Being A Pilot
So what is being a pilot all about? It has a
lot of practical sides, but many more facets of it are just pure fun
and exhilaration. Being a pilot is about having complete control of
one's destiny, for better or worse. It is about the new perspective
of our world gained by watching and feeling weather
happening. It is about flying places you can't easily get to any
other way, and finding people there whom you never met before, but
with whom you share the bond of aviators. It is about making your
own sun set by descending into darkness, about seeing the pilot's halo
- a rainbow in the form of a complete circle that can only be seen in
flight, and about breaking out through a rainy (or snowy) overcast into a
sunny world lined with white clouds. All these things are only
possible if you fly.
On the more practical side, you can get up at 7am in San Jose, hit the
slopes at Tahoe by 9am, ski all day, and be back home for dinner. You
can fly to LA for the day, and be back the same night, without having
to take off your shoes for X-Ray even once! You can take your friends
who came into town to see the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz Island
from above - the way most people only see in postcards. It's not that flying is
without its downsides: it's many times expensive, and often a
relatively unreliable form of transportation, because of weather or
mechanical issues. But when it works, it is like nothing else.
As a private pilot you can fly almost
any single engine airplane in good weather, wherever your heart desires to go.
Adding the instrument rating
allows you to do the same even when weather is less than ideal.
Beyond that there are multi-engine ratings, commercial certificate,
and other advanced ratings. No matter what level you're at, a pilot's
license is a license to learn. Every flight becomes another learning
experience in a never ending journey to conquer the sky.
|