Last night I watched a movie about the history of the airport at Van Nuys, California. It was a 2005 movie, titled "One Six Right: The Romance of Flying." One line in the movie really struck home with me. It was when one of the old-timers at VNY said that pilots have done something that very few people on Earth have done.I know that feeling. I've done it. I started flying when I was about 16, outside St. Louis, at a little airport somewhere near the Meramec River. I think I flew only about 5-6 hours, not enough to solo. I must not have expected to resume flying, because I didn't save that first logbook.
When I was 25, I started again. After three flights out of a little field just south of Chicago, I joined a flying club at Midway, shortly after O'Hare opened. Midway was deserted, and the one airplane of the Flying Sparks Flying Club was parked in a hangar along the Central Avenue side of the airport. I did solo there, but I stopped short of getting my Private Pilot license. And I found that I preferred a Piper Cherokee (low-wing aircraft) to the high-wing Cessna 140. August 20, 1965, was a big day for me. That was the day I soloed that Cherokee.
Ten years later, in Denver, I resumed flying. VA dollars couldn't be used toward the Private Pilot license, so I signed up for law enforcement classes at UCLA (University of Colorado (between Lawrence and Arapahoe (Streets))) and saved the left-over dollars for flying. My flight instructor there was a hard-as-nails retired USAF pilot, George Brunsman. I have always remembered George with positive feelings for his demand for exact flying.
Although I logged my last flight on January 14, 1979, all those early morning flights, taking off in the dark and landing after sunrise, are etched in my memory. That "old-timer" at Van Nuys was right! The joy of flight is just that - pure joy.
Every man and every woman should find at least one thing in life to do that tickles the heart and that creates a deep, lasting, joyful feeling. Do it, and do it now. Don't put it off.
4 comments:
VA dollars? In what branch did you serve? Never heard that before.
Flying today is a rich mans sport or luxury. I also flew, but back then the Cessna 150 "wet" was $18.00 and hour through the club. It was fun to fly out to the Mississippi, follow the river down to the quad cities and then cross county it back.
Many friends continued with the hobby and ended up flying the "Friendly Skies", a couple went into the military. One never came home as a CWO on a Huey.
Shea, thanks for your comments. I don't think the branch had anything to do with my being able to qualify for veterans' educational benefits, but I was in the USAF.
The VA wouldn't pay for a Private Pilot license but, once I had that, they kicked in for the Commercial ticket and the Instrument rating.
I'm impressed, good for you. Too bad you didn't keep up with the flying. You could have been one of the several hundred millionaire retired commercial pilots still living in the McHenry county area.
Especially if I had worked for the State and flown the Gov. B. back and forth to Springfield several times a month.
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