The Hobo Kid: July 2015

It's been a weird couple of months since my last post. Ok ok, it's been eight months since I've put anything on here. My apologies. Here's hoping that I can get back on track.

I've always been jealous of birds. I mean seriously, birds are jerks! Flitting and fluttering about with their hollow bones and their stupid bird faces. Why should they be so lucky? To be completely untethered by earthly bonds? Well it's about time I did something about my jealousy and it would be an outright lie if I didn't say that bird envy was roughly twenty percent of the reason I wanted to learn how to fly airplanes.

My first experience of getting to be at the controls of an airplane was nothing short of magical. It was cramped, it was hot (small aircraft don't have AC), I had no idea what I was doing and I was sitting next to some dude I had met five minutes prior. But I had said I wanted to learn how to fly and this was apparently the first step to reaching that goal. He gave me a brief rundown of how it was going to be, we were going to take off, do a little tour of the area and then head back. An hour later we were back on the ground but I was still flying high. This was it. Flying was for me.

I came back the next day and started my official training, flying almost everyday for at least an hour until they let me go off on my own. Being allowed to fly all by myself was an experience I will never forget. I remember thinking to myself "Who the hell thought it was a good idea to let me, a 26 year old dude, go flying all by himself!?!?" It was pure bliss. Being at the controls, no one to help me should something go wrong, getting to be an independent pilot, it was everything I could have ever dreamed of and more...

Fast forward two months, I'd done the time, done the studying and it was time for me to take my test. The Private Pilot check ride. Much to my embarrassment I failed the first time around, I failed the oral exam before I even got to go flying. These things happen. After a few days of intense study I was ready to try it again. Aced the oral exam and moved on to the flying portion. Now, I should mention that you are required to have at least 40 hours of flight time before you are allowed to take your test. Most of the time people require more time than that because flying is a weird thing. It's not really like driving a car or a boat or anything else I've ever driven so it takes time to get used to. But whether it's in my genes or I just have a knack for it, I took the test right at 40 hours. After a little over an hour of flying we were back on the ground and I had passed! Just like that I was now a pilot. A very novice pilot to be sure, but nevertheless I am a pilot now.

I plan to continue my pursuit of aviation, so if you keep your eyes to the skies you just catch a glimpse of the hobo kid streaking across the horizon.