Flight Training

It’s 12:40 on a lovely spring afternoon. My boys are in school; my chores and my errands are done. I grab my driver’s license, a blank check, my “Be A Pilot Certificate” and head out the door. I am determined that today I am going for a Discovery Flight. Flying in New England in the […]

If you don’t get in that plane and learn how to fly, you’ll regret it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of your life. – paraphrasing Rick Blaine, from the movie Casablanca It is not the things that you do in life that you regret, but the things that […]

It don’t come easy, you know it don’t come easy. Got to pay your dues if you want to sing the blues And you know it don’t come easy — Richard Starkey In the best of circumstances, becoming a pilot isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination. Not only are we presented with novel […]

FEDERAL AVIATION REGULATIONS Sec. 61.35 Knowledge test: Prerequisites and passing grades. (a) An applicant for a knowledge test must have: (1) Received an endorsement, if required by this part, from an authorizedinstructor certifying that the applicant accomplished the appropriate ground-training or a home-study course required by this part for the certificate orrating sought and is […]

What a wondrous feeling it must be to to fly alone. To have earned a flight instructor’s confidence and to have achieved the skill level necessary for solo flight. And I was there; I was ready to go. I had the skills for solo flight. It was the solo landing that had my instructor in […]

After what felt like an eternity, I finally soloed. I then completed my three supervised solos, flights where I stay in the pattern and John my instructor watches from the ground rather than from the seat beside me. I say that I flew all by myself, but of course I had my imaginary instructor in […]

I have heard that flying at night can be something extraordinary, but I didn’t fully understand the experience until I did it for myself. Like most things beautiful, night flight has more inherent dangers and potential problems, but my goodness it is lovely. Last night was my introduction to flying at night, as I completed […]

During my primary training, I had a fascinating experience. I was allowed to shadow an Air Traffic Controller for an evening. I sidled up, plugged in, watched and listened for over four hours. This may lead some to believe that there is something seriously wrong with me, and they may be right, but that’s not […]

I was scheduled for my private pilot checkride and everything was set. The paperwork was in order, my instructor had signed everything he needed to sign and the cleanest plane on the line had been reserved. I got myself to the airport two hours early just in case, via the most circuitous means imaginable, beginning […]

Sometimes I wonder that if in an earlier incarnation I was a great aviator. Because of that previous life, perhaps some of that superior genetic code lingers on inside of me. That is the only explanation that I can think of for my superior piloting skills. I am superior, you know. A natural-born pilot is […]