YIPPEE!

The above picture is a P-38 Lightning, made by the Lockheed company during World War Two. It's tricked up and painted pretty because it was the 5,000th P-38 to come off of the production line. It was flown for some time by Lockheed's ace test pilot, Tony LeVier, who used it to show Army Air Corp pilots that the aircraft was safer and more effective than the pilots first thought.

Here's what they usually looked like. They were one of the premier fighters of the second world war, and just shy of 10,000 were made. Later variants could climb to nearly 40,000 feet (without pressurization or heaters for the pilot) and exceed 425 MPH. It was one hell of a plane.

So what does that have to do with anything?

Well I share the sentiment of "Yippee", above. I've finally--finally--been cleared to fly and rent planes again, and in the spirit of British WW2 ace Douglas Bader, I can now take to the air with an artificial leg.

Of course I don't get to fly Spitfires, or P-38 Lightnings. Nah, I just fly a Cessna 172.

<---This one.

I had my first unrestricted solo flight today since losing my leg almost two years ago. It felt great to get back in the air and play around the area, knowing I was one more step ahead on the long road back. After my final check flight, I took off alone and spent the next hour flying up and down the Shenandoah and Potomac rivers, then circling Harpers Ferry a bit. There are few things that can top the exhilaration and freedom of flying a plane, and there's no way that I'm going to let a little thing like a missing leg keep me from doing this. You can't take the sky from me.

Yippee!