Becky, something does say "Goldfinch" about that cutie and I will be watching for an ID on that one.
J, my husband has been teaching in the Aviation field for 40 years and I'm still a tad bit leery of small planes. The first time I ever got in an airplane was at the age of 22, when we lived in St. Petersburg, Fl. My husbands uncle was a pilot and had his own plane and took us up one time and I LOVED it! My second experience wasn't so fun! My husband worked as an aircraft mechanic at a small airport in St. Pete and we were at the airport one weekend and a guy he knew (he worked on this man's plane) came in and said he was taking his plane out for a spin and asked if we'd like to go. My husband told him that I'd only been up once and loved it so he knew that I'd love to go! Well ... let me tell you, I was never so scared in my life! I was in the back seat but that guy went out over the Gulf of Mexico and was doing all sorts of twists and turns and dives ... my husband told him he thought it was probably scaring me since it was only the second time I'd been in the air. The pilot looked back and said "You okay back there?" I was so quiet and shy back in those days and I just said "Yeah, I'm okay" but I think I kissed the ground when we finally landed and it was a very long time before I got on a plane again.
Nowadays, flying is the only way I want to travel and although I've been on some smaller regional jets for short flights, I do prefer the larger planes. Another scary flying experience for me was when were on vacation in the Smokey Mountains one year and on a whim decided to take a helicopter tour ... something I'll never forget. My husband put the camera around my neck and had me get in the front seat with the pilot and he sat in back with three other tourists. Well ... talk about scared silly!!! The entire front of the helicopter was all glass winshield and when we took off, it looked as if we were flying right into the side of the mountain ahead!! I wanted to brace myself and began to push my feet forward when I saw a sign on the floor that read: "DO NOT PLACE FEET HERE" or something of that sort ... apparently it was a foot lever or something to steer the aircraft! I mean to tell you, it was scary! I tried holding on to the edges of that tiny seat because I was so scared and needless to say I never got one picture; the camera remained hanging around my neck until we landed! One of these days I hope to be able to fly in a seaplane but no more real small planes or helicopters for this old gal.
