Debrief

Michael Combs had wanted to fly for years, but a serious heart ailment not only grounded him—it nearly killed him. After he made a full recovery, he became a sport pilot and launched on The Flight for the Human Spirit, in which he endeavored to fly a Remos GX light sport aircraft to all 50 states. When this interview was conducted, he had landed in 49 of 50 states and was still working on how to get the airplane to Hawaii.

TRAINING WITH A PURPOSE… From day one, I was training for the [Flight for the Human Spirit]. Even when I did my demo flight, it was still with this in mind.

EARLY CHALLENGES… The challenges were the actual control of the aircraft. Even maintaining the right altitude in a right-hand turn was something I had to consciously think about. And my instructor was the one who pointed it out: “When you go left you go down and when you turn right you go up.”

TAKEOFFS ARE OPTIONAL... Takeoffs [are his favorite], there’s no question. It’s that freedom of flight we always hear about and talk about. When you lift off the ground, there’s no greater feeling than that. When I was in flight training, my palms would sweat a week before the lesson, but once I was off the ground even two feet, the sweating stopped.

ONCE BITTEN… So many of the pilots I’ve talked to are those who had not flown for 10 years. Because of this [Flight for the Human Spirit] they jumped back in. Aviation won’t leave someone’s heart once it steals in there. I’ve yet to see someone who loves flying and was glad to be out of an airplane for some period of time.

ADVICE FOR STUDENTS... Stay with it. Don’t give up.