carl j. hixon

Mark,

I too always wanted to fly. It seemed complicated to get started when I
first looked into it. What do I need to do? How do I pick a good school?
How do I pick a flight instructor? Can I really afford this? What's it
*really* all about? Do I even have time?

I think that my tipping point was actually due to the fact that it was time
for me to get engaged or my girlfriend was about to walk. We never talked
about it but I could sense it. While I was worrying about that I realized
that this could be my last chance to spend so much money on a personal
extravagance without serious consultation and negotiation.

This sounds like a lot of reflection but it wasn't. I was just kind of
thinking about all of this one Saturday and wandered into a local airport
and stopped at a few flight schools and poked my nose in a few airplanes.
I
immediately knew that I wanted to do all of my flight training in a
taildragger! That locked me in to the one school that I found that rented
them. It also narrowed my choice of instructors. I chatted with a few and
didn't feel great about any of them...I didn't really think of it as
interviewing them but I guess that I was. One of the instructors
recommended that I stop back the next day to talk to another instructor who
wasn't around. Bingo! This was my instructor. We have been good friends
for nearly 10 years now.

I never had many nerves about flying (until I hit about 250 hours but
that's
another long, but good, story). I did get airsick, just short of needing a
bag, during my first 3 lessons but, my instructor encouraged me to stick
with it. I did. Learning to fly was fun, frustrating, exciting,
humiliating, easy, difficult, jubilant, humbling...and on and on. All of
this to earn my private pilot certificate and find out that this piece of
paper now qualified me to learn how to fly because I still had/have a LONG,
LONG way to go.

Nervousness about flying is a good thing as long as you can keep your wits
about you. YOU are the pilot in command and you control your destiny, your
passengers destiny, and the destiny of a lot of innocent people.

I believe that the single most important factor in your success, besides
yourself, is your selection of flight instructor. You will both love and
hate this person during your training. [not to mention you will be nearly
sitting on top of each other...unless you are smart and pick a tandem
taildragger ;-)] You should pick somebody that you get along well with;
that will push you to your breaking point but not beyond; that will know
when you are done learning for the day because you are saturated, etc.
Your
flight instructor will be your guide into a whole new world, choose wisely.

I have done and accomplished a lot of things so far in my life and I hope
to
do a lot more; I know for certain that the one personal achievement that I
will look back upon with the most satisfaction is the time I spent earning
my wings in a little yellow Citabria.

Carl

gregg germain

I knew I wanted to fly the moment I saw aviation and space travel
movies. It just seemed clear and obvious. Like it was the case once I
started having conscious thoughts.

The actual ROAD to getting there wasn't quite as clear, but I'm firmly
on the path now. I did my first 27 hours in the AFROTC program, then
about 5 hours a couple years later when I was gainfully employed.
Then time passed and family stuff intervened.

But now I'm single, my daughter is grown, I have extra money, and it
seems like it's time. So I've been flying once or twice a week for
the last couple of months (except a 2 week vacation), and there's no
going back now.

Loving every minute of it.

--


--- Gregg
"Improvise, adapt, overcome."
gregg@head-cfa.harvard.edu
Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Phone: (617) 496-1558

pixel dent

Simple. My wife was getting her certificate and wanted to buy a plane. I
wouldn't go for it unless we could both fly it. ;-)