Scholarship players versus walk-ons

Then someone got them a flight lesson and they whittled away at hours until at last they had the pilot certificate they had been dreaming of for their entire life. I know lots of people like that. When those pilots talk of their beginnings, they tell their story with a certainty that they are right where they belong because, obviously, they were always meant to be a pilot. Right?

But what if your path to the aviation promised land isn’t like that? What if you stumbled into airplanes and ended up sticking with it? Maybe you often look at your life and wonder how you arrived here, doing this flying thing? And when the path is kind of convoluted and unintentional, does that mean you’re not where you’re supposed to be?

I recently asked one of my checkride applicants the “what got you into aviation” question. He got a little emotional telling me the story of how he ended up being a caretaker for his grandfather, with whom he had never really had a relationship. In the time they had together, the grandfather would talk about his favorite subject: airplanes. When the grandfather’s illness finally took him, my applicant found himself aimless and wondering if maybe he should give aviation a try. Several months later, he was sitting across the table from me earning a pilot certificate. He had plans to go all the way to commercial and pursue a flying career. But I couldn’t stop wondering: What if he had never agreed to take care of his grandfather? Would he have found airplanes some other way?

He came back and asked his father-in-law, “You mean I can get paid for this?”
We recently hired a new flight instructor at our school, Nick Huey, who is so passionate about flying that one might think he has pursued it his entire life. But he’s another one who stumbled upon it. Nick had been in the banking industry for almost a decade when he mentioned to his father-in-law that he might like to try something else for a career. His father-in-law, a pilot, asked, “Have you ever thought about flying?” Nick took an introductory flight shortly thereafter. The moment the wheels left the ground, he marveled at what he’d been missing. He came back and asked his father-in-law, “You mean I can get paid for this?” After Nick got his private pilot certificate, he quit his job, sold everything, and pursued his ratings full time. He is now one of the most magnetic, positive guys in our office. It’s hard to believe he just happened into this.

My own aviation story is similar. Although my father was a pilot, I never saw myself flying. The summer after undergrad, I was waiting to attend graduate school for journalism in the fall. A friend invited me out to back-seat on one of her flight lessons and I went along truly because I had nothing better to do that day. But the aviation siren was enticing….I never went to grad school. I never really left the airport. I got an enormously scary loan, hustled through all my pilot ratings, and started instructing a year later. Throw in some charter and corporate work, a little bit of airline time, and now my role as a chief instructor and FAA designated pilot examiner, and I’d say I’m officially an aviator. No turning back now. Some of the very best things in my life have happened when I wasn’t looking for them. Take my husband, the good-looking man sitting next to me, for one. Every time I look back over the years and see how all the pieces have fit together, a feeling settles over me like a warm blanket, and my belief is renewed that there’s no such thing as coincidence.

And what about you? Can you imagine your life without airplanes? Whether you sought it out from an early age or just arrived at it more recently, I know you wouldn’t trade away that view from up above for anything. And even if you think you could be OK never climbing in an airplane again, I bet you cannot imagine your life without the friends you have made through aviation. I’m guessing if you subtracted those people, your life, like mine, would be empty and flat without them—Grant, Catherine, Sherron, Brenda, you know who you are. It’s no accident that we get to navigate our lives with each other. And to all of you readers who are on this journey with me, I’m so glad we’re here together.

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