Growing up, I had two burning desires for my life, in regards to career choices. A mechanical drafting class in eighth grade lit a fire in me to become an Architect. I had a good friend in grade school who went through a phase of wanting to be an Architect, and the drawing side brought it out in me a few years later. Once that fire was lit in me, it was never (even to this day) fully extinguished. It was what I went to college to study, and it was my career path for the following eight years. Even when a layoff forced me to reexamine my career path, ultimately leading me to decide to free my son (and later my four kids) from a childhood of daycare, I continued to work on licensure, leaving the door open to someday return. I ultimately earned my license. I continue to maintain it, too. I’m currently working through the 24 units of continuing education required to renew my license when it expires in June.
This is a long post, probably too boring for anyone to read through, but I’d like to share anyway.
The second burning desire I’ve had since childhood was aviation. When I was about eight years old, I heard of another kid, just a year or two older than me, who had soloed in a small plane (something no longer allowed by law, as the minimum age to solo has since been raised to 16.) An uncle on my dad’s side went through the Air Force, & had his wings. My dad, also, had dabbled in pilot training many years ago, though never reached the point of soloing.
It was during my final year of college that I began my aviation training. The Mechanical Engineering department had a couple of 300-level courses in aviation, that I decided to take. In the Fall Semester of my fifth year (Architecture being a five-year program at NDSU,) I enrolled in the first of those courses, which amounted to the Ground School portion of Private Pilot training. The Spring Semester course was the first ten or fifteen hours of flight training.
My aviation experience has always been rocky. While I seamlessly transferred from the flight school in Fargo (NDSU never had its own dedicated aviation school; they referred students over to a local flight school at the Fargo airport,) to the flight school at the Anoka airport after graduation, I lost my first job a few months later & was no longer able to pay for flying lessons & had to quit. It was a tough pill to swallow, as I had managed to solo beforehand.
It would be about three years later that I’d be able to restart my training. I was dating my wife at the time, & she offered to pay for it if I put a ring on her finger. That seemed like a great deal; I’d get the girl and the pilot certificate; Win-win!
The three year hiatus set me back a little. However, I would not only solo again in due time, but was able to see it through to getting my certificate; though it took nearly two years to get there.
(Why two years? Several compounding reasons. Weather is a major factor in aviation, especially in small planes. Scheduling, typical illnesses, life getting in the way, etc.)
In keeping with the rocky nature of my aviation experience, it didn’t take long to go back to not flying. After my license, I went back to the flight school a few times to do the required three landings in order to remain legal to take passengers. I took Jessica to lunch at the Hinckley casino once, as there is a small (private) airport nearby & the casino provides transportation (we don’t gamble; it was really just lunch.) I also took her and my mom to lunch in Eau Claire, Wisconsin once. That ended up being my last flight for several years. Jessica got sick on that flight, and was no longer interested in flying (I chalk it up to a combination of factors adding up to a bad day; including wind, a full stomach, and being in the back seat. I’ve had my own problems with being in the back seat on a bad day.)
That was 2006. About two years later, not wanting my flying to be finished forever, I joined the local squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, the all-volunteer civilian auxiliary of the Air Force. I didn’t even know such an organization existed until a few months before joining. I learned that they had an airplane that members could use that’s much less expensive than renting from a flight school. They also have instructors that fly with their pilots, and being all-volunteer, instruction is free! I joined hoping to someday work on an instrument rating.
It would take another two years, and more instruction before I’d be back to current, and able to legally fly on my own (over a year of that just to get started, and about nine months of working in lessons as weather, aircraft scheduling, & instructor availability allowed (the three can be a difficult combination to manage at Civil Air Patrol.) I managed, in 2010, to do it though. Unfortunately, I only flew once after that. It would be another, this time much longer stint of grounding after that. Family life got busy. We grew from a family of three to six. It didn’t take long to lose currency & proficiency, and it was quickly apparent that to get back to flying, I’d be back to fighting weather, aircraft scheduling, and instructor availability to get back in it.
