You're striving towards your dream. Hoping one day it becomes reality. It’s obvious that it won’t happen right away but deep down you long for as soon as possible.

Well, sometimes your desire just gets a hold on you. And that’s why my mother always tells me to “take things slow” or make it happen “step by step”. I hate it when she tells me that. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that my mother’s always right! Instead of fixating yourself on the end goal you really need to take it “step by step”. Because if you’re like me, and always get the tendency to go faster than you can handle it you’ll also have a hard time dealing with adversity and trying to stay motivated. So take it from me, reach your goal step by step and never give up!

First of all, I would like to say that I’m extremely happy and grateful to have been given the opportunity to start gliding.
It gave me a new challenge and a goal in mind. Which was being able to make my very first solo flight!
Gliding was my introduction to flying. Which meant it was a start of my dream becoming reality. And everyone has to start somewhere, right?

The week in which my first gliding internship took place started with a lot of excitement and some fear as well. I didn't know what to expect and this gave me some anxiety and a lot of stress in general.
As kickoff of the gliding internship we had a briefing. During this briefing, the new members were asked to go to the hangars. At this place we got an explanation about the course of events. After this explanation I felt relieved and my excitement took over my stress.

In general, I did have a really good gliding internship. I learned a lot in a period of two weeks. This mainly by gliding a lot and by learning how to get the hang of it all thanks to the good instructors we had!
Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t able to make my first solo flight during this gliding internship. But what I did have was motivation to keep trying. Don’t forget that practice makes perfect!

Throughout the year I tried to go gliding as much as possible. This wasn’t always easy for me because the gliding club is quite a long drive away and I didn’t have my driver’s license yet. I also decided that I was going to sign myself up for the gliding internship of the following summer (summer of 2021). I still remember me and my best friend where looking forward to it so much that we just couldn’t stop talking about it. (Well… It was especially me that couldn’t stop talking about it 😊)

During this second gliding internship I was finally able to make my first solo flights. And boy, I can’t tell you how happy I was! After almost no more flying during the year a lot of skill and feeling faded away. So I had to relearn quite a lot.
There were moments I had a hard time accepting my mistakes and had trouble accepting that others were making a faster process then me. Not because I didn't want them to but mainly because I always want to do well. In retrospect that seems a bit selfish of myself but I just thought I could do the same. And I just struggled with the feeling of being stuck.

In the end I've learned that you'll always make mistakes. There will always be room for improvement. Try to not give up and enjoy the moments you experience. Because these moments will stay with you forever.

Pictures

photographer: Lukasz Van Den Bosch

Link to the KAC site: Kempische Aeroclub - Zweefvliegen in Weelde (kac.be)