The New Flight School Flying, Chapter 4 All rights reserved to author. Permission granted to freely copy.
The next day started out like most others at the lodge, with a beautiful sunrise, everyone down taking an early morning dip in the lake, and a great breakfast. The three of us talked about how the other two were making out in the wilderness. I wondered if they didn't mean MAKING OUT. I don't think any of us had any idea that they had not performed their exercises in every way possible.
We made no further mention of the hikers, and ate in silence, each with his own thoughts. I was sure having some thoughts about what had happened to me and what I observed the night before. Scott and Doug never let on that anything out of the ordinary had occurred. They all had a great night's sleep, all except me.
I couldn't get the past few days out of my head, wondering what had changed me so drastically.
We were doing "touch and goes" on our lake and a couple of other lakes nearby.
We practiced loading and unloading a canoe from the float struts. We loaded and unload cargo, each time learning new ways to secure the load. It was interesting but very hot work.
"Well Virg young fella, how have you been enjoying the course so far? Are you learning anything?" Scotty asked from the right seat. I was doing the flying.
"Scott, I have to tell you, young Virg here learns faster than anyone I ever seen. He sure knows the backwoods part of this business. He sure taught me a few things."
"Any part of the test you found difficult?" Scott interrupted Doug.
"I enjoyed it all and learned a few things about canoeing I had never known before," I replied, looking around at Doug sitting in the passenger seat.
"Yeah, I showed him a thing or two I don't think he knew before. I'm a firm believer, you can always learn from everyone," Doug replied chuckling.
"Okay Virg, seeing that Doug figures you know so much, what did you learn different about wilderness survival?" Scott asked. I grew red in the face and tried to shrug it off.
"Well, just camping with other guys and practicing the tests. You know, things like that," I replied, hoping it would satisfy Scott.
"Yeah, you even got cleaned out as a bonus, huh Virg," Scott joked.
"Yeah, I did. I hadn't expected that, but I guess it sure didn't do me any harm, in fact probably a lot of good," I replied banking the plane on my final approach to the lake.
"Well, there are many different kinds of enemas Virg, you just experienced the emergency one. But as we go on, you might get a chance to learn some of the others which are much better and more SATISFYING," he emphasized the word. I had a pretty good idea from what I had seen last night, what some of those better methods were. I wondered if I was going to have to participate in that as well.
This was a great course but sure weird in some ways. I think all of the guys and maybe even Ellen, were into this water thing. I figured I'd just keep a low profile and see what happened. I had never felt this way before in my whole life.