This was my first featured article in the LA Weekly! Please follow to link to view the full story on the arts blog at www.laweekly.com. Special thanks to Michael Gold, CP Aviation, and my awesome editor Sarah Fenske for making this article possible!
***
Excerpt:
“I am flying westward over the Angeles Crest Mountains, the morning sun shining down over the San Fernando Valley as it spreads out below me and we bank south. The Cessna 152, aptly named “the Commuter,” cruises at just over 3,500 feet as we travel from the Agua Dulce Airpark toward Santa Monica Airport — a 47-mile trip that will put me just two miles from my office in Culver City.
Exhilaration rushes through me as the plane reaches optimal speed, or “trues out,” at about 95 knots, the propeller spinning in a blur. The pilot, Michael Gold, checks in with air traffic control, effortlessly communicating a long string of flight information consisting of letters and numbers. I may be on my way to work, but this is definitely not an ordinary workday…
Like so many Angelenos, I’ve become numb to the frustration of fighting the gridlock every morning at the dreaded interchange of the 101 and the 405. Mere mention of the words “Skirball” or “Getty Center” is enough to keep me in my office until well past 8 p.m. When it’s just too much and I’m completely stopped on the highway, needing to pee so badly, my numbness turns to desperation: Screaming inside and crying proverbial tears of blood, I tell myself that there must be a better way!
But the thought remained just that — a cry for help more than a plan for action — until I met Michael Gold…
And these days, as I sit in the daily gridlock, trying not to grit my teeth, I find myself looking up. Just knowing that it’s possible to soar over this mess — knowing that, thanks to Gold and CP Aviation, I did fly over this mess — somehow makes me feel a little better. It may not be practical to fly to work just yet, but I have this hopeful feeling that maybe we’re getting close.”