Why I (Want to) Fly

LAX in the mid afternoon.

From the time I was a young lad, I have always wanted to be part of the flying few. I was fascinated by flying and space-going machines. I had several books on various flying machines and those who attempted to build them. Also, living in SoCal meant we were close to LAX. My parents would periodically take me there to watch planes taking off and landing—we even saw President HW Bush landing in AF1 once!

That interest of machines developed into an interest of actually flying and upon discovery of the now-defunct Space Shuttles, I wanted to be an astronaut and fly one of them too. When I was about 8 years of age, I recall my dad promising me flight lessons "when I was old enough" and the funds were available. Looking back now, I suppose I was "old enough" then, I just would have another eight years of having a right seat partner until I legally solo at age 16. However, the funding still wasn't there, so

Throughout my adolescent and teen years, my dream of flying lay dormant. I knew that family financials weren't exactly conducive to flight training, so I never even bothered to ask. Looking back, I suppose that I could've gotten some done, at least an intro flight. Also, plenty of scholarships are available which I could've applied for. I just never even looked.

Now that the Space Shuttles are no longer in service, that dream is now indefinitely deferred. However, I would still like to go to space. I also have a short list of planes I'd like to sit behind the controls of. A-10. A-330. Boeing 777. C-17. DC-3. F-15. P-51. Mooney Acclaim. PC-12. I like to think I'd enjoi piloting any one of those planes at some point.

But what I'm most interested in doing is flying missionary work. I'd love to buy a DC-3 and convert it to turbine engines to use as a missionary plane. (Why turbine conversion? I don't have to rely on avgas, which is quickly disappearing and is often prohibitively expensive in the places I'd be flying most.) Short of doing that, I'd like to work for an organization like Mission Aviation Fellowship, Flying Mission, or even Angel Flight. I love flying and helping people. Something that combines the two of them would be rather welcome.

And so, there we have it. That's why I want to learn to fly: to be a flying missionary. My work is definitely cut out for me since I still have less than 20 hours, haven't soloed, and have no complex/high performance time. I'm hoping that get those situations fixed over the next year, updates forthcoming. I just hope it can all get done sooner rather than later.

Happy New Year!

My wings are currently clipped.

Well, today marks the start of a new year. Since my last update, I've managed to accumulate exactly 1.6 more hours aloft by taking a friend with me on a 'discovery' flight for her birthday. With those 1.6 hours, I now have a total of around 15 hours logged, or theoretically 37% of the way to my license. I also spent some time in the plush seats as I flew commercial to go see my girlfriend at the end of July/beginning of August. I look forward to the day when I can bypass the gropefest completely and simply fly myself there.

To help bring that to pass, I intend to start flying again at some point this year. The main reason I stopped flying was a mismanagement of money on my part. Now that I've gotten that identified and somewhat straightened out, I can hopefully be able to return to the skies at a consistent pace and actually finish my training. My written exam is already taken and waiting in my room, but it expires this month. I'll have to retake it and get a physical to get everything going smoothly again.

I hope my skills are not too rusty so I don't have to spend much time money reviewing stuff I already know. Of course, since I likely will not be taking the lessons through Mt. Sac's College Aviation anymore, I expect any new flight instructor to want to spend a couple flights just seeing where my skill level is. Come to think of it, my CFI from Mt. Sac got hired to a regional anyway, so I'd still have to get a new instructor even if I was returning there. But after all those formalities, I hope it doesn't take much more than 3-4 more months total to finish up the certificate.

As usual, I'll be posting updates on the progress. Flying has always been a dream of mine ever since my parents used to take me to the hill south of LAX to watch plane traffic. I'd like to land at LAX for myself one day, so getting the necessary training done is a priority on my to-do list now. Happy new year and safe flying!

Photo by San Diego Air & Space Museum.