Why the Government Isn't My Mom
I soloed for the second time today. I've only been in flight school for about a month and a half with about 17.5 hours of flight time before today. With such little training, I got handed the keys to the airplane and told to go ahead and fly out of the airspace of a major regional airport, do whatever I want, and come back in about an hour.
This made me realize how much the government tries to coddle American citizens, and especially how our culture tries to do that for children.
"Wear a helmet"
"Don't go too fast"
"Be gentle with him"
"Don't hurt his feelings"
"He didn't mean to do it so don't punish him"
"Raise the age for licenses"
"Raise the age for drinking/smoking"
"You can't talk on your cell phone while driving"
"He said he's sorry so give him a light sentence"
"Don't fight! Talk out your problems and share your feelings"
"It's not your fault or just bad luck. Sue the corporations/doctors/etc."
(I use the general masculine pronoun here - this applies to females too)
I felt like I've been coddled too much in my life - by my parents as a child, and now by the government. I don't think I'm unique, and I know my parents had very good intent (and all things considered, they did a really good job as parents). Regardless of parents, however, the role of government is not to protect us from all of life's problems.
The FAA is very regulated, yet it is one of the few government organizations that uses common sense and doesn't treat adults as children. You can fly even before you can drive (children become adults well before we treat them like they are). They don't coddle people. I learned that today as I tried to use a video camera while flying 600 feet over the coastline at 90 knots in a 45 degree bank. It was dangerous, fun, and legal, and I didn't need the government to protect me. They're not my parents and never will be, as much as they try.
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Our home can be found by drawing 2 straight lines tangent to the outside edges of the pilot window (the little one being held closed by that knob on the left), and going very slightly up and to the left from their intersection.
This was at about a 600' altitude. The picture doesn't do justice to how close that is... or at least how close it feels while trying to video tape and fly the airplane.
posted by Chris Hill @ 11/10/2006 02:34:00 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
You are funny, Hubby, and I am very proud of you! Next you should write a blog entry about how I'm not your mom either :)
Wow that looked like fun. Congratulations on finally getting to do what you have been working towards. You should have landed at Katie's beauty school and kidnapped her (BTW, is she still in school or is she done?) Also, it was inappropriate of you to cheat on Katie with your headset. It may be lonely way up in the air, but seriously...
I wasn't licking the mic, but you're right. We were crossing boundaries. I need to watch that.
Katie's still in school, but should be finishing up in the next week or so (depending on how anal they are - she's done with all her required services, but they still need to sign her off, so she still has some other high-school-esque projects to do). She has a job lined up already too, and should start doing hair stuff after Christmas.
I'm flying a boring little Tomahawk. That's not really what I wanted to do. But it's the first step in doing what I really want to do, which is fly fun airplanes. It's like wanting to be a race car driver, and being given a Geo Metro to learn on because you first need to learn to drive. It's fun because you're driving, but it's really kind of gay.
Nice pictures, Chris. Congratulations on an exciting step toward killing al qaeda. And congratulations for not letting a large organization act as a mother to you. Say it with ghetto sass: "I do what I want."
Aaa due whut ai wont.
Come on now Sam - that headset probably came on to him. I heard that one was a ho fo'sho!
Yeah, it kept saying sweet sounding headings and altitudes in my ears.
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