Crazy month and another friend gone west...

The past several weeks have been hectic, to say the least! Between my violin recital, a trip to Utah to run my first half marathon, and working full schedules at both jobs, I've been going nonstop. I'll have some pictures from my trip up soon...the scenery was fantastic!

Right in the middle of everything I unfortunately had to go to a memorial service for a friend...the chief CFI at the flight school where I teach was in a fatal plane crash on Memorial Day. He had been giving a flight review in a Bonanza in our practice area when (at least from what I've heard so far) they climbed into a Piper Cherokee. The Bonanza was likely in the Piper's blind spot, and depending on the angle, the Bonanza may not have been able to see the Piper either, so it was a terribly unfortunate case of wrong place, wrong time. I saw the article that afternoon on CNN and was surprised to see that it happened so close (it was only a few miles from my house). I immediately checked the flight school schedule and it looked like all of our planes were safe, and as more details came out I figured it probably wasn't anyone I knew. I got the call early the next morning from the owner of the flight school.

I'll admit, it threw me for a bit of a loop. The instructor was one of the most enthusiastic, safety-conscious people I've met in a long time and truly enjoyed aviation, so it was hard to wrap my head around what happened. The first few days back at the airport were tough; his car was still there, his things were still in his office, and it just didn't seem real. Things are slowly getting back to normal, and I breathed a nice sigh of relief when I landed safely the other day after giving my first flight review to a pilot since the accident. I guess you never know when your time is up...the best thing you can do is enjoy life while you have the chance.