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You Meet The Nicest People

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • After a frustrating experience with a commercial simulator vendor and needing to regain instrument currency, the author received an unsolicited and remarkably generous offer from a reader named Eric to use his personal flight simulators for free.
  • Eric, a complete stranger, extended extraordinary hospitality, trust, and kindness, including offering lodging, immediate hangar access, flightseeing, paying for dinner, and providing gifts, deeply impressing the author and his wife.
  • The encounter served as a powerful reminder of the deep camaraderie, trust, and generosity that forms the backbone of the aviation community, with Eric even extending his offer to other pilots in need of sim time.
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Last September, my Remarks lamented my experiences with FlyThisSim, trying to get delivery of a simulator I’d paid for long ago. Readers of this page might note that I live and base my aircraft in Santa Fe, NM.

Responding to that editorial, one reader (I’ll call Eric), sent me a note. Eric lived “nearby”—a relative term—in southeast New Mexico. Eric said he has a Redbird TD in a trailer and a Redbird FMX, both in his hangar, that he makes available to pilots at no charge. He invited me to fly his sims any time. I noted that this opportunity was around an hour flight or a multi-hour drive from home. I thanked Eric and moved on.

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