Okay, so do you have a bucket list? If you do, think about what’s on it. Have you checked anything off of it yet? Some of my items have been attending a baseball game at Fennway Park (check!) and fly a plane (check!). Have you noticed though that you had other items on your list you didn’t know you had? Here’s what I mean….
Okay, so if you have read my other post, “When Life Gives You Lemons…” you know that my husband and I are flying this 1940 J5A Piper Cub in Florida.
If you don’t speak airplane (it’s okay, most of the time, I don’t either), you can think of this as a really cool classic car. Just for reference: Piper stopped manufacturing this plane when World War Two started, and as far as we know, this is the second oldest plane, of its model, to still be flying. Basically, it’s really well loved and cared for.
Anyway, a general bucket list item of mine was to fly a plane. I always wanted to be a pilot. I even joined Civil Air Patrol (which is a great organization!) in middle school as a possible way to get my pilot’s license. Unfortunately, it was interfering with my school work, so I had to call it quits; but flying a plane was always a goal of mine. I didn’t want to go to a commercial airline like my husband is doing, but I wanted/want the opportunity to still have the opportunity to fly to new places. Have you ever noticed how much more beautiful the environment is from the air? I mean look at how cool this is!
Okay, I went a touch off track didn’t I? Back to bucket list talk! There are two ways you can start the Cub’s engine; one, by using the aftermarket starter if you remembered to charge the battery, or two, the classic hand-prop way. The details are in the hand-prop title; you go up to the prop, and throw it down in hopes that there was enough inertia to ignite the engine.
The owner of this plane, and my husband, spent the time to teach me the safe way to hand-prop. I thought it was cool to learn it, but I never thought I would actually try it. The next day, there I was, with my hands on the wood propeller, getting ready to throw it, and guess what? It fired up! Holy moly, I did it! This little 5’2 girl with the high voice started a 1940 tailwheel using her hands, with no assistance! The result was a happy dance caught on camera.
Anyway, I checked off another bucket list item I kind of didn’t know I had, which you can read in my next post (so stay tuned!). But, I think what I am trying to get at is that you can do anything you set your mind too. I would have never thought that I would get to fly such a classic plane around Florida with my Pilot husband who I essentially grew up with. Don’t sit around and ponder over what life you have…ponder over the life you CAN have and try to make it happen. You never know what lemons life will give you!