Living our lives means that at times, your life can be moving along great, then all the sudden it gets jacked up.  In this podcast episode, Jon talks about a recent vacation trip in his Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft to Monterrey, California.   The vacation was awesome!  The trip from Phoenix to Monterrey was smooth and the vacation in Monterrey was fantastic.   As a pilot and traveling with his aircraft, Jon checks the weather several times per day to see how it is looking for the day of departure.   While checking the weather throughout the vacation, Jon could see that there was a Low Front coming through.  The good news is that there was going to be a significant tail wind.  The bad news is what kind of weather might lie ahead.
On the day of departure, the skies were partly cloudy in Monterrey.   The tailwinds were forecasted at 25 to 38 knots.   That is significant as it took 3 hours and 30 minutes to get to Monterrey.  Going back to Phoenix with these tailwinds means it will take about 2 hours and 40 minutes.   So once Jon got up to altitude (11,500 feet), the tailwinds were great.  He normally cruises in the Bonanza at 190 miles per hour.  On this trip home to Phoenix he averaged 230 miles per hour.   However, as he was approaching Phoenix, the reporting weather there showed clouds, blowing dust and about 5 miles visibility.  As Jon got closer to Phoenix, he could see that the weather was deteriorating since the last automatic weather report.   As he got about 10 miles from his home airport, he could see that the visibility was going from five down to one mile visibility quickly.   He had to make the choice to either turn around or press on through to the airport.   With his experience, he chose to press on through even though it was getting less and less visibility.   All the while, maintaining a calm demeanor to ensure safety of flight was met.
Jon landed safely at his home airport, but there was some good reflection of the day afterwards.   That in our lives we could be having a great time.  No problems and the future looks fantastic.   What we can see is that everything down the road (so to speak) will be all right.   Then, some unforeseen “thing” comes along and jacks up the great time you are having.   The truth is that only life experience can get you through that moment calmly.   Jon’s main point of this podcast is that you have to take each one of these jacked up moments in stride.  Like it is a form of college education that you will learn from and move on.
When some things happen in people’s lives that jack up their plans, the point is to never give up.   Even if you are hanging on the edge of a cliff by your fingernails, you just don’t give up.   Fear of what will happen next to you can grip you so you are not effective in life.  But don’t give into the fear and as we say in aviation, keep flying the aircraft all the way to touchdown.   Don’t give into the fear or give into what your surroundings tell you as something bad.   Gain from your experiences and use it to make your life better in the future.