Bama Goes Bye-Bye

With the slice of a scalpel my immediate plans to visit Greg Koontz went POOF! Greg had surgery on his foot. The procedure looks like it went well but it looks like the recovery will take longer than expected. You have to learn to walk before you can…fly.

So now what? A large part of my year was hinging on getting instruction time logged in the Decathlon. The stipulation was that I get a blessing from Koontz to do that. With Greg spending more time in a wheelchair than in an airplane I had to regroup. I have always known a tailwheel Jedi. Paul Santopietro gave me my tailwheel endorsement in 2007 and he still ranks as the best instructor I have ever flown with.

I called Paul last night and gave him my sob story. He spends his winters in Florida flying Stearman, King Airs and whatever else has wings that gets thrown at him. Lucky for me he will be back up this way within a few weeks. I’ll be spending time in the backseat learning the nuts and bolts of teaching tailwheel flying. I know how to fly a tailwheel but teaching is another matter.

Straight from Paul: Teaching is all about knowing where the limit is and being able to stand at that edge and let your student get right up to it, knowing when to push them back. I have to find out where that edge is. I still plan on getting down to Bama sooner than later. I got an A in the "Uses Time Wisely" category on my elementary school report cards.

In other news I started P90X again. Let me be clear: this has nothing to do with the new year or resolutions or any of that guff. I did the workout last year and dropped 30 lbs. I was in the best shape of my life. I managed to keep the weight off by maintaining a healthy diet but 1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb of fat. I’ve started to feel a bit like a blob. To combat that and ratchet up this whole dedication thing it is back to 1 to 2 hours of work out time per day. Chest and back, cardio, arms and shoulders, and then YOGA. Those of you that have done this workout know that the yoga routine is the toughest one of them all.