He asked me to define my point of no return…

John and I met for a ground lesson on Tuesday where we planned, in detail, the D.C. to Paris trip, looking at routes, fuel, cost, altitude, and dates. At a sunny table at the Starbucks at R.E.I. downtown, we took both launched Foreflight on our iPads and started inputting airport identifiers.

Here is the planned itinerary: 

Washington, D.C

Halifax, Nova Scotia

Gander, Newfoundland

Narsarsuaq, Greenland

Reykjavik, Iceland

Faroe Islands

Edinburgh, Scotland

Paris, France

We will fly approximately 7,800 nautical miles round trip, which is about 50 hours of flight and a whole lot of fuel…

Once we planned the route, John said something I never thought I would hear him say.

“You need to plan your points of no return”

“Excuse me?”

What the heck was he talking about? When it comes to commitment about flying, I am pretty confident that this will be a part of everything I do, from here on out. Was he challenging my commitment to these flights? I gave him an incredibly quizzical look and thought he was joking. As a fairly new pilot, I had never heard such a dramatic request. Little did I know, John was being serious. When crossing oceans, there is a calculated plan as to how far you can travel over water, taking into consideration fuel requirements, mandatory fuel reserves, diversion for weather and emergencies. Once you cross your point of no return, you are forced to forge ahead to your original destination, even if there are complications. He wanted to plan the point in our routes at which we could no longer safely turn back to dry land.

This really got me thinking.

At what moment had I crossed my point of no return in my commitment to flying and adventure? Looking back, is at this point, a non-issue. How could I possibly return to a life without flight? If my daily life were a flight plan, I would be surrounded by ocean, with no plans to divert to a more conventional existence.

Trying to pinpoint the exact moment when I decided that my days would be motivated by a love for aviation and adventure would be impossible, but I can narrow it down to a week where I was absolutely lit up about life. It was an experience that happened right here on the blog… in a vulnerable moment of excitement, dream-filled ambition and partial lunacy, I told the world right here on the blog that I wanted to re-trace Amelia’s North American route in the Cirrus. Stating out loud that you are going to do something usually puts a little ooooomph behind your intentions, at least in my experience.

Since that post, I’ve had plenty of daily doubts about whether I am smart enough, strong enough, etc. to accomplish all my flight goals, but overall, I have generally stayed on course towards an adventurous attitude all leading toward a flight around the world. How would it feel if I suddenly woke one day, gave it all up, and went back to a life of non adventurous boredom? If I gave up wanting to challenge my boundaries, see this gorgeous world that we live in, and stayed safe and grounded all the time? It just wouldn’t be me.

This is the definition of my point of no return: I am now past settling for a life of ordinary routine and I understand that I am capable and deserving of a rockin’ life of adventure and passion.

If you are feeling bold, ask yourself this…

Is there something you love so much in your life, that if you were to pull away from it, you would feel empty, lost, without direction and lackluster?

Whatever that thing is, chase it. Live with it. Let it excite you. Dance with its potential. Drink it in. Let it exude from your smile. Don’t be scared by the unknown in regard to what makes you thrive. Fall in love with feeling this great and do it as much as you possibly can. Encourage others to do the same.

If you connect with this, you are absolutely, 100%, past your point of no return. You are in it for the long haul. Consider yourself lucky… lots of folks can’t even figure out what they are passionate about, let alone something they can’t imagine their life without.

If you are nowhere close to feeling like you are past a point of no return, don’t worry. It will hit you when you least expect it, but don’t be fooled. You have to work for it, look for it, under every rock and behind every door. You must be curious, inquisitive, loving and eager. Everyday.

Want to hear from a couple of folks who agree? I sure do.

If you make the unconditional commitment to reach your most important goals, if the strength of your decision is sufficient, you will find the way and the power to achieve your goals. Robert Conklin

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” Walden, Henry David Thoreau

A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Congrats to our N Flight Cam winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered to win the N Flight Cam! Mitch Ellis is the winner this time, but stick around because we are going to give another away soon! You all have made this blog a fun, inspiring place to talk aviation and it’s about to get much more exciting! We are beginning to plan the the transatlantic flight and it feels good to get started. Anyone know which airport is in the photo? It’s one of our stops along the route!

Here’s a great quote from Emerson to start your day off right…

“Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.What if they are a little course, and you may get your coat soiled or torn? What if you do fail, and get fairly rolled in the dirt once or twice. Up again, you shall never be so afraid of a tumble.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

This is the last day for the N Flight Cam give away!

Read the post below for all the details! Good luck!

Capturing your adventures… Win an N Flight Cam from our trip!

Good morning! We had amazing success capturing the transcontinental flight with our N Flight Cams on board the Cirrus SR22. We mounted them on wing tips, the vertical stabilizer, the dash, the ceiling, the belly of the plane, the fuselage, and the landing gear. We even flew through clouds and precipitation… the adhesive worked like a charm. In fact, it’s been tested at over 300 knots!

Want one of your own? We are giving away one of the N Flight Cams from the trip across the US! Here’s what ya gotta do… start clickin’!

