Blog/Journal

Following my Dream

During the fall of 2007, I decided it was time to follow my lifelong dream. In my younger days, I served in the US Air Force. I loved being around aircraft. I still do. Now that my children are grown and my wife is attending college, it gives me time and a few extra bucks to spend on myself.

So I did it. I walked thru the glass doors of the local flight school and told the guy behind the counter, "I want to learn to fly". There...I said it. Out loud for the whole world to hear something that has been in my heart since I was young.

I looked at the fee schedule and was not quite prepared for the amount of "a few extra bucks" it was going to take to hold my private pilot certificate (pilot's license). What a shock.

After a short conversation the instructor said, "Sir, seeing that you have Diabetes you should get your flight physical BEFORE you spend any money on lessons". He continued with, "With a chronic disease you may NOT get approval to fly"

I thanked him for his time and was off to make an appointment for my physical. A little disappointed because I was ready to make the committment in spite of the dollars it would require to learn to fly.

During the blood workup for the physical, the AME (flight doctor) discovered that their was blood in my urine. NOT A GOOD SIGN.I was sent to a urologist who put a camera up inside my bladder and said I had a prostate issue that could be handled with antibiotics.

Seeing this prostate issue required me to put my flight training on hold for a couple of months.

During this time I talked my wife and grown daughter to fly with me an a flight instructor. I felt that if I was successful in getting my license, I would want my wife and daughter to fly with me.

We took them up for a short flight at a Fort Worth Texas airport. The flight only lasted about 15 minutes and both my wife and daughter seemed to tolerate the experience.

Fast forward to March 19, 2008.

It has now been several months and I have been focusing on growing my martial arts school membership. The urge to fly has begun to take up more and more of my thoughts. I have begun to read more and more flight magazines and books.

I decided to call my flight instructor and ask him if I could go up with him. We did. Matter of fact I controlled the plane basically from startup to shut down except for the two landings we did and the radio.

I felt so alive as I started the engine of that old 1976 Cesna 172. I could not believe it. There I was taxing the plane toward the active runway, listening to the instructor communicating with the control tower.

With permission, I lined us up on the runway. As I pushed forward on the throttle, the airspeed became alive. As the bonds of the earth fell away I felt such a rush, lifting off under my own power.

I flew toward the heavens I made a right turn toward the practice area.

We worked on turns, straight and level flight, climbs and descents. As we headed back toward the airport, I anticipated getting into the rectangle known as "the pattern". This is a box of airspace, used around the airport for takeoffs and landings.

In the pattern, I turned the nose of he plane toward the runway on final. Just then, Dave (my instructor) said, Keep your hands on the controls as I land the plane"

I wiped my palms on my pants and lighly gripped the controls. I watched the earth reclaim us as we touched down softly. "Reconfigure the plane for take off and get back in the air". I raised the flaps and gave the plane more right rudder. By the time I pushed the throttle full foward, we were back in the air.

After a short time back at the practice area we headed for Spinks Field once again. This time there were already three planes at different points in the traffic pattern. Jump in there between the last two planes. Within a few hundred feet of landing, Dave once again, took the controls.

I taxied the plane to the fuel pumps, then we moved to plane to the hanger. I twas then that I realized the this winged chariot was more at home in the air than on the ground.

It was a wonderful experience and I could not wait to get back in the air again.

So three days later I was in the doctor's office rechecking my blood work. I was devastated when they said there was still blood in my urine after several months. I now scheduled several tests including an ultrasound and a CT scan.

After the tests and two visits to a kidney specialist, it was discovered that I had a kidney stone. Crap! That could keep me from flying. After all, no one would like for me to be 3500 feet in the air, when the stone decides to come out.

The Kidney doctor believed that the stone has been there for some time and may have been the original cause for blood found in earlier tests.