Flying
In 1995, my boss and I took a trip to a customer site in his v-tail Beech Bonanza.
It was a great introduction to general aviation. I got to sit up front and ask a
thousand questions, twiddle with the radios, and look out the window. I was wired
for the next few days (believe me -- it was not the excitement of being in a
chicken processing plant -- it must have been the plane).
To me, the coolest part was using radios to navigate and communicate with ATC.
After years of playing with ham radio, this was finally a practical use of all of
the things I had learned before. After all, I was tired of "you're 5 and 9, please
QSL" (meaning "I can hear you loud and clear, but I have nothing to say to you,
so please send me a postcard"). This radio-navigation stuff was just plain cool.
My interest in aviation faded for a while.
But then in 2003, my friend David Robinson invited his old college room-mate to visit.
Daryl Moore used to be an instructor in the Air Force, and now he flies jets for UPS.
Daryl flew into town in his own private plane, a two-seater aerobatic plane built in the Czech Republic, a Zlin 142C.
That weekend, he took us flying around the countryside.
Suddenly (again), I realized that normal people could learn to fly airplanes
(this statement should not imply that Daryl is normal -- he is far from it).
In the spring of 2004, I took a private pilot ground school class at Wake Technical College.
I was not sure when or if I would eventually start flight training,
but the ground school material was interesting.
I finished the course and took the FAA written test.
A year passed, and the idea of flying lessons faded away.
Then, in September of 2005, I decided to go for it.
I joined the Wings of Carolina Flying Club in Sanford,
and I started taking lessons with a young instructor named Norm.
Norm taught me the basics, got me to solo and to fly on long (50+ miles) trips.
But then he left for an airline job before I could finish.
So I continued studying under another club instructor, Besty.
She was nothing like Norm, she was a retired school teacher, complete with prepared lesson plans.
Each instructor had their own style, and I learned a lot from both of them.
All of my training was in a two-seater Cessna 152 -- the club has three of them.
One year later, in September of 2006, I passed my check ride,
earning my Private Pilot Certificate.
Some notes:
Below are some tools that I use:
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