My friend and flying "mentor" (who was also a customer, now my partner)
had been telling me stories about his flying experiences even from when
he was training. While always enamored, I never thought I had the time or
money to do it.

One day we had to go to a meeting in the Philadelphia area (I live in NYC
area, between LGA & HPN, he lives at the Jersey Shore area). I didn't
want to drive, so I took the train and he picked me up in Trenton and we
drove the rest of the way in his car.

On the way back from the meeting, we wanted to "debrief" in the car, so
we planned for me to get dropped off at the train station near his house.
When we got nearby, though, he said, "Hey - what time is your train? Do
you want to check out my airport a minute - it's right nearby!"

Well, I had plenty of time, and thought it would be fun, so we did. As we
were there, one of the instructors was planning a flight to HPN with a
friend of his, and let me make it a discovery flight and tag along...
(Now that I am a pilot, I suspect this may have been questionably legal,
but at the time I didn't know better...)

We flew up over the Verrazano, up the Hudson River at 1500' (through the
Class B, but at the time I didn't know the difference.) and up over to
HPN. It was about 6pm in March of 2001 - just dark enough to have all the
lights of the city come on, but light enough that you could see
everything. It was a CAVU day, and the ride was amazing. I was completely
taken in. By the time we landed, I said, "I GOTTA DO THIS!"

The next day, I scheduled my intro flights at the two flight schools at
HPN, and started my training. In December 2001, I got my PPL. Last week I
got my IFR.

It was one of the best things I ever started!



EDR wrote in :


Reading Rich Bach's book, "THE GIFT OF WINGS".
I had been skydiving for eight years and was tired of just going up and
down. I was 26, single, had the time, had the money, so I did it.