I still love the jets, of course.\u00a0 Oddly enough, many of the jets I knew and was fascinated by as a kid are now parked in that same warbird section – you might see an F-4<\/a>, a MiG-21<\/a>, or even a Sea Harrier<\/a> in that area.\u00a0 Sadly, with heavy restrictions now in place on what can be sold off into the civilian market, it seems quite likely that in another 10 or 20 years, there will still be more WWII vintage planes flying than the fighters I grew up with.\u00a0 Apparently the government thinks shredding its heroes<\/a> is for the best, and don’t even get me started on the USAF curtailing practically all airshow participation due to budget cuts (or so they claim – meanwhile, Canada was happy to send a few warplanes and even their phenomenal jet team<\/a> to the Rockford air show).<\/p>\n Beyond my childlike desire for the sound of afterburning turbofans, I simply love airplanes in general.\u00a0 I’m one of those weird people that simply have to look skyward when they hear something passing overhead, no matter how pedestrian.\u00a0 I’m not even very good at being able to tell what type of plane it is.\u00a0 It’s flying in the air, and that’s all that matters to me.\u00a0 I’ve tried to scratch the itch – my bookshelves sag with books about airplanes, my hard drive is packed with flight simulators, and I have a pile of RC planes (and parts of RC planes, but I suppose that’s to be expected).\u00a0 And yet it simply has never been enough.\u00a0 I need to fly for myself.\u00a0 I find it absurd that the concept of ‘aviation’ can be encoded into one’s DNA, yet the similar fascination of my uncles and grandfather appear to serve as at least anecdotal evidence that perhaps such desire is more rooted in one’s being than might normally be considered.\u00a0 To be slightly more blunt, perhaps aviation is indeed in my blood.<\/p>\n I’ve been saving up for several years for flight training.\u00a0 Flying isn’t cheap – despite the dreams and aspirations of optimistic 1950s post-war America, it’s not something you can pursue on a whim (and expect to succeed), unlike getting a motorcycle license (2 Saturday afternoons of training, a DMV test, bam – you can ride a bike).\u00a0 I’ve heard that getting a private pilot certificate today actually requires more time\/training than getting a commercial rating 50 years ago.\u00a0 Despite the cost, I knew that this was something I simply had to pursue.\u00a0 Stephen Force<\/a> is an utter poet of piloting<\/a> and has about the best summation that I can possibly imagine – “what do you owe to your 10-year-old self”<\/a>.<\/p>\n No matter who who are or what are your own passions, I think this is a remarkably succinct distillation of what your true pursuits as an adult deserve to be.\u00a0 If you had a time machine and visited yourself at 10 years old, what would disappoint them most about you?\u00a0 Seriously consider that for a moment – looking at not a stranger, but yourself, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60…\u00a0 however many years younger than you now are.\u00a0 What would you have to admit to your own self that you hadn’t even attempted, much less accomplished?\u00a0 In my case, it would be “why didn’t you ever become a pilot?”\u00a0 I would have to tell my 10 year old self that I had always wanted to, but you know, never quite got around to it, or some other bullshit answer.\u00a0 And my 10 year old self would have looked at me with the most utter disdain imaginable.\u00a0 They… you…\u00a0 had dreams unrealized.\u00a0 The opportunity was right in your face, yet you never grasped it.<\/p>\n I finally realized that in some way, I had made a promise to myself long ago.\u00a0 I was going to either become a pilot or make the very best attempt at it that I could.\u00a0 Your 10 year old self still lives inside of you, after all, subdued though they may be.\u00a0 And I wasn’t going to let mine down.<\/p>\n Today I hope I did the 10 year old that lives inside of me proud.\u00a0 I can’t verbalize the experience in any meaningful way, so I hope a simple log entry will suffice.<\/p>\n 6 SEP 2014 – First solo – J-3 N42522<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/haveblue.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/522-1024pix.jpg?resize=614%2C461\" "\\"522-1024pix\\"")
<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"