Flight Exam

Yesterday I had my first encounter with dawn in many months.  Normally, now we are semi-retired, I like to let others get up to greet the morning before I sneak a peek out the window, but yesterday required lots of early action.  I had scheduled my flight physical for 8 am.  It was about an hour to the clinic and I wasn’t sure how to get there so I decided to leave early.  I had set an alarm (I had to read the instructions to do so), but I was wide-awake almost an hour before it was set to go off so I just decided to get up and out.

The night before I had shaved and showered and placed all my clothes and toothbrush outside the bedroom so I was ready for a quick and quiet departure.  Cindy woke up despite my silence so I just said goodbye and told her to get back to sleep.  By 6:45 I was in the car and heading to Winchester, VA and was shocked, simply shocked at the traffic. Seems there are a lot of people who work during the week and who start quite early!

I got to the doctor’s office at 7:25 and as luck would have it, the office abuts a lovely set of trails in a grand park.  I took a nice thirty-minute walk while it was still cool, and was all set for the series of tests that are part of a flight physical.  As you might suspect, the FAA is rather concerned that you have decent eyesight, hearing and reflexes, not to mention a beating heart.  I was the only person in the waiting room so I didn’t have long to wait. Most of the tedious parts of filling out personal health information is now done ahead of time on the computer, which saves lots of time and hassle.  For the next thirty minutes I had my color vision tested, my vision, near and far, with and without glasses, examined, my weight and height recorded and my reflexes challenged.   All seem to be in excellent working order. Then it was time to see the doctor, what a trip. This guy has only been a passenger in an airplane and knows nothing about flying.  He couldn’t tell you the difference between an artificial horizon and a turn indicator.  Somehow I had just assumed that anyone who was licensed to give FAA exams would have been a pilot. He wasn’t even familiar with the requirements - he thought I needed to have an EKG - or with the forms, and several times asked me where he was supposed to sign.  He is an eye, ear, nose and throat guy so those bits of my anatomy were tested rather well.  He checked to see if I had a pulse, looked for my heart, and had me breathe a bit to check if my lungs were both working.  Finally, after an exhaustive six minutes of examination, he said everything was fine.  For this I paid one hundred dollars in cash, no checks or credit cards accepted. What a racket!

Armed with my new two-year medical certificate I headed to the Winchester airport where I had reserved a Cessna 172p; the p stands for power!  As soon as I had finished my pre-flight check I called Cindy to tell her to look for me in forty minutes.  I got there early but she heard me and came racing out into the backyard waving a towel and I returned her wave with my wings.  I flew over to see the progress on the new road that will connect us with Virginia and will take ten minutes and many curves and hills out of the ride to Dulles. The road seems to be almost ready, except for the bridge over the Shenandoah.  There was a lot of activity and with luck it will open in four or five months. As a result of all of this heat, it was a very hazy day and rather bumpy, which made the flight not as much fun as usual, so I just headed back to the airport.

I did a little Costco shopping for basics and of course some wine and a roasted chicken.  Gas only costs $3.14 at Costco, which is thirty -five cents cheaper per gallon than the cheapest gas here in Charles Town.   By the time I got back at about noon, I was whipped and just had enough energy to eat and take a nap!  No more early mornings for this camper.  Ciao, Wm