November 8, 2013 A nightmare Since I have started using my CPAP machine every night, I have noticed several changes. 1. I sleep longer and awaken more rested. 2. I have very vivid dreams more often and some of them are very memorable. 3. My physical endurance has improved as much as an estimated 25%. A 30 mile bike ride is nothing, and 40 miles is easier than it used to be. Most recently I rode 53 miles after church last Sunday afternoon. The only downside is the frequency of nightmares. (when I remember them that is) However, remembering them has becoming easier than ever before (if only for a few hours). The clarity of my dreams is unbelievable. Sometimes, after a depressing dream I will be awakening and it will be a few minutes before I realize that it was only a dream. Until this realization happens I’m into whatever the dream was. I ask myself! Am I losing my mind or what? For instance the dream that I had last night was wild. Keep in mind that presently I have been trying to regain my flight physical certificate for well over a year, and recently the FAA issued me a III class certificate that will expire in less than a year, because the exam that started this quest was over a year ago. So here is the dream that I had this morning as I best remember it. I found myself trying out for a new job. For some reason I found myself in the Pilots seat and the pilot who was responsible for hiring me was in the co-pilot’s seat. I don’t remember getting a clearance. I don’t remember taking off or where we departed from, (seems like it was somewhere on the West Coast). I don’t remember climbing to the final altitude. It seems that our destination was Texarkana or New Orleans. The destination was vague and not very clear. It seems that in the dream we were suddenly at cruse altitude when the person in charge who was sitting in the co-pilots seat departed the cockpit and went to the back where the passengers were seated. There I sat alone in the cockpit of a Jet at cruse altitude. I don’t remember being very familiar with the airplane. And, for some reason I was thinking that our destination was OKC. I don’t remember talking to any Air Route Traffic Control Centers. I remember making a course change, which wasn’t very smooth. I remember pulling the throttle levers back to idle and initiating the decent, which wasn’t very smooth either. During this time I thought to my self; after all I haven’t flown a jet airplane in more than seven years, what did I expect of myself. This is the time that I realized that I didn’t have a headset on, and that I hadn’t talked to an Air Traffic Control person the entire time. I don’t remember the approach. I don’t remember the landing or taxing to the parking area. But, suddenly I found myself walking with the pilot that was to have evaluated me. I remembered at that instance that we were going to Texarkana and that we were in Oklahoma City. I mentioned this to the other pilot and he acted as if he was preoccupied and didn’t hear me. I repeated this to him twice more before he realized that we were not where we were supposed to be. Finally he looked shocked, as he should have. Immediately I knew that I wouldn’t get this job and the other pilot would probably lose his job. I became apologetic and depressed at the same time. I awoke depressed. I was sorely upset and down on myself. It was at least a minute or two before it dawned on me that this was a dream and not real. Is that the craziest of dreams or what? There is another dream that I remember about flying and it took place when I was in my twenties and flying a spray plane. It too was very vivid, but more scary than depressing. I found myself in a spray plane coming out of a field and into an endless maze of wires. Flying through this maze required my undivided attention to navigate around, over and under the electrical wires. Thankfully I awoke before hitting one. I remember thinking that I was very thankful that it was only a dream. I have to believe that if I am crazy now, I’ve had to have spend the majority of my career as a crazy man. However, I haven’t allowed any harm to anyone of my passengers or crew inflight or on the ground, in over 25,000 hours of flight. God’s grace is amazing.