Recently I got my pilot's license.
Um, a private pilot for a single engine land aircraft.
That's basically anything with one prop- propeller engine, that takes off and lands on land as opposed to water, that's like a hydrocraft or something.
And I got into it because of, uh, my chemistry teacher in high school.
He was an instructor, and he was completely fanatical about it.
And he was telling all of his students about it.
And actually started a course in it.
So I went on a aviation science_ it's basically like ground school.
Which is good because i_ because then_ he encouraged me and I went to the local airport.
And, uh_ the local airport, Morristown airport.
And... I took a discovery flight for, like 20 dollars or something.
And they take you_ and they take you out, and they fly you around.
But when you're in the air, they'll let you actually handle it.
And, uh, it was pretty cool.
And it was like a beautiful day when we did it, and the instructors were really nice, so I signed up right away to be on my track to getting my license.
And, they said it'd take about a year, or a little more.
Some people take lot longer.
There's a minimum of fifty-five hours of flight time, and you need twenty-five hours instructed, and thirty hours solo, minimum.
And then, you have other restrictions, such as you need to do review time, and you have to do solo time, night time, flying at night and all that stuff.
So... I started off and, I was doing pretty good, and my instructor's really nice.
And we never really went over any of the actual physics about the flying, which is good because I kind of covered that in a high school class that my, chemistry teacher was teaching.
So that was really excellent.
But then, it was about a month and a half before I was supposed to get my license and I was actually going off to college.
I was planning going off to college around the same time, that I should have got my license.
My actual instructor he left, to go somewhere else.
So I got a new instructor.
My new instructor took me out, and he was saying_ so, he started quizzing me on the stuff that I should know.
And I was like, "I don't know any of this."
He's like "don't you know any of this."
And I said "no."
And he's like, "well, you're supposed to have learned the ground school material, like every lesson."
And he's like_ he expected that_ my old instructor had said like learn this chapter for then.
And I, I hadn't done any of that.
And I had to take a written test, on all the theory behind the flying.
The first_ the complete prerequisite to any part of getting your license.
So I had to completely cram for that, in a week.
Luckily I passed the written test.
I got an eighty-two.
You had to get a seventy or above to pass.
Eighty-two is nothing, uh, to be proud of actually.
It's a pretty easy test.
But I'm, i_ eighty-two is fine with me.
And so then, I had to go_ and then i_ and then, uh, it turned out that I had to, do extra flying time because they changed the regulations on getting a license, a week before_ a week_ it was a week before I was going to get my license.
So it turned out that I had to do, uh, five hours extra of flying.
So I couldn't get that all in before I went off to college.
So then, I tried to come back on the weekends to keep flying with my instructor to get extra time in.
It was really a hassle.
And that took, another five months afterwards.
So finally I got everything_ all my requi- requirements done.
And I, uh, I flew, uh, flew solo flights to other airports around.
I had to do an extended flight for like, uh, I think it was three hundred total miles.
I mean, you kind of worry about that your plane is just going to fall from the sky after a while.
But it never does.
So that's cool.
So I got to my, I got my test.
I had to fly somewhere else to take my test.
So I soloed over to the airport, picked up my instructor, did a little oral exam, he started asking me_ shooting questions at me.
I studied for that so I passed that pretty well.
And so he takes me up in the plane.
And the first thing he does is_ he says, "pretend that you just lost your radio, you can't use those anymore" directional radios.
"you are on a cross country flying towards a destination."
And I was going, and I completely, flipped out and I'd no idea what I was supposed to do.
Cuz, I just, uh, I completely blanked on that one.
I was like "this is not a good way to start." regardless, I failed the test the first time.
So I had to come back.
I was completely heart broken because no one ever fails these tests.
It was_ I mean people do_ it's not like people ever look down on you like, failing some other kind of test.
I mean it is a hard test.
So I was very broken up about that, and I was going to throw in the towel, but then... my family was like, we're not wasting all this money, for you not to get your stinking license.
Cuz, all in all it probably totals about a little over three thousand dollars to get your license in total.
So I went back, I think about a_ it was a week later, I had to have taken another lesson between there.
There's always, like, stinking regulations that don't make any sense sometimes.
I went up again, we only had to do just the parts that I just failed.
So I had to do some stalls which are nerve wracking, and they make, uh_ they make me sick in my stomach.
And hate really doing them.
But he had me do,about eight in a row.
And I was really glad that we stopped at the point when we did, cuz I was feeling pale and cold.
And not in good condition.
But he says, "all right you've passed just land the plane, and you're good."
And I did and I got my license.
So I've had it for nine months now.
Yeah nine months.
And I haven't flown much since then, but, I'm planning on going to the nearby airport here at college, and getting my, and getting checked out there so I can fly out a few of my friends.
Maybe we'll go to Atlantic City or something and gamble all of our money away.