02.24.08

highs and lows

Posted in General at 8:35 pm

Well in the last 48 hours I’ve managed to go from 40 feet beneath the water (scuba diving) to 3000 feet above it (in a glider).

Flying sort of freaks me out. I’m generally pretty unflappable, but one of the few things that can cause me significant anxiety (and sometimes outright panic, more on that later), it’s flying.

Anyway, a friend of mine flies gliders and took me up twice today. I found two little handholds on the console in front of me that I could hold onto for dear life (not unlike the “Jesus Bar” on the passenger side of Volkswagen Bugs). I got to fly a tiny little bit. On the second flight my friend did a little bit of “maneuvering”, one of which involved putting us in near zero-g for a moment. I thought I was going to die. I mean, I don’t usually panic, but I was pretty well paralyzed for a moment.

Anyway, it was a new experience. I don’t think I’d ever flown before except in commercial airlines.

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