli!” I felt my mind slip into the familiar zone of intense focus as I responded to the energy of the airplane with tiny pitch and power corrections as it glided down, over the parked airplanes unloading rafters, and gently onto the grass. I don’t really have the words to describe how incredible it was to land for the first time at Shearer Airstrip in that way. I could have run laps around the airstrip! I am the luckiest person in the world.
One day after working on landing in the pattern, Richard told me to taxi it to a stop. I thought maybe I made a major mistake and he was going to have one of those serious talks with me about my airspeed or something and so I was wracking my brain about what I could have done better and just about to rattle off a list of things when he said, “Now, I want you to give me 3 take off and landings. Romeo is going to get up real fast with just you in there so be ready.”
