Blood Moon

Last night I was in the air during a total lunar eclipse / "super" moon combination. This particular event is called a blood moon. It looked about like this picture from 5500 feet and 3500 feet over the San Francisco Bay Area. It was a beautiful night and a smooth flight with appreciative passengers. Even my hyper critical self had to admit I flew well, especially on the return flight and landing at night. I could hardly ask for more!

Oddly enough, when I saw the moon as I flew I was impressed with the color but I forgot the color was due to the eclipse. I thought, as I flew along, the color was due to smoke or thin clouds obscuring the moon. I was a bit disappointed that we weren't seeing the moon unobscured. It was cool, but not what I was expecting. I thought the eclipse would be more "impressive" for some reason. It wasn't until we were over SJC airport approaching Reid-Hillview to land and a sliver of brilliant, almost blinding,  silver started to peak around the edges of the dull red that I realized what I looking at but not seeing and how special it really was.

It occurs to me now my experience of this moon could be an analogy of my experience of myself, my own flight training. Looking but not seeing and appreciating the beauty of what I'm seeing. Not until it is almost done.

My last flight lesson was the first in a very long time that I didn't leave feeling about 2 inches tall. There's a reason for that. I was not because I was perfect in the air. I was good, but not perfect. It was because I was practicing self critique during that lesson with my CFI's help. Critiquing every maneuver I flew - what worked, what didn't work and what I would do different to further improve. Every critique had to start with what worked first. Every single one. 

In truth it was hard to do. Hard for me to pull my mind away from the result and what could be improved to what was done that worked. It's hard to explain and it will take practice but the emotional result was amazing. I left the lesson feeling good, feeling good about myself, about my progress, about my future. What a wonderful change!

I need to practice seeing the good, seeing what works. It's not easy, especially for me. However, it is a skill I need to develop in order to progress in this journey. It's a skill I need to practice when critiquing my future students. Even the FAA says the #1 duty of the flight instructor is to focus on the positive. If the FAA says so I guess I gotta do it!  *grin*