Hello all. I'm an american, living in Norway (many years now) who grew up in the Chicago area with a father that was an excellent pilot. He used to have a C-172 at a (now closed) airport called Sky Harbor outside of Deerfield, Il. In my childhood I have many fond memories of him taking me up in the plane for short and long distance. I guess I picked up some rudimentary things, but he never went into a lot of detail. I can always remember how quiet we had to be when he was landing. I always wanted to learn to fly but never had the resources. Many years later (sometime in the 90's) I got to fly with him as an adult and he let me try a few banks, etc. I don't think I was very impressive, but again have always been interested. I'm starting at age 59, and hope I am not too old and slow, but I am determined to go all the way to getting my pilots license, at least VFR.
A few months back I started ground school. I am fluent in norwegian, but this is technical norwegian (Ailerons are called "balanseror", rudders "sideror" etc.) and I thought they had an english equivalent, but turns out no. So I bought the english version of the Handbook of Aeronautical knowledge, and read the norwegian book, and then same thing in english. I've tried first reading english too, then norwegian. Not sure which helps more.
I'm only at the start, I have finished the first few books, covering aeronoutics, and the engine and plane construction. I have a lot of questions, and this site is very helpful. I'm mainly soaking it all in, not posting (this is my first and probably only for a while) but there is a lot of knowledge here and I am very glad I can supplement a little by hanging out here.
My father passed away in 2007, and I really would have loved to have gotten to talk about flying with him, ask him some of the questions I have, I think he would have loved it too. I'm very sure I am not doing this out of anything except I did love flying, and have always been interested in it, just never really thought I too could do it until I realized I finally have resources enough to be able to afford it. I think it is a lot more expensive here as well but it's ok.
Anyway, I am very much enjoying this site. I feel also a huge respect for folks that have gone through the training, and learned to pilot an aircraft safely. It brings me a lot closer in thought, realizing how much my dad knew, how much it takes to learn enough to just be competent, let alone good at this. What he knew and could do, and what most folks here are able to understand and do. I particularly love the attention to detail in procedures (learning from others past mistakes) and while I find it challenging to get a good grasp of some of the concepts, but love just the theory part of it, but I can' t wait to get through this and try flying. Recent thread about crosswinds had me imagining my first solo (sometime in fall I believe I can make) and never coming down because I just keep doing aborted landing attempts
