Many of us are drawn to aviation for its promise of adventure, but how many of us seek that adventure once the coveted private pilot certificate is in hand? Adventure demands stretching the bounds of what is comfortable and familiar, but so often as new pilots we are reluctant to stray too close to the edge of our comfort zones. Instead we fly well-worn paths to familiar airports, content in our mastery of these routes and the skills required to navigate them.
And then there are folks like Greg Kaiser. In August 2013, with a mere 7.5 hours of private pilot experience in his logbook, Kaiser loaded his wife and two children into a rented Cessna 172P to attend a family reunion five hours and three states away. The trip—465 nm from Westosha Airport in Wilmot, Wisconsin, to Grove Municipal Airport, Grove, Oklahoma, where scattered thunderstorms were forecast—was one few novices would consider, let alone undertake. “My logic was that I’d passed the tests,” says Kaiser, “and you only learn by doing.”
He certainly learned. He learned how to make a real-world emergency landing. Granted, it was for a bathroom emergency for a 4-year-old and not a mechanical malfunction, but the process of quickly finding a nearby airport and slipping through 6,000 feet in two miles to get there felt, he says, like a very realistic application of the procedure.
He learned about tough decision making under stress. As weather along the route began to deteriorate, Kaiser diverted to Jefferson City, Missouri, about an hour from his final destination. Low clouds and scattered storms persisted and, although anxious to reach his reunion, he decided they’d stay the night in Jefferson City. The next morning, with ceilings still low, he fought the urge to scud run to Grove and instead sought the advice of a flight instructor at the FBO. “It was 9 a.m. and he said things were supposed to clear up by two or three o’clock, so I had to make the decision,” says Kaiser. “Do I wait until 2 p.m. or 3 p.m. and try to launch? Or just drive and be there by 1 p.m.?”
They drove. And that’s when he learned that sometimes foiled plans are the best possible outcome. “It worked out better than if we had flown,” raves the unflappable Kaiser. “The reunion ended a day early and we thought [that] since we have a car, let’s go exploring. We ended up discovering Lake of the Ozarks. We loved it and want to fly back for another visit. It was a place we had always talked about going. Having the car let us finally get there.”
The return trip was no less uneventful. Taking off out of Jefferson City to return home, Kaiser entered clouds about 700 feet off the ground—more than 1,000 feet lower than the METARs had reported. He called ATC to request an immediate return and, with winds calm and the airport deserted, accepted the controller’s offer of a turn to land back on his departure runway. When the ceiling finally inched up, enabling him to take off again, he was forced to cruise at around 1,800 feet for the first half hour or more until the skies cleared. “It was lower than I was comfortable with,” he admits, “but the charts said I was safe and after about 20 minutes, it was no longer a big deal.” It was his final lesson of the trip—that redefining the bounds of comfort is one of aviation’s great rewards.
Kaiser says he is now eager to work on his instrument rating and embark on another trip. That’s the thing about these kinds of adventures, they make pilots hungry for more. At a time when many flight schools say one of their toughest challenges is keeping new private pilots returning to the airport, we must remember that this approach to flying—go large, go long, live the adventure—is one that creates pilots who crave more knowledge and experience, not less. We advocate caution and safety in our industry and that is crucial, but could we perhaps do more to encourage venturing into the unknown and pushing outside comfort zones within those bounds of safety?
Kaiser thinks so. And he is now more ready than ever to continue exploring and stretching his limits, because waiting for him when he returned from his trip was an envelope from the FAA: his official pilot certificate. A ticket to many more adventures.
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