In the Clouds

Landon has been working on his instrument rating this past month. You may be wondering, what on earth is an instrument rating?

Well, I don't know much about it but pretty much it will certify Landon to fly even if it is completely cloudy and he can't see a thing. It's pretty legit.

Pretty much there are these little thingy majigs in the airplane called instruments that Landon uses to tell him his heading, if the plane is turning, etc. (so technical, I know. Honestly, I have NO idea what I'm talking about haha). ANYWAY, so Landon calls up ATC (the same place that directs the pilots flying your Detla/Southwest/Jetblue/ETC. airplne...I told ya, this is pretty legit stuff) and they say things like "Seven four niner niner Charlie (the name of the plane is 7499C) climb and maintain altitude 6,000 and report when stable then maintain heading of 20.8" whatever the heck that means...

me chilling in the back

Landon and is instructor Corinne up front

It was actually an EERIE feeling flying through the clouds. I've never done it before and it kinda creeped me out... I just had to trust Landon, his instructor, and the ATC people because they obviously knew what they were doing...

the only thing you can see is WHITE (and gray I guess)

When we popped out of the clouds it was a beautiful sunny day and I loved the contrast of the blue sky with the blanket of white.

We popped out of the clouds at Astoria for a "missed approach" (simulating what it would be like if the clouds were too low to see the runway at a certain altitude) and flew over the ocean. It was GORGEOUS.

I love flying in Oregon & Washington because the views are unreal!

When you get above the clouds you can see the tips of all the volcanoes. This is Mt. Ranier. SO pretty!!!

It's pretty unbelievable that we can start in Hillsboro, go through some clouds, pop out of the clouds, and land over 150 miles away... without being able to see a thing!

I must admit that it's pretty amazing to see Landon doing it all! He's just so passionate about it and I absolutely LOVE seeing him in his element. He's my pilot...

...and a DANG cute one!