Advice, please: too old to fly?

"greenwavepilot" wrote in message
ups.com...
Well, I just hit 30 and realized that I am too old to finish my PPL,
and will never try again. Since the arrival of my kid I had to face the
hard cold fact that I could buy lessons and avgas or diapers and baby
food and daycare. So all my PPL stuff is currently on Ebay.

So...
I don't look up anymore when I hear that piston single.
I don't want to ever get near an aircraft again.
It makes me sick even thinking about it.

snip

Been there! Got the PPL then got married! We had two infant daughters. It was not possible to stay current and
feel safe flying only an hour or so a month. Regretfully, I let my magazine subscriptions lapse and tried to turn
away. Once smitten though, the ember wouldn't die. Once in a great while someone would offer me a ride. Then
finances ever so slowly got a bit better as my career progressed. I could afford things like a boat, then a few
years later, a travel trailer. Then a friend talked me into RC models. The same friend then talked me into a flying
club. (It didn't take much talking). Then an inexpensive Cherokee came up for sale and I started wondering... ditch
the toys, and just maybe? The rest is history. After 8 years of ownership, I wouldn't change a thing. Don't
totally give up just because you have to take a sabbatical. There was a time as young man that I was on a mission to
own an airplane. There was a time in my life that I just knew it would never happen and I'd wasted a fortune on
lessons. 15 years later and I'm in a club putting those lessons to use and a year later I own my airplane. Since
then it has taken the wife and I from the middle of the USA to the Grand Canyon, Oshkosh, Canada, and countless trips
to see friends and relatives and to tens if not hundreds of high school soccer and football games around the state.

Back to the thread: Similarly to others who've have mentioned relatives or people they know... I had an Uncle who
was a civilian military flight instructor during WWII. Then he was a corporate pilot, flying Beech 18's for J.I.
Case (tractor) company. Several years ago there was a reunion and he flew his own airplane to the airfield were he
once taught fighter pilots. His ex-students could not believe he was still flying. IIRC, he was 88 years young at
the time. He kept on instructing into his mid 90's, once receiving the Oklahoma flight instructor of the year award.
He finally quit flying, and sold his airplane when he was 96. At one point he had been honored as the oldest flying
pilot in the U.S. by the FAA and AOPA. He moved into an assisted living center while still in relatively good
health. One day Dad and I stopped by to visit. He was a bit depressed as many elderly in his situation seem to be.
An elderly lady walked into his apartment with her son. They were considering moving her into the same facility.
She noticed a framed picture setting on an end table. It was of him as a young man standing beside the Beech he used
to fly. The lady asked, "What is that"? Assuming she was point to the elegantly hand crafted doily the picture was
setting on, he said with a touch of sadness, "Oh my wife crocheted that years ago before she passed away". The lady
said, "No, that's beautiful, but I mean the picture". Uncle raised his eyebrows, and cautiously began telling of his
flying career. The elegant old woman said she'd been a ferry pilot in world war II. Both their eyes lit up, the
scrap books came out, and they were transported back in time...as was I. It was the most amazing thing I'd ever
witnessed as they told flying story after story. He passed away at 99 years young. He never lost a student in an
airplane crash during 70 years of flying. My only regret is that he lived 130 miles from me and I never got to fly
with him.

Joe Schneider
N8437R



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