Bill Gribble wrote in message ...


Perhaps our objectives are different. Perhaps geography plays a part.
But I'd say you were paying too much. Certainly far to much for what you
evidently got out of it.

I'm still totalling things up, but what I got out of it was a minimum
$7000 total loss. However, and I wasn't any different from any of the
other students we had, an average day would be three flights, $40 per
tow, an hours rent for the 2-33, another $40, and an hours
instruction, another $40. Once I was in my 1-26, prices got a lot
cheaper, but I don't think I ever took it on more than one flight per
day. Another problem came when, after a layoff of several weeks,
trying to get back on the schedule was only a matter of six more
weeks. Both instructor and the 2-33 were booked solid that far in
advance. Don't know if that's changed, but not being willing to be
financially strapped all the time, it doesn't matter. The nearest
club, the last time I talked to anyone there, no students unless solo
students. Not that that matters either, I don't like clubs, it's a
blooming hobby, something I do for myself, and if the small clique of
anal masters that always seems to take control of it doesn't like it,
I have "kiss me here" embroidered on the seat of my shorts.

But I find comparing the rewards of music and the appreciation
of a child (or any type of audience, for that matter) to the rewards to
be found "in a cockpit" to be a bit non-sensical.

Maybe, but after my first solo, I didn't have a grin on my face.
After the hug from Melissa, I did. After the first solo, it was only
the realization that I had finally done what I had wanted to do for
some forty years. The comment from Melissa meant much more, because
it wasn't just the social "gladhanding" that I got after the solo.
However, had I continued soaring, I could never have purchased the
Yamaha DGX-500, and my left hand is almost entirely shot, can't do
much on the organ anymore.

Sure. But would you have as much fun rotting your brain in coffee as I
do mine in beer?

Probably more, because in the morning I wouldn't be asking myself how
big of a damn fool did I make of myself the night before. But then, I
always figured that my dad drank enough beer that I don't have to.