I really don't have time to play video games. Besides, it is hard to truly enjoy something that an eleven year old kid can beat you at consistently. As much trouble as I have with game controllers, it is a wonder I ever got the hang of flying.

I do have a possibly amusing story about my flight lessons. I wasn't having much luck with my landings. In fact, Dan Seiber, my original C.F.I. once mentioned to me that I was taking a somewhat unusual amount of time getting enough of the hang of it for him to endorse my logbook.

One evening, after I got home from work, and from the flight lesson for that day, I was feeling a bit discouraged about my problems with landing the aircraft(s) I was training in. I thought about how I had a little over one thousand dollars left in the block of training time I had purchased early on in the interest of saving money. I then and there decided that I would continue to take flight lessons until the remainder of that block of time was gone. Then, if I still couldn't land the plane three times in a row without any assistance from Dan, I would resign myself to the idea that I simply wasn't meant to be a pilot and quit.

The very next afternoon, after having flown out to the practice area, over the Pacific Ocean off of Palos Verdes, and practiced some airwork, Dan and I returned to the airport for some landing practice.

After three full stop landings and takeoffs, as I was rolling out after the third landing, Dan told me that, since he hadn't had to touch the controls once during said landings, he was going to endorse my logbook and send me up for some solo landing practice and that I should taxi into the run-up area.

I want to tell you, the second I heard the word, "Solo," I was scared half to death! It was all I could do to not ask Dan, since my flight time for that day was almost up, if maybe we shouldn't spend the rest of my time doing dual practice and wait until the next day to solo. But, I just kept my mouth shut and hoped Dan knew what I was doing. I decided that if I screwed up, I probably wouldn't be alive to hear anybody bitching at me anywho.

As we were taxiing to the run-up area, Dan told me to do full stop landings, and each time I taxied back past him to look over at him. If he waved me by, I was to take the runway, after clearance from the tower, of course, and take off again. If he motioned me to him, I was to taxi over to see want he wanted to tell me.

Man, I will admit that I was practically shaking with fear. In other words, I was so nervous as a long tailed tom cat in a room full of rocking chairs!

Once we got to the run-up area, Dan gave me some last minute tips and instructions, stepped out of the plane, turned around, reached in, patted me on the shoulder and said, "Good luck."

The second I heard the door slam shut, all the fear instantly left me. Why, someone might ask? Because the second I was in the plane alone, and it was all up to me, I was too busy checking my instrument panel, making certain the plane was ready to go, and speaking with the air traffic controllers to have time to be afraid of anything.

Needless-to-say, everything went well, I didn't bend the aircraft, and I'm still here many years later to write about it.

The moral of this story should be obvious. The second I resigned myself to what I thought might be the inevitable and stopped worrying about it, everything came together!

On a last note, I want to tell everybody that my first solo flight only lacked an orgasm being better than sex!

A person who has never spent twenty or more hours in an aircraft preparing for the day when they are capable of solo flight can truly understand how it feels to solo.
For a student pilot, that first time the landing gear leaves the runway, and they are alone in the cockpit acting as pilot-in-command, so to speak, the sensations and emotions running through them are indescribable!

I apologize to anybody who may have gotten bored and stopped reading my story several paragraphs ago. To those who chose to read all the way up to here, thanks for taking an interest in a small fraction of my life.

Myles Shaffer
AINEWS.COM Columnist