Aviation

Since I was a young kid in middle school I have been fascinated with aviation. A childhood friend used to invite me to tag along when his dad would go on a hamburger run. Usually we would fly from our local airport in central Minnesota to a location in the Twin Cities area. I don’t recall how good the burgers were but I do remember the feeling of being in the air. I remember getting ahold of some ground school materials and studying about what makes a plane fly and the other ins and outs of piloting a plane. I was just 13 or 14.

Advance a few years and I began taking lessons for real at the age of 19, while I was serving in the US Army. I didn’t make much money back then so it was slow going. I did manage to get about 18 hours of instruction under my belt when I let the dream die. Too bad because I love flying and really wanted to make a career out of it.

I’m in my 50’s now and have a family. My daughter thought it would be cool to be a pilot so I arranged to have her take an introductory flight and of course, we had to watch Top Gun. That movie was instrumental in my decision to go into Army aviation. Well, we went up but it was me who got the bug again. It didn’t take long and I was able to finish what I started. What a journey but so worth it. I love flying!