An end to the grand adventure. Sad, but very grateful for the experience. A few weeks ago, I made the difficult decision to end my flight training. Just under 100 hours total time with 33 hours solo.
My CFI (flight instructor) thought I was just about ready to go up for my FAA checkride, but I realized that I had accomplished what I wanted and that the extra time and expense for the checkride wasn’t going to gain me anything more than what I already had.
I didn’t know it at the time (or maybe I did, because I very rarely took pictures while in-flight), but the three pictures here are from my last solo flight before making the decision.
A lot of folks suggested “But you’re so close! Just get the license!”
But, honestly, I didn’t need the license.
- If I had the license and wanted to keep flying, I’d estimate ~$10,000 a year of rentals to maintain proficiency where I would want it to be. That’s a pricey hobby.
- And there wasn’t much MORE that I was going to do. I’m very goal-oriented, and if I’m not learning something new, I get bored.
- I wasn’t planning to get endorsements for tail-wheel, high performance, or complex, and while aerobatic would be fun to experience, I’d never do it on my own.
- Although an instrument rating would be great for added safety margin, I’m REALLY conservative with weather and I’d have to screw up really badly to ever actually end up in instrument conditions.
- The time I spent trying to grab every good-weather day to fly was taking away from spending time with family. Beautiful day? Not going hiking, going flying, alone.
- It would be pretty much always flying by myself. Of the 4 of us in my immediate family, 2 get horribly motion sick. Family trips were never in the picture.
So I did exactly what I’d always dreamed of since I was a high school student in the 1980’s – I flew. That was always my goal. Not to “get a pilot license”, not for bragging rights, but to fly. And those 30 hours of solo time will be some of my most cherished memories.
The (mis)quote
There’s a misquote that goes around a lot (which I will properly attribute):
“For once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.”
- Misquoted from a TV documentary produced and narrated by John H Secondari: “I, Leonardo da Vinci” (c) 1965
The actual quote can be heard on a really old recording on YouTube at 38:52.
The detective work needed to find the correct attribution is described here.
The actual quote in the documentary is a little less dramatic: “And once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you would return.”
Whatever the origin, it captures how I will always feel, with eyes turned forever skyward.
On the other hand…
I just might have used my refunded flight school deposit to purchase a near top-of-the-line gaming rig to get back into flight simulation with online air traffic control on VATSIM, though ;)
(Wife and I teamed up and did our first ever PC build for each of us, and it actually went pretty smoothly!)
And unlike real flying, it won’t cost more to keep doing it :)