1. Like the N Flight Cam Facebook Page

2. Follow N Flight Cam on Twitter

3. Let us know that you did both in the comment box below and we will draw a name in one week (on my birthday!!!) on January 18th!

If you do all three things, your name will be entered three times. Do just one, one time. You follow?

Good luck!

Once you have tasted flight… A challenge and an offer

My ultimate goal with all this flying, writing and excitement for aviation is to encourage others to feel the same happiness I feel when I am in the air. Yes, there is a selfish sense of escape, freedom, control, power and romance that I am overcome with, but when I land I want to shout out from the roof… I mean hangar-tops that, ”I hope anyone who is capable of enjoying this as much as I do gets the chance to feel this excitement!”

So I ask myself, all the time… How can I help make this possible for more people. How can I get someone, who has never even sat in a small airplane, in touch with an undeveloped but potentially life changing experience? We must make that initial contact with the airplane possible. We must get kids who want to fly, up in the air. It was Leonardo DaVinci who said, “For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return”.

My friend Greg Anderson, the president and CEO at Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, is very active with the EAA’s Young Eagles program (www.youngeagles.org). This is an organization that gets kids, ages 8-17 the opportunity to go flying in a general aviation airplane. The flights are free to the kids and generously donated by EAA volunteers. Since 1992, more than 1.6 million Young Eagles have experienced flight through the program.

I have decided to become a Young Eagles volunteer… and I want you to do it with me. I would like to issue a challenge to all the pilots reading this blog, to join me in extending a flight to a future pilot.

You must be current, have your medical, and have at least your sport pilot’s license.

Not a pilot? Tell a child or the parent of a child who would be excited or motivated by a flight in an airplane to contact me and I can help them get started. 

This amazing organization has done wonders and I think it would be great if we could all chip in towards the amazing goals they are working toward.

Imagine yourself at that age, maybe 14 years old… searching for what makes your heart soar. If you were given a gift like this, where would you be today? What special place would you hold in your heart for the person that took you flying for the first time?

Let me know if you are in.

P.S. If you are an adult and YOU want to get involved in aviation, let me know! Let’s go out to the airport… let’s look at planes… let’s talk about what it is going to take to get you up in the air. I promise you… IT IS POSSIBLE.

A post-flight fight with my limitations. Guess who is going to win.

“It takes courage…to endure the sharp pains of self discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.” 
― Marianne Williamson

After having such a wholly enjoyable flight over the last two weeks, I needed a bit of time to fully acknowledge how I felt about the trip itself. I hesitated to, upon landing, rush to crack open the laptop and start spilling my feelings. (If I wrote right after landing, trust me it would have been all roses and unicorns… sometimes a moment of reflection in the face of reality is more sustainable) I wanted to allow the photographs, feelings, ideas and memories to simmer for a bit before throwing it all out here. It is now Friday, Jan 6th and it is time to write (again. you will see what I mean in a moment)

What I ventured to create when I embarked upon my flight training was an environment of betterment and continually refreshed optimism, in the form of self-improvement. I knew that it was not something I had to do by enforcement of another’s opinion, but rather something that I HAD to do because I was simply happy when I was in the air. What I ended up with at the end is a full-blown, nerve-inducing, how-the-hell-am-I-going-to-pull-this-off kind of CALLING. Since the trip, I can’t seem to sleep, I can’t seem to focus, I am all over the place and people have started to notice. Uh-oh.

“Always seek less turbulent skies. 
Hurt. Fly above it. 
Betrayal. Fly above it. 
Anger. Fly above it. 
You are the one who is flying the plane.” 
― Marianne Williamson

You would think after a trip this amazing, that I would be on top of the world. Here’s the problem… I WAS on top of the world. I tasted greatness in the form of what it feels like to be the most amazing version of myself. Focused, driven, on a mission. Returning to daily life, which cannot always be filled with airplanes, blue skies and tailwinds means that you have to figure out how to translate the feelings of your top-of-the-world moments into your daily life and let them carry you between the high points. Think of it like a zip line between the really exciting “point of interest” moments. 

I have tried to write this blog about eight times now. I seem to have the opposite of writer’s block, where every time I start writing, I go in about 132 different directions. It seems to be some sort of writer’s Niagra Falls and I am the lady going over the edge in a barrel. I tell myself, “Hey Amelia… take your own advice and start rockin’ it. You look pretty pathetic sitting on your kitchen counter, next to countless journals and the computer in your pajamas eating spoonfuls of Nutella”. Because in the beginning I said that this blog would be a fully transparent look at my experiences, I feel like it is okay to admit that I am a little overwhelmed with the possibility and potential of setting and creating a new goal. Of course, the flying will continue, the trips will be made, but how to I take this to the next level of awesome, which is what I tasted when I was in the midst of the transcontinental flight.

I have ideas to get people excited about aviation, I want to help people who can’t afford to pay for flight training, I want to talk to kids about airplanes and how they can be a part of this amazingly joyful world, I want to fly around the world, I want to do it all… and as for right now, it is keeping me from doing much of anything above and beyond my day-to-day, which is exactly what I have been preaching about this whole time!

