There's an impression that making dreams come true requires the miraculous. I think, however, the difficulty of attaining a dream depends on perspective. I dreamed of flying airplanes for a living. There was no way this dream would be attained without a miracle as the costs and logistics were too difficult to overcome for my family. I attempted the military route and that door closed as well. Then a gentleman who was a regular customer at my father's barbershop offered to loan me the money I needed to get my flight training...and my dream came true. I'm not going to deny that I believe this was miraculous divine intervention as expressed through the generosity of this gentleman. However, for him it was a simple decision to share his wealth with someone in need. For Him, the opportunity was apparent, and the solution was (fairly) simple.
A couple of weeks ago I had to same realization about what we do at the CAF and the LSW. We are in the business of sharing these amazing airplanes and the history they represent with anyone and everyone. We preserve them for future generations. We have the privilege of flying the airplanes for maintenance and for pleasure in the process of accomplishing this mission. Case in point: the LSW’s current need to fly the airplane for a few hours and send off some oil for analysis to establish trends (see this post). I had another beautiful day and had schedule to fly with my mother, who has not flown in the Stearman before. Unfortunately, as these days often go, things did not go as planned and she was unable to fly with me. This left me with an empty front seat and a short time to fill it. I don’t like flying alone if I can avoid it. These airplanes are meant to be shared. So, I called a buddy from church who had expressed excitement at flying with me at some point. It was short notice, so I wasn’t sure he’d be available, but he made it work. This was a dream of his. He was so excited to fly and during the flight his joy was so fun to share. Here I was, flying the airplane for currency and hours, and he was fulfilling a dream. What was rather simple for me was a dream come true for him. I can’t express how amazing that feels. It’s something we get to do at the CAF regularly. We fulfill dreams.
There are folks who went to war with, in, and around these airplanes who have dreamed of flying one or being flown in one “one more time”. All over the country during our visits to events and airshows, these folks fulfill their dreams. There are people who have grown up admiring these aircraft from afar and meet us at events and airshows…and fulfill their dreams.
Perhaps I’m being overly dramatic. But, when the LSW attends an event and sells rides or when I take a “simple” local flight for pleasure and currency and ask someone along, there’s a good chance those riders are checking off a bucket list item and fulfilling a dream. Making dreams come true can be easy...depending on your perspective. It was a relatively simple thing for my father's customer to loan me the funds I needed to learn to fly, and it was a relatively simple thing for me to text my buddy and offer that open seat a couple of weeks ago. Both events represented dreams coming true.
