I can remember my very first flight was April 24th, 1975. It was a memorable day and I can never forget that date as I climbed on board a United 737-200 in Lansing, Michigan for a quick flight to Chicago, O'Hare. I was connecting for a direct flight to San Diego to report for Marine Corp Boot Camp. In 1975 I was at the tender age of 17 and it was not only my first flight but also the first time I had ever been away from home.

My return trip several months later was aboard a United DC-8 stretch. That trip in itself was memorable as I found out drinking a few mixed drinks aboard a plane will create a very quick drunk. My Flight Attendant had to literally show me to my next gate where once aboard this flight to Lansing I poured coffee down me to sober up before greeting my parents.

Those first flights were later followed up in adult hood by 100's more, mainly for pleasure and business. Because I am an aviation nut I kept a private log of every plane I ever flew on, (type of equipment and series number). I had some very memorable flights and I had several that were the flights from hell, filled with moderate turbulence and allot of bumps along the way. One flight to London was memorable after a husband and wife sitting in front of me got drunk then proceeded to fight. ( Fist to cuffs mind you ). Another flight encountered an equipment malfunction and that trip was even more fun.

In 1980 I decided to get my own private pilots license. I bought my manuals and began my groundwork and breezed through the manuals quickly. I then began working on my air time and remember my first flight as a student in a Cessna 150 at Capital City Airport in Lansing, Michigan. I still can remember how I felt taxing right past the big jets and commuter planes lined up at the gates. Nervous and uncoordinated I must have looked like a drunk taxing this plane as I gently swerved from left to right trying to get a handle on steering the plane on the ground. After holding short at the runway and doing a run up test and final check, I steered the plane onto the runway and in less then a minute was airborne. I was concentrating so hard on the panel and gauges that I took one quick glance out the side window and then my eyes were forward till we had hit 1,000 ft.  Scanning my gauges and watching for traffic along with my instructor I took one more brief look out the window at the ground and my stomach came into my throat. My instructor grabbed the wheel and asked " are you ok " ? I nodded then said I didn't realize we had gotten to this altitude so quick. The ground looked so dang far away. I never bothered to tell him I had a fear of heights. :)

I later had to abandon my plans for my private pilots license after my schedule at work became horrific and also having a young family, every dime earmarked for a flight got ate up by kids shoes, monthly living expenses and kids clothes and tuition payments for their private school's. My family came first before airtime did and I later decided to begin my quest for a license when the kids were grown and out of the house and when I had more time to enjoy it as a retiree. Those dreams were shattered after I was diagnosed with my disease in 1999. Any plans of becoming a licensed pilot were completely out the window after my first stroke left me without being able to multitask. You have to be able to keep your brain going in different directions and be able to follow procedures to the letter. Watching your heading, altitude, and maintaining a vigil over your instrument panel as well as being able to listen and make corrections based on air traffic controllers directives was more then my injured brain could handle. It can get busy in a cockpit and sadly, my once high functioning brain that would allow me to handle a multitude of tasks all at once now made me struggle to complete one task at a time. It was a shame as I had a very light touch on aircraft controls and piloted aircraft extremely well. A few said I was a natural and born to fly.

Since then I have become a career right seat pilot. Climbing on board any aircraft that any pilot will allow me to and sit in the right seat is the dream I now live for. With a safety pilot by my side I only now need to grab the controls and fly the plane while the PIC ( pilot in command ) watches over me and makes corrections that my brain may miss. Its completely safe as the PIC is constantly monitoring my flight and jumping in at a seconds notice to make a correction if I myself fail to do so. It allows me the dream of freedom in the sky's, being able to grab the controls of an aircraft and experience the thrill of flight. My last such flight was in March of 2002 in Duxford, England aboard a World War II era Dehavilland Tiger Moth. The flight had to be the thrill of a lifetime for me. Open cockpit, bi-winged aircraft, foreign land, and the constant need to have to fly this airplane was all my heart and soul needed to keep satisfying my dreams of flight and freedom.

If your a pilot, you have no idea just how much I do envy you and I hope you truly don't take your ratings for granted. They are actually a gift these days and as an airline pilot, your getting paid to do something many would do for free ( and some actually do ). If you have never flown a plane and only been a passenger, I highly recommend you head out to your local airport and find the building where they give lessons. For a very small fee, you can go up and actually fly a plane yourself and experience what I, and so many other individuals have found, that there is nothing that compares with the freedom of flying and the view from the sky.

( My special thanks to three of my pilot buddies Jay, Bob & Steve who keep the flame lit inside me and for being an inspiration and a bright spot in my life. Thanks Guys, through you I live my dreams. You three are cherished friends )

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