One Way to Ring in the New Year

I celebrated the New Year in a most satisfying fashion: with my first private pilot students. I wish I had some exciting tales to tell of hanging from a balcony on Bourbon Street with various parts of strange women's anatomy pressed against me, but I'm older and wiser now (plus I did that once, and if I ever find that video tape it gets burned immediately...but I digress).

The actual New Year's eve was spent with family and friends in a condo at what we refer to as a "ski resort" here on the east coast. It was a great four day weekend, and I was almost a complete vegetable when it was over, which was the primary goal in addition to teaching our 4.5 year old how to ski, which I think we agreed was a total failure.

Anyway, with the holidays firmly behind us, I set out with my first two students, with one flight on Saturday and two on Sunday. The Saturday flight went well, aside from the fact that it took me twice as long to do things as it should have. I chalked that up to first time inefficiencies, which should be worked out with time. Fast forward to Sunday morning towards the tail end of the training flight. I had the plane because there was a bit of a gusty crosswind and it was her very first lesson, so she was following me on the controls. Just as we add landing flaps at the key position (in a Diamond) she says "what happens if I get sick?"

I tell her that I've got it from there and to just relax and focus her attention outside the plane. On base she says "I really think I'm going to be sick". As we roll onto final she says "I'm not gonna make it" I furiously dig for the sick sack and hand it to her, and just as I grease the mains on, she utilizes the sick sack. The Diamond has a bubble-type canopy, and when it is already warm out and the sun is beating down on you, it can get quite hot inside. I think that was a part of it, coupled with the timing of me taking the controls, which left her brain with little to do, other than inform her stomach that it was queasy.

Oh well, she says she'll come back, time will tell.