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.