Flying the Friendly Skies

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So many of you know I am a big aviation junkie. I have been blessed to know Capt. Eric Richey as a friend and he has graciously helped one of my childhood dreams come true by bringing me up in the cockpit and allowing me to fly. Ever since I saw the movie Top Gun as a young boy I have always been fascinated with flying.

We FLEW up to Duluth this weekend for the 2010 Duluth Air Show featuring the United States Air Force Thunderbirds. It was such a GREAT show! Those pilots were so precise and perfect it is beyond amazement.

I have been up in the skies a few times and I practice flying on my PC. I have picked up some pilot knowledge from listening and practicing with Eric when we are up there. By no means am I close to being able to fly a plane solo, but I understand the basics of how everything works- from air traffic control clearances, to how to set up auto-pilot, etc. I am working towards my private license, but that has been placed on hold until after the World Race.

The thing I wanted to blog about today was the two different types of flights a pilot can fly. The first and most commonly used by private pilots is VFR (Visual Flight Rules). VFR flights are flights where you just use you sight and use your own visual senses to navigate around. You don’t need to let anyone know where you’re going and you just basically do whatever you want. You can just pull up your GPS and look on the map and fly where ever your heart wants to. VFR is mainly used when sky conditions are clear and not precipitation or clouds are a factor.

The other type of flight is IFR (Instrument Flight Rules). IFR is what is used on all the commercial flights and in flights where sky conditions are a factor-whether it be really cloudy or a storm is present. You just rely on your instruments to let you know how fast you’re going, how high you are, ect. IFR flights need to filed with the FAA. You need to let the FAA know where you’re starting from, where you’re going, how high you’re going, how fast you’re going, when you’re leaving, ect. That way they can let the local ATC (air traffic controllers) know what you’re up to when you enter their airspace so they can GUIDE you along to avoid other traffic and make sure you get to where you need to be safely. When you fly in clouds you cannot see A THING so therefore radio contact and ATC guidance is very important.

We knew there was a possibility of storms for the way home so we watched the weather carefully. Well, turns out there were widespread storms right in our path so we decided it would be safer to just stay in Duluth. Luckily we had a friend that lived up there and his brother was with us for the air show so it worked out quite well. We spent the night in Duluth and went down to Canal Park for dinner and drinks.

We got up the next morning and Eric checked the weather and the weather looked good. There was one exception-it was quite cloudy throughout. Eric is certified to fly IFR so he filed an IFR flight plan for us to get home so we could navigate through the clouds. We let the FAA know where we were, how high we want to go, how fast, where we’re going, and so on and so on. Once we were up in the clouds it was like total white out. We couldn’t see a thing and we only relied on Minneapolis Center Air Traffic Controllers to guide us through the clouds and keep us apart from any other aircraft.

Flying and IFR flight is totally like trusting God with everything in our lives. I was talking to my best friend Cassie (hey Arnie!) and I was letting her know when I was taking off and when I was going to land. I told her that we were flying IFR due to the clouds and I kind of explained to her what it was. During the flight I got a text from her saying “So I was thinking what IFR would be like…totally relying on instruments and radio not by what you see. Kind of like our relationship with God. We rely on the bible and God speaking into our lives when we can’t see what’s next. Walk by faith, not by sight.” Isn’t she a smart gal? J

She is exactly right. When things are bright and everything is going well we tend to just do whatever we want….just like a VFR flight and we sometimes drift away from God. We sometimes will tend to think that we can navigate our own lives. Sometimes God will make things cloudy and not so visible for us to let us know that hey, YOU still need ME to guide you through life. Therefore we must pray to let him know what we want therefore he can guide through the clouds and make sure we get where we need to be.

The World Race is going to be cloudy. There are going to be storms and heavy downpours, but I know God will by my “Life Traffic Controller” and help guide me to where I need to be. There’s going to be times where it’ll be so unbearably hot and I just want to go home. There will be food that I will not enjoy (hard to believe huh?) and plenty of other things outside of my comfort zone. I trust in God to help me get through those things and all other things that will come in my way of staying on God’s path.

God will guide us ALL through life. We thank Him for the bright sunny days that He blesses us with so that we can go do whatever we want. He humbles us and brings us closer to Him by making things “cloudy” or “stormy” in our lives. We need to lay out what our intentions are so that He can lay out a safe path for us to follow. J  God is the ultimate “Life Traffic Controller”

Thanks for reading!

 “Ladies and gentlemen please do not unbuckle your seat belts until the pilot has turned off the fasten seat belt sign” “DING!”