Mallorca

Mallorca was supposed to be a beach trip. It became a flying trip.

I'd been doing aerial photography work and decided to take an introductory helicopter pilot lesson at the airport. The instructor walked me through the basics on the ground, then handed me the controls in the air. Flying a helicopter is nothing like flying a plane — you're balancing four inputs at once, and getting any one of them wrong can dump you out of the sky. It's the most unforgivingly tactile flight experience I've ever had.

The rest of the trip was Palma and Peguera — beaches, gelato, sunsets, the kind of Mediterranean week that makes Boston winters survivable.