I also want to note that Civil Air Patrol makes two of those three factors more difficult to manage than a flight school would be. They are constantly moving airplanes around the state. We might have a Cessna 172 for a few months (which I can fly,) but then have it swapped out for a Cessna 182 (which I have not been able to fly.) In addition, because the instructors are volunteer, and not paid for their time, they have full-time jobs to go to, and their own lives to manage. The instructors aren’t waiting around for students to schedule them. There’s a trade-off involved. On one hand, the lessons are $30-50 per hour cheaper. On the other hand, doing instruction for the enjoyment of flying rather than for pay greatly reduces instructor availability. (Getting ahead of myself, I’m back in it now, and have a great instructor who really enjoys flying and instructing, and is thus more available than most others, but he still has his limitations.)
Jump ahead from 2010, when I last flew, to the summer of 2022. I had long had in the back of my mind that I’d love for my kids to get involved in the cadet program at Civil Air Patrol. Kids can join at age 12. Our oldest was old enough in 2019. I didn’t rush him over to check it out, and it wasn’t long before lockdowns & stay-at-home orders came along and put a wet blanket over any desire to try. We missed out on the ideal year or two of his adolescence to introduce him. But in 2022, our second was old enough. I hadn’t been to many meetings myself in several years, but had been getting the emails and paying my dues. I convinced him to check out a “Blue Moon” meeting. That’s when there’s a fifth meeting in a calendar month, and is usually dedicated to more of a social experience. It’s informal (no uniform,) and in the summer they grill burgers & hot dogs. He took to it pretty quickly & was soon asking to join. Once he was in, I was back to regularly attending the Senior (adult) meetings.
After about a year back in, I decided to get back into flying. That was July of last year. I went to an FAA doctor to get a medical certificate so I could fly again. I also looked for a CAP instructor. It took three tries at an instructor search to find one able and available. (The first was the squadron commander, who wanted to, but was busier than he thought & unable to follow through with a first lesson. The second was a new member still needing his own check rides to be cleared by CAP to fly their planes.)
Falling back into the frustrating ordeal of juggling weather, aircraft scheduling, & instructor availability, my first “Return to flight” lesson was around Halloween. My second was just a few days later. Those first two lessons went really well. I even nailed my first landing in over 13 years! A huge confidence boost, to be sure. But then the plane was grounded for maintenance issues, my own weekend availability wavered, and the weather was uncooperative. My third lesson didn’t come until New Year’s Eve day. We’ve had a very mild winter, but have battled low cloud cover and windy days.
As Spring nears, the weather has improved a little, but aircraft scheduling became an issue. I mentioned before that I could fly the Cessna 172, but not the 182. Guess what’s been in the hangar for several weeks!
The differences between the 172 and 182 aren’t insurmountable, but jumping up is not exactly ideal. The 172 is 180 horsepower, & has a fixed-pitch propeller. That makes it much simpler to fly. The 182 is 235hp, is heavier, and has a constant speed propeller. Being 235hp (or more accurately, being over 200hp) requires a “High performance” endorsement. That means more training, and an instructor signing off that I’m competent to fly it. The constant speed propeller is more complicated to deal with. It’s often compared to a child’s bike. The fixed pitch propeller is like a single-speed bike. It’s easy for a kid to learn, but not ideal for every situation. The constant speed propeller is like a mountain bike in that there are different settings for different situations, but takes practice to use right.
At first, my instructor really wanted to see me through the full range of 172 training before introducing me to the 182. There were good reasons for that. However, rather than put training on hold, or find another squadron with a 172 (the nearest being almost an hour away,) we started working in the 182.
I’ve now had a few lessons in the 182, and am starting to get more comfortable with it. I’ve half-joked that getting closer to a checkout in the 182 means we’ll have another swap soon, & get a 172 back. With an oil change due soon, it’s looking more like that’s what will happen. However, that may be best for me anyway. I can finish 172 training & get my check ride, then be able to go off on my own & build much-needed time in it. At the same time, we can go to another squadron to continue 182 training. Unlike the nearly-hour drive to get to the next-nearest 172, there are two 182s a little over 20 minutes away. Either way, I’m happy to be working toward a higher goal of being checked out in both. And the ideal would be the ability to fly either, but the availability of a 172, which is about $40/hour cheaper to fly, and thus cheaper to build time in.
