This is Red 5, I'm going in...

Ok, so I wasn’t here for a few days. But I have a great excuse.

You see, for the past 5 years, (that’s right…5 years) I have been taking flying lessons. Now this might seems a little excessive considering the fact that you are required a minimum of 40 hours of flight time to obtain a pilots license. But I am nothing if not patient.

Before I say anything else let me tell you that I am not a terrible pilot or a slow learner. I don’t have 1000 hours in my book with no solo endorsement, and I have no accidents or any mishaps. I have just been…side tracked.

I started off fine. I would go out a couple of times a week and take my lessons. I attended ground school and took my FAA written test before I ever flew. And, I even soloed at 18 hours, which isn’t to bad from what I hear. But life happens.

My son went off to an expensive college…for one semester. That put a dent in the wallet. And I kind of got off track after that. If was over a year before I started flying again. And it was actually my wife who put me back in a plane.

She took me out for breakfast for my birthday last year. We went to the little diner at the airport. It’s one of those $100 hamburger places that you hear about. If you’ve never had a $100 hamburger, come and see me for a plane ride. After breakfast she opens the trunk of the car, and all of my flight gear is in there. She says, “you’re flying today, Happy Birthday!”.

So I started flying again.

It still wasn’t easy. Work has been a pain this past couple of years. The weather has been iffy at best. I have gone back to school and have been struggling with calculus. So I have been flying on the weekends, maybe once every 4 – 6 weeks if things are bad time wise. But I am getting there.

I have 60 hours of flight time now. I was at the airport this morning taking my stage 2 check. I am ready for my cross-country solo flights now. Next up, stage 3, which is just a review of everything, and then my FAA check ride. I should be done in the next month. (Famous last words)

I am truly looking forward to finishing this process. We are talking about flying down to the Outer Banks of NC in May. It would be great to look down and see all the traffic we could be stuck in while we cut the travel time in half.

Of course I will probably start in on my instrument rating after this. I just hope that doesn’t take another 5 years.

-P