How I Became a Pilot

            
             Piper, president of Piper Aircraft Corporation, once said, "Once you have learned to fly your plane, it is far less fatiguing to fly than it is to drive a car. You don't have to watch every second for cats, dogs, children, lights, road signs, ladies with baby carriages and citizens who drive out in the middle of the block against the lights. . . . Nobody who has not been up in the sky on a glorious morning can possibly imagine the way a pilot feels in free heaven." This is how I have felt about flying since the very first time I took controls of an airplane so many years ago. I have been able to earn my private pilot's license, my instrument rating, and my commercial license in my 18 years. .
             My dad was the person that taught me to fly. He started flying as a teenager, he would only take a lesson every once in a while because of money. He never actually received a license until after he was honorably discharged from the Navy and was able to afford flight training. He worked his way from having only a few hours to earning every license that he needed to begin working as a flight instructor at Embry-Riddle. As a flight instructor, he accumulated enough hours to get a job as a commuter pilot and eventually an airline pilot. However, airline flying and general aviation are not the same thing, and being an airline pilot doesn't mean you can fly a small plane as an instructor. Fortunately for me, he kept up with his instructor's license and continued to fly in general aviation. .
             I began flying when I was about four years old. My family lived in Corpus Christi, Texas at the time which had an airport that my dad would rent planes from. At the time I knew very little to nothing about flying, but I would go flying with him anyways. I would sit in the plane and hold the controls when he told me to but I wasn't at the point that I was "learning" yet. My dad wouldn't rent planes often though because of cost.