AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 33

flights like this, with a time limit and an
expectation from others (my boss, the association,
the public), the mental game is the
hardest part. For the airplane to make it to
the show, we needed to make it by Sunday.
With all these factors in mind, we met up
in Arizona the Tuesday before AirVenture
with plans to depart Wednesday morning.
We did not depart Wednesday mornjob;
I'm the CFI, I'm the PIC. This delay
felt like failure. But, as Hirschman pointed
out, and what I also already knew, is that
this is just GA.
With the airplane fixed just a couple
ing. A few small squawks plus the intense
Arizona heat and building storms near
Albuquerque meant it made more sense
to try the following day. Thankfully, on
Thursday everything aligned, and we set
off bright and early for New Mexico.
The airplane performed admirably
the entire trip, except for when it threw
an alternator belt about an hour and a
half from Oshkosh near Waterloo, Iowa.
Waterloo was an easy diversion-we didn't
even have to backtrack. The fancy Garmin
moving map made it easy to find a field
with maintenance, too.
While I am once a CFI, always a CFI,
there were times on this trip where the
two of us had to lean on each other. The
key to a trip like this is not to avoid those
high-stress moments-it's to make sure you
don't have them at the same time. For me,
the next couple of hours were by far the
hardest of the trip. Once on the ground, I
began to mentally catastrophize the situation.
This unplanned stop could throw off
the entire show. I called colleagues Dave
Hirschman and Dave Roy for maintenance
advice while discussing, palms sweating, if
I should prepare to fly the Nordo approach
into OSH (they both said no), and feeling
literally sick with the possibility that after
all that flying, and all that work, all the
hours that went into the resto-mod by a
team of enthusiastic vendors, the airplane
not might make it to the show. This was my
hours later, we set off for OSH. During the
Fisk arrival, I was the pilot flying and Niki
the pilot monitoring, which was a good
division of work. It was a surprisingly
straightforward event. I'd been expecting
the kind of horror stories you hear about-
getting sent back, the approach starting at
Endeavor Bridge, holds, go-arounds, chaos.
But it was simple, and we had great timing,
getting a few airplanes ahead of a big flight
of seven, plus having the north/south runways
switch direction.
From a personal and professional perThere
were times on this trip
where the two of us had to
lean on each other.
spective, the trip was a success. We made
it there on time with no serious issues. And
from a CFI's perspective, I'm so proud of
Niki for branching well outside her comfort
zone and completing what would be
a challenging trip for anyone. We earn
our pilot certificate and we're allowed to
fly anywhere in the United States, but so
many people don't. I hope this adventure
has broadened her horizons-and inspired
you to broaden yours-and I hope she feels
more confident than she did before the
trip. Like everyone who goes to OSH, I feel
a renewed love of aviation, and can't wait
to show this airplane off in the months to
come. alicia.herron@aopa.org
AOPA PILOT / October 2024
33
TOP AND BOTTOM LEFT: ALICIA HERRON; FAR RIGHT: NIKI BRITTON

AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024

Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover4
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover1
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover2
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Contents
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - 2
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover3
AOPA Pilot Magazine - October 2024 - Cover4
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