It all started with a Facebook post that I had been given a ride in a Super Petrel and had videotaped the take-off from Chestermere Lake. A take-off from Chestermere is no big whoop in January, but this was in the middle of summer, when water-skiers and wakeboarders fill the waters to near capacity. Troy had made a comment that I have a gift for getting rides in airplanes. He asked how many I had been in, and I started making a list of all the planes that I have had the controls of.

We travel a fair amount, and there have been many a morning when there is no one ready to go and I have been up since 6:00 with nothing to do until the world starts to wake up. So, I call flight schools and ask about some last-minute cancellations and availability. Not always, but often there is room for someone to go for a ride who is willing to pay. I find that flying with the locals affords me the ability to see sights not found on the flyers that plaster the coffee table in many a hotel room.

There are the standard 150s, 172s, 182s, Pipers, Citabrias, Aeroncas, along with ultralights galore, Rans, Hiperlights, and many other no-name bastards. I see brand-new glass cockpits and instruments that are older than myself. I’ve flown with young girls with instructor ratings, and I have flown with an old Fokker as well.

So as I reminisce about all this adventure, I have decided to make a relative Bucket List of what I want to accomplish by a given time. The count as of September 2009 is 30 different types. Not 30 different airplanes, but types. I found that 58 airplane call signs have shown up in my log books. With that in mind, I have agreed to pursue 50 types by age 50. That gives me two and a half years to find twenty airplanes that I have not flown.

When you see me looking over the machines and asking leading questions in this area and abroad, it really means that I am still just as anxious as the young boy who stared through the chain-link fence at the Lethbridge airport. Examining machines that let our dreams run wild and our hearts beat faster. I’ll put my pride aside to enjoy a different flavor than what I already know. How long have you had it? How fast does it cruise at? What’s the stall speed? And most importantly… How many seats?

Wishing you tailwinds and no bumps.