July 2, 2005
Eglinton Street, Toronto
The bottom part said ‘insurance’.
Last week after ground school I was talking with another student pilot about our flying goals. Ground school is a mix of recreation, commercial, and airline pilot students in various stages of instruction and experience. A good third are already flying. Some have clear career paths for aviation, some just want to fly for fun. In this rotation it’s nearly all men, some 20s and 30s but mostly older. This is unsurprising as flying comes down to money and time, after interest. Flight training is expensive and most people fall into the category of career pilot (which takes a long time to build the hours so the younger you start the better) or recreational pilot (it’s expensive to buy and maintain your own airplane, so that tends to come later in life). These are broad generalizations, but the demographics are recognizable.
I’m clearly in the latter category. I’m in it for the fun. Since the first day David took me aloft in the Tri-Pacer I was hooked — that auspicious moment taking place less than 36 hours after we met and sooner if it had not rained the first day. In fact, one of the reasons why I wanted to meet David Fielding in the first place was because he had his own airplane. I’d never known anyone who had his own airplane before. It smacks of irony, but if all I had to do to fly in a private aircraft for the first time in my life was to travel in a jumbo jet for five hours first, then why not? The whole idea of being able to give my input into the flight plan was a novelty that grew into a lifestyle.