Category Archives: Flying

We all have heard or sometimes talk about getting to do something that’s a “once in a lifetime” (OIAL) experience. Some folks refer to these kind of things as “bucket list” items, although I prefer the term “life list.”

While there are some things that might be OIAL experiences for you, they might be everyday experiences for others. Getting to meet a favorite ballplayer or stand at home plate at Yankee Stadium might be your OIAL experience – but for someone on the training staff or grounds crew, it’s a job. Times change as well. To our grandparents, getting on a plane and going across country or to Europe or Asia might be a OIAL experience. To us, it’s just another vacation or business trip.

What got me thinking about this was a picture that popped up on a screen saver that loops through favorite photos. I got to wondering, where’s the proper middle ground for something that you consider special, exciting, a OIAL experience on the one hand, and something routine on the other? In other words, if a “life list” item is really great, why do you only do it once?

This isn’t to say that you have to do it daily or annually or whatever. But more than once would be good if it was really fun and exciting, right?

We need a name for “really cool, unique, rare, unusual, but more than ONCE in a lifetime, I really need to go do that again!” experiences. “RCURUBMTOIALIRNTGDTA!” doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, I’ll have to work on that.

Meanwhile, the picture that inspired this train of thought?

March, 2010. Temecula, CA. Hot air ballooning. So much fun, so exciting.

RCURUBMTOIALIRNTGDTA!

I found these on the window today.

We don’t get much ice in Los Angeles, but this window was at 37,000 feet, which helps.

This would be fun! Why am I not doing this instead of all of the other things I’m doing which are less fun? Why am I not maximizing my fun to the maximum amount?

According to the N-number this is a Fleet 7B, built in 1936. (If you blow the picture up and squint, that seems to be what the logo on the tail and the lettering under it confirm as well.)

I’ve flown in open air cockpit aircraft, but I’ve never flowin in a biplane, and I’ve never piloted a tail-dragger or an open cockpit aircraft. But those shortfalls in my experience and licensing could be rectified with a few lessons.

This would be fun!

It’s truly astonishing how big these jets are.

Coming out of LAX, even at over 10,000 feet and almost 300 knots, it looks freakishly large. Yet it just seems to float there, as Douglas Adams said, the same way bricks don’t.

Airbus 380. Impressive.

Looking for clouds?

Null return – clear and a million conditions observed.

Except for that one teeny, tiny, almost microscopic-looking glint of sunlight off of aluminum that’s Alaska Sky West flight #3474 from LAX to Fresno, passing by at 328 knots and 11,835 feet.