Don’t get me wrong, I know that my flight was not record or ground breaking. It was simply a way for me to get real life experience in the airplane while doing something that felt exceptional to me. I felt joy, amazement, beauty, power, freedom, intelligence, and respect for what I had created and that, my friend, is pretty damn exceptional! We all deserve to feel that way, as often as possible. It is not selfish, petty, or indulgent. It is what our deepest selves strive for and it feels really good.

When I get to points like this, I ask myself to define the fear that has me in a holding pattern around this situation.

What I realized is that it takes a hell of a lot of energy and gusto to be a passionate person. It can’t be forced and it doesn’t come in the form of a pill or an energy drink. It takes that inner calling and drive to get closer to a life where you have the natural bounce in your step just because you are doing that thing you love. Where is all this confusion, unsettled energy, antsy-ness coming from? My own fear.

My fear is this: there is nothing stopping me from doing these things except my own, self-imposed limitations.

Ding ding ding! **epiphany** Ok, here we go…

It is time to look my self-imposed limitations in the eye, clench my fist and punch them square in the face.

Gotta end it with the only quote that makes sense here:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.” 
― Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles”

Ditching the average life: Six ways to say yes to Adventure

“First, have a definite, clear practical ideal; a goal, an objective. Second, have the necessary means to achieve your ends; wisdom, money, materials, and methods. Third, adjust all your means to that end.” Aristotle

Tomorrow morning I am about to climb in an airplane and complete my goal: a transcontinental flight across the US in a single engine aircraft, following Amelia’s 1937 route. Two months ago, this goal seemed impossible, more of a dream than a plan. Much has been realized about goal setting and accomplishment in this time, and while I by no means have things figured out, I certainly feel like I have discovered some universal tools to success.

1) Do not be afraid to ask for help. If you are anything like me, asking for help seems a sign of weakness. That is not the case. Differing perspectives, new ideas, experience, advice, and a fresh look can make all the difference in the world. Also, when someone wants to help you for the right reasons, let them. It feels good to give gifts. Sometimes you will be the giver, but other times you will be the recipient.

2) Say your goals out loud. When you take the bold step to tell others what you are planning to do, your goals immediately come alive. From that point, details get filled in, dots get connected and accountability comes into play. In my case, I used this blog to put some real gumption behind my goals. Whether it is family, friends, social media, or a blog, just start saying it! For me, it felt great to catch people off guard. When someone says, “how are you” or “what’s new?”, REALLY tell them! I started saying, things like, “I am training for a cross-country flight” and guess what the response was… “Oh really? I know someone who you should talk to” or “how can I help”. You will be quite surprised to find how much people want to cheer you on and hope for the best. For those who don’t cheer you on, decide that you don’t have room for them in your life. As I have said before, there is room for everyone to be great.

3) Don’t set aside certain times to be the kind of person you strive to be. Be it ALL the time. While we all have roles we play in life, there is no excuse for only allowing yourself to be great when it fits into your schedule or when it convenient to how you feel. Feeling like your own role model is a full time job, but trust me, it pays very well. Off days are for lazy people. Take time to relax, of course… but relax in the mindset of someone who is living a rockin’ life, not like someone who is taking the easy road because it feels good to check out.

4) Cheer others on and make friends with your role models. When you see someone making a difference or excelling at something unique, tell them what you think. Tell them you are proud of what they have pulled off and that you look up to their qualities. In terms of role models, it feels great to be able to shoot an email off to someone who you look up to and actually get a response. Maybe it is a friend who is a smart entrepreneur or a successful athlete. Our role models don’t have to be world-famous or historic figures. Those kinds are excellent but we are all surrounded by a community of people who are one degree of separation away from us. When you meet someone who you look up to, don’t go home and sulk about how you have nothing going on in your own life, call them up, email, or inquire as to how they got where they are! Chances are, they will be willing to tell you a lot about how they got to their position. You are completely in control of who you bring into your circle of friends so you might as well choose some amazing people who inspire you to be great.

5) Stop multi-tasking. This one is simple. Stop trying to be 2 (or 346) places at one time. When you commit to getting something done, put your heart into it, be it dishes, flying, data entry, a conversation, or sleeping. Whatever it is, do it whole heartedly and with enthusiasm. Nothing is worse than talking to someone when they are texting or have their mind on the next thing they must do. Let’s start being genuinely interested in our lives and the people and things we choose to invite into them. It feels great to care.

6) Look each day in the eye. Just as you look your loved ones in the eye and listen to what they have to say, acknowledging them as unique and important, you should do the same thing to each day you are given. When you wake up in the morning, you MUST realize that you have just as many minutes and hours in the day as someone like Albert Einstein, Amelia Earhart or anyone you hold in high regard. Not having enough time to reach your goals is a choice, a decision that you make in terms of which items you deem important. What I like to do is get all the tough stuff out of the way early in the day. Work out, pay the bills, make the tough phone calls, get them done so that the rest of the day can be spent in goal oriented focus!

Maybe I am right, maybe I am wrong. These things have worked for me and I have a huge smile on my face a majority of the time.

What works for you?