February 2013 - International Aerobatic Club

toilI’m never quite sure where thenext student is coming from. I’mnever really sure if they’re comingat all. When you work for yourselfyou’re always wondering when thecalls will just stop. But an e-mailarrives or the phone rings. Often,a new person introduces himself orherself at a show. They’re always themost unlikely characters and the biggestvariety of personalities. Everynow and then, when my wife is givingme her concerns over how much Iwork, I start wondering, “What if thephone just never rings again?” But,thank goodness, it does. So I keepvery busy and count my blessings.The next call can be like gettinga mission. It could be a challenge tohelp launch someone’s future in competitionor even air shows. Maybe itwill be training a new aerobatic instructor.These people could go on tobe anybody or do anything. It couldbe like the call from Portugal to starta first aerobatic school or the guyin Hawaii who wanted to learn howto land on a truck (for real!). You’vegot to take these things seriously becausethey really happen.So this time it came via Facebook.Flipping through my messages I sawit, “What would it take to get you tocome to Brazil?” A mission requestwas on the table! (Imagine the MissionImpossible music in the backgroundgoing dum dum dum-dumdum dum dum-dum). The scopeof the whole thing was runningthrough my mind. Yeah, what wouldit take, indeed? I wondered for a secondif these guys would accept mypersonal check, then it dawned onme, I’m being HIRED to go to Brazil!They speak Portuguese there.The same Portuguese I couldn’t understandwhen I went to Portugal.Works for me! I returned with a noteabout my standard fees, and a dealwas quickly set. Mission accepted(dum dum dum-dum).This ended up being scheduledright behind my January trip tothe air show in El Salvador. So I returnedto the United States throughHouston, picked up my bags, andwalked over to the airline counterand turned them back in to startthe adventure to Brazil. As the nicelady at the counter looked over mypassport, she said, “I can’t find yourtourist visa,” and I just gave her mydumbest look and said, “Duh what?”It seems that diplomatic relationswith Brazil and the United Statesare in some kind of “if you do that,we’ll do this” tug-of-war, and a touringvisa is now required for U.S. citizens.Just like Tom Cruise, I wasrunning into snags. This one turnedinto a ticket purchase for home instead.I was feeling a little dum dumright then.Luckily my Brazilian client, whomI communicated with through hisson Renato, was equally surprised.We agreed on a later date, and Igot to work applying for this touringvisa. It ended up that the thingcost 299 bucks for us U.S. chapsand about 49 bucks for the rest ofthe world. So what’s going on? It’sbeyond me; if it isn’t aerobatics, Idon’t know much about it. I paid thefees, got my paperwork in order, anda few weeks later was on a red-eyeout of Miami for Sao Paulo. Renatopicked me up at the airport at 5:55www.iac.org 19