You Can Fly: It's a Family Affair

Private pilot Bryan Duarte had watched more than 11 flightless years slip by when he signed up for an AOPA Rusty Pilots seminar last April at the Mansfield, Massachusetts, Municipal Airport.

The day of the seminar, a snowstorm struck, but that’s New England weather for you. Duarte was undeterred, as were 35 others who turned out despite the conditions.

“Obviously, I’m not alone in this dilemma,” he said to himself about returning to aviation.

It turned out to be a “great class,” said Duarte, 52, whose last logbook entry was a flight in August 2005. Like many pilots, he had found it necessary to put flying aside as his family grew, and as his work as a senior software developer for a Rhode Island insurance company expanded.

Now, with daughter Samantha, 12 years old, and son Nathan, 9, Duarte believed the time was right to return—and he was hopeful the family would come along for the ride(s).

Duarte and his children got to go up on a discovery flight from the local flight school in early July, flying a Piper Cherokee north to Foxborough, Massachusetts, and taking aerial photos of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots of the National Football League.

“I landed by myself, which I thought was pretty cool,” Duarte said. Another cool thing: The kids loved the flying.

While Duarte and the kids were up flying, his wife, Cindy, struck up an airport conversation with a man named David, who said he was the president of a flying club. And there was this tempting tidbit: An ownership slot in the flying club’s Cessna 172 would be “coming up” soon.

Duarte ran the numbers, took a ride in the 1977 Cessna 172N, and sought advice from a “picky mechanic.”

“A week later I signed the papers, so now I am an aircraft owner,” he said. Duarte’s experience is one reason AOPA is a strong advocate of flying clubs as a source of access to affordable flying. The AOPA Flying Club Initiative and the Rusty Pilots program are two components of You Can Fly, AOPA’s umbrella program to support the pilot community and grow general aviation.

Duarte said he credits his AOPA membership, reading AOPA Pilot magazine each month, and attending AOPA’s 2014 regional fly-in in Plymouth as “things that kept me going” during his time away from flying. He hopes to see the AOPA staffers he met in Plymouth again, and tell them what a difference three years have made.

“It’s a great feeling to say that I’m really a pilot again, and not just someone with the plastic in their wallet,” he said.