AOPA Pilot Magazine

Vortex ring state. It sounds like some frightening space that Han Solo would avoid to keep the Millennium Falcon from getting sucked down into the Death Star.

The word “paradise” usually conjures up visions of palm trees and pineapples, but here in the Columbia River Gorge, paradise translates to intense blue skies, deep greens and browns of trees and mountains, salmon leaping from the water, and the ever-present snow-covered white brilliance of Mount Hood offering its blessing over all.

It is a typical high school in between classes: There’s a crush of young people heading to their next assignment and the volume of chatter is a low roar. The language is a mix of English and Spanish and the students sport all manner of fashion and hair styles.

A pair of hilly islands off the coast of Naples, Italy, loom larger and larger through the windscreen of the Tecnam P-Mentor trainer.