The Beginning

The attraction to flying for me began when I was invited, with a group of other youths, for an informal flight training introduction that was hosted by an individual pilot. I was about 15 years old at the time. We were able to get a couple classroom sessions talking about flight dynamics and weather and I got to go out on a couple flying sessions. On one of the sessions, I sat in the right seat of a Cessna 182 and had the opportunity to take the controls for a short time. I loved the thrill and excitement of the flight, I still remember the tail number N2446G. The class ended abruptly when the pilot had a medical problem and the classes ended.
I didn’t do much else with aviation, but I was always on the fringes over the next couple decades. In High school I took another flight with a group from University of Cincinnati. I also began building a gyrocopter with information that I got from the Cincinnati Rotorcraft Club. I got the frame built and had my engine case, but I stopped when I got to the expensive parts (rotor head and blades and building the engine). In the late 80’s I took up radio control airplane building and flying and I also got hooked on skydiving! I met a lot of aviation buffs and pilots along the way, but I never took the step of starting my flying lessons. I realized early on that if I was ever going to learn to fly, I would want to have the money for the lessons saved up front and make a serious commitment to the training. Whenever I would start to consider it, I would just think of the expense of the training and say to myself, “then what will I do, go rent a plane every so often and get a $100 hamburger?