No, I'm not in that much of a hurry, but I've found that sooner
or later, I just gotta fly. Here's why.
I enjoy the challenge. It's not that hard, but it's difficult to
come up with the perfect flight. Perfect. Perfect altitude,
heading, speed, radio calls, weather prediction, instrument
approach, systems management and that most visible of segments,
a perfect landing. That's really amoung the easiest bits but
still hard to get perfect...
I love the systems. My aircraft has 7 microprocessors and
four data busses. I've beta tested software for most of those
micros and linked the busses in new ways. I have a CRT with
the USA stored in it's memory and 5 levels of navigational
redundency from GPS to deduced reconing. This is fun stuff, and
that's before we get to weather detection or my dual-input
stereo intercom. Yes, the kids get their own music in the back
seats.
I enjoy the travel. Condos at Vail are cheap when you can
supply your own air transport at a day's notice. Florida is
pleasant in the winter. Niagara is an impressive sight for a
weekend destination. the Bahamas
are nice any time. And there is nothing like that flight
around the San Fransico bay.
The people are great. I used to live in a subdivision where
I knew none of my neighbors. Now I live at an airport, with a hanger in the back yard.
I know 45 families well, know what airplane is theirs, what
they like to talk about and how they are to work with.
There are very few living idiot pilots.
Finally, it's the fun of it all. It's great to be up there,
feeling the freedom of flight. Go as fast as you can,
no cops. Fly up, down, around or inside out, it's just you
and the laws of aerodynamics; absolute, no debate. It's
the one time that your destiny is firmly, irrefutably, in your
own hands. And from up there it's a clean world, beautiful,
pure, unspoiled. Who would want to come down?
If you think you might like to fly, let me know and I'll offer
you a ride. But be warned, I've given 30 or more people rides,
and almost half have become pilots since. A third own airplanes.
And for some reason, they seem to prefer Cardinal RG's...
A license can be had for about $2,500 total in 3 to 12 months
time, usually about 9 months. An airplane can be owned for
under $15,000 outlay and $3000 a year. And I assure you that
the airplane will sell for more than you paid for it. It may
not match the Motorola investment funds, but it can come
close...
Drop me a note and we can discuss it more over lunch.
From Richard Bach in Biplane:
"Fast or slow, quiet or deafening, pulling contrails at forty thousand
feet or whishing wheels through the grasstops, in barest simplicity
or most opulent luxury, all the airplanes of the past are there, teaching and having taught.
They are all a part of the pilot and he is a part of them. The chipped
paint of a control console, the rudder pedals worn smooth during twenty
years of turns, the control stick grips from which the little knurl
diamonds have been rubbed away: these are the marks of a man upon his
airplane. The marks of an airplane upon the man are only seen in his
thought, and in the things that he has learned and come to believe."
KP
