I keep meaning to do Na-No, but I've yet to be anywhere near the starting point of a new book at this time of year.

Do it! It'll be fun. And we can complain to each other about the not fun parts.

Eta: not that you should interrupt your WiP, Susan.

Hmm. I might see if I can add 50K words to the WIP in a month. I don't think that counts as an "official" Na-No, but it'd be a good motivational tool.

I like that thinking.

Hell, I should do NaNo just to finish this short story.

Oh noes! You know, I never actually do NaNo. I just sign up and then feel guilty for a month.

I did it once before and I was tooling right along until I got derailed by Thanksgiving. This year we might not have a Thanksgiving so that would work out great.

I kind of can't believe I'm going to try this in a month already full of moving and Thanksgiving and normal workload, but I figure I'm always busy, so if I can make myself write in the middle of that madness it'd be a boost for me the rest of the time.

Possibly troll logic.

You know, I never actually do NaNo. I just sign up and then feel guilty for a month.

Same here.

Oddly enough, I may use it to finish a long fanfic I've had in the planning stages for years (but then, given that it's a WWII-era prequel to a story set in 1999, it sort of counts as an original novel, I suppose).

I've been feeling nostalgic about flying and instructing lately, and remembered that I typed up one of my stories last year, got Typo Boy to beta it -- and then forgot to post it. So here it is.

FLIGHT REVIEW

Every two years, pilots are required to log a flight review with an instructor, to include a review of the Federal aviation regulations (with emphasis on any changes in the past two years), an evaluation of the pilot's planning skills, his flying skills, and his situational awareness. It's not meant to be a repeat of his flight test, more of a brush-up and safety review.

Leonard was one of our most experienced local sailplane pilots. He had logged thousands of hours more flying time and much more cross-country experience than I had -- or was likely to acquire in the next decade. So when he scheduled his flight review with me I tried to come up with a plan that would make the flight something that might be useful and different for him, and not just a perfunctory chore.

One of the mandatory parts of the review is emergency procedures, and the most common emergency in the sailplane instructor's bag of tricks is the low altitude simulated tow-rope break. It is so common that it is pretty much taken for granted that one will be pulled in every review, and the normal recovery is a quick 180° turn back to the runway. The seats in most two-seat sailplanes are tandem, and one of the things an instructor learns to watch for is the relaxation of the shoulders of the pilot in front of him as the towplane and sailplane climb away through 200 feet of altitude and the pilot says to himself, "Whew, not this flight, that means it'll be the next one." That, of course, is when the instructor pulls the tow release, announces "Rope break!" and chortles with evil glee while the pilot makes his landing. The lesson, of course, is "ALWAYS be prepared for the rope to break," and the instructor gets to see how the pilot handles a critical low-altitude turn and the tricky balancing act of a downwind landing.

I didn't think that would be a useful test for an old hand like Leonard, so I arranged something a little different with our tow pilot. We made our take-off, and the tow pilot managed the climb during our first circuit of the airport such that by the time we were back over the upwind end of the runway we were still fairly low -- about 400 feet, instead of the normal 1000. This meant that we had no runway in front of us to land on, just the neighboring pastures and wheat fields, and we were too high to simply turn around and land downwind. We had several options in the event of a rope break, just none that were quick or clear or straightforward.

I pulled the release. Leonard didn't flinch or swear the way some pilots do, and as he swiveled his head re-checking for traffic I could see a wry little smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

Leonard made an initial turn to the right while he quickly went through the emergency landing checklist, and told me his plan was to reverse his turn, going back to the left around three-quarters of a circle to get us lined up with the runway for a downwind landing, with lots of spoiler and a slip on final to bleed off our excess altitude, using most of the length of the runway to set us up for an easy turnaround to make our next takeoff.

That wasn't the plan I had in mind -- I would have continued the right turn all the way around to make a modified final approach for a mid-field landing into the wind -- but it would work and was safe enough given the conditions, so I said nothing.

As we turned to the left, Leonard had to modify his plan. "The other towplane is launching with a sailplane, we can't use the runway. We'll land in the grass next to it." We continued the turn, and I noticed that we were in lift. By the time we had come around in line with the grass parallel to the runway, there were further complications. "I see traffic landing on the east grass...Tow Two is safely past below us...there's ground traffic on the west grass...we've still (continued...)