For many people it begins with a vacation road trip. We plan for months, pack the car the night before and even nail the coveted crack-of-dawn departure. Roads are quiet, the forecast bright and the kids marvel at a lovely sunrise. It is an auspicious start and everyone looks forward to reaching the destination in time for lunch.
An hour or two later there is a collective sigh as the car creeps forward only occasionally on the snarled interstate. Horns sound as frustrated drivers on a nearby entrance ramp jockey for space while you wonder aloud what could cause such a delay. Whether road construction, a traffic accident or plain old holiday volume is to blame, you almost knew this would happen because it usually does.
As you unconsciously squeeze the steering wheel and your disposition begins to fray, you spot a small airplane overhead, proceeding rapidly. Soon it disappears in the distance. Your kids saw it, too. “Why can’t we fly?” one of them asks. You have been asking yourself the same question. The answer is, you probably can, though finding the path that suits you might be challenging.
I have lived this scenario from several familiar points of view, including that of the curious kid. On a mid-1970s drive from New Jersey to Wellfleet, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, I watched from the back seat of my father’s 1972 Dodge Charger SE as a small taildragger, almost certainly a Piper J-3 Cub, judging by the color, took off from an airport next to Interstate 95. The traffic jam we were stuck in had just begun to break, and as our pace increased I figured we might keep up with this old, slow aircraft, which was headed in the same direction.
Our speed climbed to 60, 65 and 70 miles per hour and it seemed as if we would catch and pass the rag-and-tube antique. We certainly out-muscled it in the horsepower department, despite 1972’s increasing emissions restrictions. But no, as the highway made sweeping turns through Connecticut, the Piper continued straight, eventually leaving us far behind – an early lesson in the benefits of going direct.
The experience was enough to convince me that I wanted to be a pilot, somehow, in some form. Many years later, right after college, I took flying lessons in a Cessna 152 II, but stopped after about a dozen hours due to flagging finances and a perceived lack of a path forward. Even after landing my first reporting job with a local newspaper I felt pressure to acquire the basics, like a car, a place to live and some sort of social life. My budget could not support flight training, or so I thought. I was wrong about that, as several pilots have pointed out over the years. Usually there is a way to juggle flight training and life’s other responsibilities without letting any of them fall – too often.
While I thought many times about continuing flight training, it took 25 years for me to get serious about it, find the right instructor and finally earn my private pilot certificate. By then I was married with two sons in elementary school. I dreamed of cutting travel times to some of our favorite vacation spots, from Northern Maine to Hilton Head, South Carolina, as well as exploring new destinations. The whole endeavor came together thanks to a few critical elements: I was able to carve out the time and budget for training, my wife was sympathetic and encouraging, and I simply wanted to fly more than ever.
Now, as the lead writer for Aviation Consumer and with years of experience as a pilot and aircraft owner, I look forward to adding my observations to a broad, diverse pool of information that this publication shares with other aspiring and established pilots. With a focus on pilot experience and the range of gear available on the general aviation market–from flashlights and kneeboards to avionics, hangar equipment and the aircraft themselves–Aviation Consumer aims to help readers make well-informed decisions.
In the long run, we plan to be a regular destination for pilots, as well as those pursuing flight training or anyone with even the slightest interest in learning to fly. The goal is to help make the aviation experience more fulfilling while attracting more people to it and, perhaps, convincing aspiring aviators not to wait as long as I did.
Please feel free to share thoughts and experiences from your aviation journey, and to let us know what topics interest you most.
