A Blessing to have Started Later

spiderweb

spiderweb

Final Approach
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Ben
Inspired by another thread.

Often one will hear people say, "I wish I had started earlier." I understand that sentiment, but I'm glad I started exactly when I did. Here's why:

When I was a little kid--and I mean from age four--I wanted either to be a pilot or a musician when I grew up. (If you don't believe me, you can ask my mommy.) In any event, sometime around six or seven years old, my dad said, "Son, you have to have perfect vision to be a pilot." I remember that I was really heartbroken. Quickly, though, I resolved to work hard to be a musician. Ever since the age of 11, I have worked part time to pay for lessons and school. Fast forward to age 33, when I began the journey of flight. At that point, I have gone through music school, I play concerts, I teach music; in short, I am loving being a musician. One of my students who happens to be a private pilot starts talking up the flying. He introduces me to my CFI, and I learn I do not need perfect vision to fly.

I really still didn't have the funds to get serious about this, but as luck would have it, shortly after I begin lessons I get hired full time at the college. This allows me to seriously pursue the certificate. Since 2001, I have accumulated 400 hours and earned my PP and IR. In short, I am loving being a private pilot.

I read about the lifestyle of professional pilots and I know that it just isn't for me. This would be a perfect way to lose my zest for flying. Had I known that I didn't need perfect vision to be a pilot, I would have followed that path, and by now I would be tired of it all, and I wouldn't be a musician, either. As it stands, I work at what I love, and I play at what I love.

I'm glad I started flying exactly when I started.
 
I still wish I started at a younger age, only for the fact of all the great flying I didn't get to do ;) However, being in the position to afford lessons from start to finish really helped the learning curve. At 48 I needed more lessons to teach this old dog new tricks ! :D

Mary and I look forward to many years of flying together and visiting many new places. Overall flying now will provide more opportunities to fly and vacation without stretching the budget. I guess being financially stable/secure (not loaded) opens the door to new adventures that I think we will both appreciate more now then if we were younger.

Something about that age/wisdom saying. :rolleyes:

good post....great food for thought!
 
Sooner? Later? I guess I'm just glad I started at all. :yes:
 
I'm happy that I started young, even happier when I got back into flyiing when I was older. I got my PPL when I was 26. But being married and having 2 kids and trying to save money for a house made it difficult sometimes to be able to find that spare $15 for an hour of flying. That's right 15 bucks for a P140 wet or 25 for a brand new Arrow. So I reluctantly put flying on the shelf. I retired in 2000 and by the end of 2002 was bored. Not sure why I started thinking of flying again maybe it was the small planes flying over the house. If I would not have had that PPL sitting in my wallet I wonder if I would have tried? At any rate I did have it and I passed my BFR in April 2003 bought the Arrow in Sept 2003 and haven't looked back. Now when I get bored I just go out to the airport and either go flying or tear the plane apart. Either way I'm having a blast.
Ron
 
Ben, I love your story.

Mine is very similar, so I'll share it. When I was a kid I wanted to be an astronaut. I had posters of the space shuttle and Saturn on my wall... One day in middle school a guy from NASA came to talk to all the kids about the astronaut program. "There are two ways to get into space," he said, "You can be a military pilot, or you can be a scientist."

"Hmmm," I thought, "I'd LOVE to fly planes, but I don't want to join the military. I guess I'll have to become a scientist. Science is cool!"

15 years or so later, I got a Ph.D. in astrophysics, and spent a year at the South Pole Station (which some say is like a "practice run" for a moon base). After coming home, on a lark I sent in my application for the astronaut program. The application had a page for listing all your flight time (even for the scientists). Turns out all the mission specialists (scientists) are pilots too. I was rejected on the basis of my eyesight, but by this point I already knew what I was going to spend my winter-over salary on... and the rest is history. :)

... and I love my job. :D

--Kath
 
Yeah, Ben, I would have to agree. Actually, the idea of looking back is what motivated me to start my own company.

I was at age 40, wanted to get out of the rat race of working for somebody else, and so three of us started a company to more or less compete with our employer. :D

It was a scary decision -- we were basically betting the farm. What tipped me over was that I didn't want to find myself wondering at age 50 about what might have happened if I did make the break.

We were successful, I retired at 55, started flying a couple of years later.

No regrets :no:
 
wangmyers said:
Often one will hear people say, "I wish I had started earlier." I understand that sentiment, but I'm glad I started exactly when I did. Here's why:

<snip>

I'm glad I started flying exactly when I started.
Click to expand...

Ben,

Great post and excellent point! I pretty much started flying as soon as I could afford to. We'll see if I regret affording to at some point. :redface:

I guess it really doesn't matter when you start... Just that you do start, and fulfill the dream. :yes:
 
Great post Ben, I love reading about how people got into aviation.
I wish I'd started younger. I've always wanted to fly, but couldn't afford to/parents would have a fit, ruining my dreams of soloing at age 16. As a kid I bought some textbooks and taught myself enough algebra and calculus to be able to design fabulous airplanes. I worked at airports and manged to get local pilots to give me rides whenever I could. Curling up on Saturday afternoons with my copy of Flying magazine fuelled many a flying daydream. I've been more or less around airplanes for a very long time.
I started flying at 22, because I had the money (sorta) and because I was far away enough (financially and physically) to keep it from my parents. They still don't know I fly, because I worry that they would be constantly worrying about my safety, and demanding me to stop, and I don't want them to worry, and I don't want to stop either. I wish I could share flying with people I love so much; maybe one day I'll be able to take them up to see the house from the air.....:rolleyes:

EDIT: Didn't mean to sound so melodramatic, sorry!
 
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infotango said:
They still don't know I fly
Click to expand...
Wow.

I learned to fly when I was 19 and I think my friends and relatives were somewhat neutral or didn't express much opinion. I was lucky I found something that was of some interest to me because before that I was quite aimless. For that reason I'm glad I learned early. It also gave me quite a bit of self-confidence and a different perspective that I didn't have before.

I only wanted to learn for fun and never intended to make it a career but somehow it ended up that way, which for me has been a relatively good thing.
 
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