47 years ago today

47 years ago today, in 1978, I took my Private Pilot flight test with an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner, his name I still remember, was Harold Holmes. This at what was then Chicagoland Airport, in Lincolnshire, IL. I finally became a licensed pilot!! YES!! I remember it well!! Harold was a great guy, and he has since passed on.

That airport is long gone. And since then, my flying ‘career’ has become an aerial journey, a long and winding path for me, with a few obstacles along the way. Not smooth sailing like some. But that’s just the way life goes. And now, after many, many years flying, I still have not become ‘jaded’ or burned out like some colleagues I have worked with over the years. Nope. The excitement over for them, just another day, another dollar. That’s their problem, not mine!

Nope. And in spite of the obstacles encountered along the way, I STILL have a ‘beginners’ mindset’,  being open to learning and new ideas, and still have the youthful exuberance and excitement about flying. I still have a passion for flying and a sense of adventure, though the pay checks have not always been steady in my career. Nope. Just the way it goes sometimes. And, I have learned to adapt! An important lesson in life.

However, now my passion for flying is tempered by the wisdom gained through experience, broad exposure to many aspects of flying, including charter, corporate and airline flying, and of course, mountain flying, as well as gliders and seaplanes, and I know better now about when to ‘go’ and when ‘not to’; aka the go/no-go decision, depending on a number of things.

I don’t let emotions get the upper hand anymore. Safety first, always. I don’t want to scare myself or anyone else. No need to play ‘hero’. Nope. I don’t want to become a statistic. Too many people in the aviation community know me. I don’t want to ‘screw-up’ and embarrass myself!

Along the way, I have had the opportunity to fly a wide range of aircraft, from ultra-lights to jets, and have gained wide-ranging experience, partly due to my own curiosity. And, after 47 years, I am finally approaching 10,000 hours flying time, a long-time goal! And the learning continues! Always 

And I am now actively involved in the ‘general aviation’ aka GA community, and pass onto other pilots some of what I have learned over the years, via freelance writing for various aviation publications, safety seminars and webinars. I have been doing this for over 20 years now. Its’ FUN!! And I love the camaraderie among pilots, when we gather! It’s part of the fun of flying!

And in fact, early tomorrow morning, at 7am Pacific Time, 9am Central Time, I will be presenting an FAA Safety Seminar, as part of the FAASTeam’s ‘Coffee and Wings’ Saturday morning safety seminar series, presented via the Zoom platform. My topic, ‘IFR SOPs for GA Pilots’. Say what? In other words, in plain English, what are known as ‘standard operating procedures or sop’s, for general aviation pilots when flying by reference to ‘instruments’ like the airlines do. It’s just a better way to fly. I am sure many businesses have standard procedures they follow that govern the way they operate.

The host is Laura Herrmann, and she is in Minneapolis, MN. It has a global audience now, with viewers across the US and many foreign countries. It will be fun! I am told that there might be as many as 2,000 attendees! Here’s a link https://www.faasafety.gov/SPANS/event_details.aspx?eid=138453&caller=/SPANS/events/EventList.aspx

It will be recorded and will be available for later viewing on a YouTube channel. I will post a link for that when it happens, sometime in the next week.

And what’s next for me? There are more airplanes that I would like to fly, more flying adventures that I’d like to go on, more pilots that I hope to train, more content that I want to create and publish or post online, etc. There are many new developments in aviation that I want to learn more about. This includes the recently passed ‘MOSAIC’ (Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification), that was announced at AirVenture, in Oshkosh, which applies to the LSA, or Light Sport Category and greatly expands and improves the LSA operations. There will be more to say about that. It will create more opportunities for me as a flight instructor!

In short, I am learning and moving forward! Not sitting around. Nope. I am staying actively involved! 

My goal? Simply stated, the same as the AOPA’s Air Safety Foundation, which is based in Frederick, MD; safer pilots, safer skies, one pilot at a time.

Fly safely,

John