Well, My "goal" was not realized. I wanted to get my commercial pilots license by the time I turned 40. Well, the 29th was my birthday and I just couldn't get it done! Of course...I was a leap year baby, which means I have only had 10 birthdays, so by a technicality I could claim I'm not 40 yet and I still have some time to finish! ;-) Actually at this point I just want to get it done. I lost my job in January and decided to work full time on it (the commercial), but now the funds I had to finish it our almost gone and I'm still feeling like I'm not very close to finishing. I'm also just under two weeks away from the Mission trip to Honduras. I will only be there for a week, but that will be one week for sure that I will not be focused on flying!
I had found a cfi that I had hoped would really help me. I don't understand sometimes why so many cfi's want to be passengers. I feel like I'm training myself. I guess its hard to compare cfi's, I was fortunate to have a cfi for my private pilot license who had been flying for over 55years. He had over 30,000 flight hours in general aviation. The two archer's he had, he purchased new and both had 8-9000 hours on them. I had never asked him how many hours of dual given he had. Unfortunately a fight with cancer got the best of him about 5 years ago and Lou is no longer with us! If you had ever flown into (k02) perryville Missouri prior to 2003 then you probably would have met him! He was at the airport 7 days a week. One night a medivac chopper came in. they had just come from a seen of a bad car accident and had a lady on board who was near death. it was late, but Lou was still there. They needed fuel, but company policy was there had to be fire personnel on site when they took on fuel. Well Perryville is a small town in Missouri with a volunteer fire dept several miles away it would have taken a long time to get them on site. So Lou runs inside (yes 72 y/o and he RUNS in side) grabs a fire extinguisher and tells them I am a member of the Perryville fire dept, now fuel the darn helicopter. We never found out the fate of the lady.
If there are any cfi's reading this, all I have to say is be professional, and do your best to really teach flying. I too will probably end up being a "time building" CFI, but I sure Hope that while I'm doing it I give my customers everything they deserve! So here I am with about just enough money to finish up one more flight, and pay for the practical exam and then I will be out. I just hope I can do. It is scheduled for Wednesday, but I do not have the sign off from the cfi yet! If I don't get the endorsement tomorrow I will have to cancel the exam AGAIN, and start re planning what to do next! OH my, don't you just love flying? As my Father in law says, you better love it, if your gonna do it!
3 comments:
Thanks for posting. I am at the same crossroads in my life. I am only a student pilot with 13 hours so far. But, I just passed my PPL written with a 90%. I would really love to keep going and start flying for a living. Right now I am having problems keeping instructors. My CFI's keep leaving the FBO I am with.
You can catch my Blog at:
http://robsguide.blogspot.com
Hi Rob, Thanks for stopping by! Flying can be additive. It seems once you start if you get that bug, it just wont go away. It is a hard path, and expensive to become a commercial pilot. I have wanted to quit many times already, but that bug just wont let go! Good Luck with your PPL. Most importantly, have fun doing it!
Tim
Tim,
Thanks for this blog. I, too, am 39 and about to start flight school at a local community college. I'll finish with a commercial ticket and an instrument rating, plus an applied science degree. I am very excited, but also intimidated by the daunting challenges ahead. Anyway, nice work! I'll keep reading if you keep writing.
Tom in Duluth, MN
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