All Before a Day's Work

Air Mike Flight #54

Early morning over beautiful Lake Tahoe.

Life of a busy Weimar College student: clean the house Friday morning, almost forget to go to Revelation class at 11:20, practice with music group all afternoon, go to vespers, hang out with Erwin till 10:30 after vespers, choir performance at church on Sabbath morning, hang out with friends Sabbath afternoon, try unsuccessfully to study all day Sunday, go to bed at 8:30, wake up super early and…go flying?!

Yup, that’s the way it rolls when you live the double life of a student and a pilot. Sometimes you just fly when the opportunity arises, even if it’s right at the beginning of a busy day of classes and work. At least you can temporarily push all the deadlines and homework to the side and forget about the woes of school life for a couple hours.



A potential candidate for the proposed

Weimar Flight School.

 The reason for the early morning flight was the destination, one of California’s great sights that I’ve recently started taking my friends up to see: world-famous Lake Tahoe. Since flying in the mountains is done in the morning, that translates to sometime around sunrise for a guy like me who has classes at 9:00. Not a problem, as long as the passengers are up for it!

 I met my crew bright and early at 6:00 and we headed for the airport. Brandon, my media intern friend, had his sister Tiffani visiting and he wanted her to see Tahoe from the air before she went home. Ben, a fellow bass in the choir, completed the crew and got to ride shotgun. He’d brought breakfast along and was intending on finishing eating after we got airborne; of course that didn't happen. We took off and soon as we were airborne I gave him control of the airplane. He didn’t get another chance to touch his food—he flew us there and back.





Sister and brother.

Because the flight direction faces east, the rising sun low on the horizon is somewhat annoying as it’s in your eyes for almost the whole flight out to the lake. But once you arrive at the lake and turn south to follow the shoreline, suddenly everything comes into vivid, stunning color. The wide blue expanse of water is so perfectly situated among the snowcapped peaks of the surrounding Sierras. I can only imagine what it must have been like for the first explorer who came across this spectacular mountain sea. No doubt he would have been extremely jealous had he known someday people would be flying over it.





Emerald Bay gets its name from the deep shade of green the

water has when seen from the ground. The water is simply

reflecting the surrounding mountainsides which are covered

with evergreen trees.



 We did our all-too-brief tour of the lake, flying past the famous Emerald Bay. Then it was time to head back to the field. Instead of following the freeway back, we took the more direct route, to avoid some cloud layers that were pushing in from the northwest. A couple circles around the Weimar College campus to top off the flight, and then we were touching down at Auburn. Half an hour later it was nothing but a recent memory, almost like a dream. Enough borrowing from time I didn't have; back to school!



Up We Go!

Air Mike Flight #53

What a blast! I must say that was one of the most fun flights I have had in a while, and what a great way to get back into the air after a month and half of being too busy to fly. After getting back from a mission trip to Zimbabwe (that is not flying—it’s just wrong for a pilot to be stuffed back in economy for hours on end) the flying withdrawals were really starting to get to me and I was itching to get airborne again. With my birthday coming up, I decided a good way to celebrate would be to get back in the sky for some aerial rejuvenation.

I considered taking the 2-seat Cessna 150 up by myself, but then thought better of it. Flying solo is great—but it’s way more fun when you have someone else along. And besides, it was my 21st birthday. So, after I managed to convince my classmates Daniel, Erwin, and David that they wanted to go flying with me, we all headed out for the airport. With that crew, all I can say is that there was never a dull moment during the flight!

Already while we were taxiing out to the runway, the guys were making good use of the headset intercom and yabbering away. Then as soon as we were airborne the plane erupted with whoops and hollers and wild cheers. This is going to be a very audible flight, I mused.


The flight crew: the author and Daniel.

 One of the fun things I get to do when taking friends up is let them try their hand at the flight controls. There’s a dual set of controls, so whoever sits up front with me has the ability to take control and actually get to do some flying. After getting to a safe altitude I turned to Daniel who was in the right seat and gave him an announcement that made his eyes widen: “You have the plane.” He gingerly grasped the controls and immediately started yelling. “Oh myyyy goooodnesss!!! Aaaaahhh!” I couldn’t keep from laughing; he was barely making the plane do anything.

Now the peanut gallery (a must-have on an airline, right?) was really starting to bump up the running commentary as I tried to give Daniel his “flying lesson”. “Hey Daniel, are you really flying the plane? I sure hope you fly better than you drive, whaaahahahaa!!!” Everyone was having quite the uproarious time, but with all the laughter and wisecracks filling our headsets it was all but impossible for Daniel to understand the directions I was trying to give him. I glanced at the audio panel and spied a switch I hadn’t noticed before. The settings I saw were suddenly very interesting to me: Isol, Crew, All. Aha! I flipped the switch to “Crew” and the intercom fell silent. I glanced over at Daniel with a wry grin. “Can you hear me now?”

A moment later I heard muffled shouts from the back. Glancing back I burst out laughing as I saw Erwin and David, hands thrown up in the air in protest. “What did you do—why can’t we hear you anymore?!” they were hollering. I grinned widely. “You guys are too noisy!” I yelled back. The rest of the flight was a bit more tranquil as the backseaters talked away to each other while I “instructed” the friend in the right front seat. We made a couple landings at the Lincoln airport to switch seats amongst the passengers and everyone got a chance to fly the plane.


David and Erwin, our enthusiastic backseat duo.

 After about an hour of letting each guy try the basics of flying—turning, straight and level, climbing, descending—there was one more thing on the plan. I pointed the plane northeast and headed past Auburn. Moments later some familiar, sickly-green roofs appeared on the ground ahead. Weimar Center of Health and Education. It was about six thirty in the evening and there were quite a few people outside walking around on the campus as we came over, and we could see some look up and start waving. We circled, then made a pass with an enthusiastic rocking of the wings—the pilot’s way of waving to people on the ground—then circled a few more times before we leveling out to keep from turning any more green. Finally it was back to Auburn to put things away and say goodbye to the sky. It was quite gratifying to squeak in my third greaser landing of the day to the applause of the guys I was bringing back to the ground (it's not always that smooth after a long break from flying). Another Air Mike flight completed.

Like I said, fun things are funnest (if I can use that word) when you share them with others. It was definitely a highlight for me to be able to celebrate my 21st birthday in the sky with friends. I’m glad God feels the same way about sharing amazing experiences, because that’s why He’s offering us all a ticket to the greatest experience ever—heaven! So…you wanna go flying?

Photo credits: Daniel Jeon