I’ve mentioned building time a few times. My goal is not just to get checked out again. I’ve had to put aviation on hold three different times since I first started. I regret not keeping up with it, especially since getting my license in 2006. This time, I want to not only stay in it, but continue onward and upward. I’ve built a string of goals I plan to pursue.
In the shorter term, I want to get to 250 hours logged of “Total Time.” This is what I need to get a Commercial License. I’m currently at around half of that. Along the way, I can earn my Instrument Rating, which requires 50 hours of “Pilot-in-Command” (PIC) time doing Cross-country flying (a minimum of 50 nautical miles from airport of departure.) That’s in addition to the training for the rating (though the two can overlap.)
Concurrently with a Commercial License, I can get an Instructor Rating (often referred to as CFI, or Certified Flight Instructor.) I’m hoping to take CAP up on an offer to train me for a CFI for free (I just pay for food while at CFI school over two weeks in the summer in Texas) in exchange for committing to teach in CAP for at least a year.
In addition, CAP has various pilot ratings I want to pursue. At 100 hours (PIC,) I can become a Transport Mission Pilot. This rating doesn’t make much sense to me, except for one small aspect. The gist of it is the ability to move planes around the state. If they come up for scheduled maintenance, I could fly them to HQ & swap out for another plane. I could also take a plane to another airport for the purposes of delivering it to a real or exercise mission. This doesn’t make much sense to me because I don’t need the rating to just go fly the airplane (that only requires a check ride. But the one aspect that makes some sense is a “High bird” mission. It’s part of a Search and Rescue (SAR) mission. However, it’s not part of the direct Search & Rescue. Instead it’s an indirect support plane for the mission. It merely acts as a relay for radio communications. Apparently, putting an airplane with a repeater at above 6000ft gives radio coverage to the entire state for mission purposes.
The next rating I hope to achieve is Mission Pilot. This is as it sounds. I’d be qualified to act as the pilot for a SAR mission or SAREX (SAR EXercise.) This requires 180 hours PIC to begin training and 200 hours for the rating.
The third rating is to be an Orientation Flight (O-Flight) pilot. This is part of the cadet program. Cadets are given five funded (CAP-paid) orientation flights to introduce them to flying & encourage them to pursue their own aviation futures. Interestingly, the Air Force has figured out that a high-enough percentage of CAP Cadets go on to serve in the military, and enough of those choose the Air Force, that it’s cheaper to pay for the training of interested cadets (teens) and get them their pilot’s licenses than it is to wait until they join the air force to train them. (I suppose it’s probably the volunteer nature of the instructors, vs paying an Air Force Officer to train them.)
Ultimately, reaching a point where I can fly either for free (CAP missions funded by CAP or the USAF,) or be paid to fly (becoming a flight instructor) will make it easier to continue to build time. If I can build enough time, and do so fast enough, I’d love to pursue the highest goal of getting an Airline Transport Pilot (ATP) rating. With an ATP, I’d be qualified to work at an airline. This could be something like Delta or American Airlines, a shipping company like FedEx or UPS, or something like a corporate or charter jet pilot. It could just as likely be a smaller regional airline, however. This is a “let’s just see how things go” goal though. I’m 46 now, and mandatory retirement is 62. While I can certainly get there, the question is whether I can get there quick enough to have a meaningful career before being forced to retire.
Short of an ATP rating, I would love to be able to teach. I’ve been a stay-at-home dad for 15 years, and even just teaching would be a good way to get back into working outside the home, and being an example to my kids that work is normal and good. It would be a fun way to slide into my other passion that dates back to childhood. It doesn’t pay a lot, so unfortunately it won’t be enough to free my wife to retire, but it’s still a worthy goal to pursue.