After reading some blogs written by young men and women learning to fly, I got out my old log book and started flipping the pages. Taking a trip down memory lane if you will. I am certainly jealous of these youngsters just starting out. Feeling the rush for the first time. Wishing I could be with them and watch their faces as the flight unfolds. Feel again the light footed walk across the ramp after a particularly good or exciting flight. I am also a little concerned.
In a way they have many more challenges facing them, what with A airspace, B airspace, control zones, TCA's and so forth. They have much better, or at least more high tech, to help them with these challenges. I was at the airport not long ago and had many opportunities to gaze at some of the high tech instrument panels being placed before the general aviation pilot today. flying a single engine aircraft today is like flying PlayStation. Everything is computer generated graphics. I was chatting with a pilot (young) one day and he was talking about way points and GPS and graphic displays that show his course, true course (track) and winds and temperatures at altitude. I asked him if he had an E6B. I have never seen a more blank look.
And here is where I start getting concerned.
I wondered to myself what would happen to the panel if they encountered ST. Elmo's fire and all their graphic displays suddenly went blank. It can happen. It did happen to me. Night time en route from SPS to DAL. Tstorms all around. Static electricity discharges. St. Elmo arrived. Nothing but static on the radio and my VOR was haywire. I am starting to get nervous. But I still had visibility and I knew where I was and where I was going. Then I started to see a weird kind of blue glow and the static was getting worse. I had heard about St. Elmo's fire but had never seen or experienced it. I was freaked. Then there was this loud pop or a zap, like what you hear when you walk across a carpet and touch a door knob and get a static spark. The radios got quiet and the VOR steadied up and (just like I knew what I was doing)...there was Dallas Love.
I mentioned this encounter because I am curious. What would a static discharge do to a computer chip or the graphic display? I'm sure they would be OK. Wouldn't they?
But let's leave that alone.
The young people just starting out still have the same joy and excitement of learning to fly that Orville and Wilbur discovered.
Some aviation authors describe an old and experienced pilot by describing the lines around his eyes from gazing into the far blue for many years and many miles. They rarely mention the laugh lines around the mouth. These are put there by the joy of flying. They never loose their love of it.

I never have.

Alone At Last

Reading another blog about flying I was reminded of my first solo. It came as a surprise to me because my instructor didn't warn me it was going to happen. We were at a little uncontrolled field in southern Oklahoma shooting touch and go's when he told me to make a full stop. Now, I am still in the dark at this point because he sometimes would do this to answer the call of nature. He climbed out of the old C-150, grabbed his cigarettes and said "do 3 touch and go's then come back and get me."
Have you ever gone into a room and stopped and wondered how you got there? My brain shut down. My throat got dry. The next thing I remembered was sitting in take off position wondering how I got there. I hoped that I had checked for traffic. (oops)
Then, power up, release the brakes, a little rudder and here I go.
The first solo is a whole series of surprises. Surprise No. 1: The C-150 was not as small as I thought. Without the 200 pound instructor sitting next to me I could actual move my arm without any interference. Surprise No. 2: Without the 200 pound instructor sitting next to me that little airplane literally jumped into the air.
Ok, I'm up. Throttle back and level off at 1500. Damn. Ok 1800 will work. Left turn to cross wind. Why am I at 2000? Oh! Ok! I'll get it. Left turn to down wind. Looking good. Power back. Add a little flap. Turn base. Yea! Now I'm flying. Turn on to final. Surprise No. 3: Without the 200 pound instructor sitting next to me It doesn't descend like I was used to. Oh well, I wonder if my instructor will accept a low approach as a touch and go? Probably not. My brain finally kicked in and after the not so low approach I managed to get down and do my 3 touch and go's. I was giddy. I was grinning all over my face. I was a PILOT.
RULE #1: After doing 3 touch and go's, DO NOT FORGET TO PICK UP INSTRUCTOR. I was only about 5 miles from the airport when I remembered this rule.
When I got back to the airport and taxied up to him I was relieved to see him laughing out loud. He climbed aboard and said that at least I came back for him. Seems like one of his other students left him and he had to wait for hours to get back to home base.
When we finally shut down and was back in the Aero Club he signed my log book "OK to solo". I made it. Now the fun begins.
Over the next 700 hours there has been hours of boring holes in the sky. Some scary moments, some down right funny moments, but none will be as memorable as the .5 hours that ended with "OK to solo"