Here are my indications that flying season is once again upon us. We just finished our taxes, the Crocuses are blooming, and most importantly, as I write this, pitchers and catchers are a mere 14 hours from reporting to camp.
I love my wife, and I love baseball. I'm also very fortunate that my wife loves baseball. What does baseball have to do with flying you ask? Well I can get all metaphorical with you and we can compare the years of training, the quest to ever improve our "game", and even compare our pre-flight briefing with scouting reports. I sometimes reflect on the "big league" of both worlds. By the way, contract negotiations, uniforms, and schedules, are definitely not what I love about either baseball or flying. I rather fancy minor league baseball. The kids that still love the game, and have dreams of the World Series. The same kind of kids that earn their hours as CFI's or ferry pilots, and dream of flying the heavy iron. I guess that's why I still get a kick out of seeing someone, regardless of age, (because dreams don't have age limits) hit their first home run, solo for the first time, or get their pilot's license.
Back to flying; Here's my plan, and suggestion for this spring and summer. I love the Cardinals, but let's face it, it's a lot of hassle just to spend $100 to sit in the nose bleed, and buy $5 hot dogs and $7 beer. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/info/geographical.jsp This link list minor leauge teams geographically. Go to the team sites, and they list their schedule. For instance, we can fly 2 hours to watch the Springfield Cardinals play. Less than that to take in a Peoria Chiefs game. And when we fly to Atlanta, to visit my brother and his family, guess what is right on the way. Yep, the Rome Braves. What we're saving on gas, will pay for the tickets, and peanuts. Every minor league team's town we fly into, has a small airport, most with a courtesy car, and is more than willing to give you the lowdown on the local team. Go ahead, sit in the box seats, and you're probably watching the game with the players parents, or the families they are staying with. Just imagine you'll be able to tell all your friends stuck in the big league stadiums, that you saw the next "Albert Pujols", or "Tom Glavine" before they made the show.
Give me a call; I'll set you up with the schedule, and a Major League new Remos GX to make that dream a big league reality.
By the way, this is Ben, son of one of our customers on his recent solo flight. Isn't that cool!!!
2 comments:
Jack,
You hit one over the wall...It is great to see people continue to reach for their dreams.
I just got down from checking a customer out in the Remos. I had a crowd forming around the airplane(there is a very large flight school at our field), and even asking if they could sit inside. Once there, the students were amazed at the room, instrumention and quality of construction. When they compared it to their flight school livery, they were all saying "what a deal, it is sooo worth it". These were guys and gals that are striving for that job flying "heavy iron", but are having a blast where they are now.
Let's not get so caught up in the quest, that we forget to have fun along the way!
Dave
Jack,
Great blog. Even though I haven't finished, or started, my taxes the realization that spring training has started, gives me hope that this winter is almost over. The days are getting longer and daylight savings time is a mere 3 weeks away. Great idea on the minor league teams.
John
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