"On the wings of love...."

I've been thinking about taking Leisa flying with me for a while now. We had planned a trip up about a month ago but it turned out to be a really windy day and so it made it unsafe. Since then she has been real busy and so we just haven't been able to do it. Yesterday while we were hiking we saw a plane landing from on top of the rocks. I brought up the idea of her flying with me today and she was all for it. My instructor and I were going to be flying up to Cedar City and practicing a few things and there was no reason why she couldn't fly in the back seat and listen in. Leisa was real excited for it and so up we went this morning.

It was a 9 am departure out of St. George. We headed direct for Cedar City. For those of you who know the lingo, we flew the ILS Rwy 20 backcourse over the localizer and then made our procedure turn back inbound for the approach. I flew it near perfect (ask Leisa if you don't believe me). Then we did the missed approach procedure and flew to Parowan to do a touch and go. Then we headed back to Cedar City to practice the ILS approach again. Then it was back down to St. George. Again for those who understand the lingo, inbound we practiced the DME arc around Rwy 34 and broke off to shoot the VOR-C approach.

Okay, now for those who don't understand the lingo. We took off at 9 am and headed for Cedar City. We practiced some approaches to the runway without being able to see outside. They cover our eyes with special glasses which only allow us to see our instruments, but not outside. Part of these practices involves getting lined up with the runway and then pretending like something jumped out on the runway or it is unsafe to land and doing what we call a missed approach. So we don't actually land but we get close. After doing the missed approach, we flew a little bit more up north and landed in Parowan only to take off immediately. Then we came back around to Cedar City and practiced more approaches. Then we headed back to St. George and practiced some more approaches. It was a nice day!

The weather was fantastic as was the company! :) It was fun to show Leisa what it is I do and show her how much I enjoy what I do. It is one of those times in life where you are just absolutely proud to be who you are and be in the situation you are in. I'm lucky!

Now a few comments on the videos. Leisa took some great pictures of St. George and my instructor T.J. took a picture of us before we took off. Leisa also took a video of takeoff and landing and enroute over the Kolob Fingers! The video of takeoff was too big to upload so if you are interested in seeing it, let me know and I'll email it to you.

The happy couple in front of the plane that would take us up in the air! It's a Cessna 172.

This is looking down on St. George. At the top is Pine Valley Mountain. You see the interstate right down the middle and a golf course bottom right.

The St. George airport. Some say it looks like an aircraft carrier from above. I would agree with that. I'm just glad it isn't moving while I'm trying to land on it. That would be hard.

This video is of us headed for Cedar City over the Kolob Fingers.

This video is of us landing in St. George.