Never too old

Those obligations leave little time and money to rent the aircraft for $125 per hour to obtain a private pilot certificate plus the $60 fee for the CFI. It was far less expensive in 1969 when it cost $400 for all the required flying training and ground school sessions ($4 an hour for the airplane; gas was 10 cents a gallon). The CFI received $5 per hour to supplement his full-time $7,000-a-year job. That total cost compares to today’s estimated for obtaining the certificate at $12,000. In that same year a new house cost $15,000, and the annual tuition at Harvard was $2,000 per year.

The typical private pilot has, over the past five decades, more or less followed my experience, which included limited flying hours in my 20s and 30s as I was raising a family and starting my career. By my mid-40s, I was able to purchase a 25-year-old Cessna for $25,000 (financed like a house). That purchase was made up in the annual savings when compared to the cost for a rental if I flew 100 hours a year. After 10 years I sold the airplane since my flight time was less than 100 hours a year.

Selling the Cessna led to joining a series of well-organized flying clubs where membership ranged from eight pilots (one airplane) to 130 (five airplanes) and where the expense was low enough to experience the legendary hamburger flight that really did cost only $100. When my flying hours dwindled, the shares in the club were sold at the same price as when initially purchased.

I joined the United Flying Octo-genarians (UFO), an exclusive club that encourages its members to fly after reaching the age of 80, and my desire to fly again returned with a vengeance. The club was formed in 1982 and the $20 annual dues has remained the same. The 1,600 members are separated into different regions around the country and they arrange fly-in meetings at small airports.

The flying experience seems to stop after reaching the age of about 65, the year when social security checks kick in and family members and some friends think you’re too old to fly. But with the inspiration from the UFO meetings, and ignoring advice from everyone, I scheduled my long overdue flight review in 2021 at Solberg-Hunterdon Airport in New Jersey. The review was under the guidance of an understanding and spirited CFI by the name of Dick Shuster. He had more than 30 students in training programs when he was assigned to conduct my flight review.

The airport was founded by Thor Solberg who moved to New Jersey in 1930 and in 1939 opened the 700-acre airport, which is still managed by the family: his two daughters, Lorraine and Suzy. They both have been involved in the operations since 1963 and Lorraine can be found six days a week scheduling the students, renting airplanes, and working with the instructors and the owners of the 125 tiedowns. The street leading to the airport is named Thor Solberg Road and the Norwegian flag flies on the pole outside the office. Once a year, since 2004, the airport hosts the “Festival of Ballooning” that attracts more than 100,000 people. Lorraine told me that hot-air ballooning is enjoying a revival as younger people are starting to take up a sport that involves spending as little as $10,000 to $20,000 for a used balloon.

Learning about ballooning was a bonus during my review, which included five hours of flight time that was mainly used to recognize unfamiliar landmarks. Another two hours of ground school to learn about new FAA regulations, including the hard to understand but easy to obtain BasicMed, and how my reliance on the VOR and sectional charts for navigation was almost obsolete, being replaced by the iPad, which uses an app like the ForeFlight software package for $99 per year. UFO members would probably have to get their granddaughter to program it for them.

After Shuster signed my logbook, I suggested that he start a flying club for septuagenarians since he will be 75 on his next birthday. Also, after the sign-off, I flew the left seat as pilot in command for the first time in many years along with a friend for what is now a $200 hamburger flight on a sunny August day in the summer of 2021. That flight took place exactly two weeks after my ninetieth birthday. The year I was born the stock market was at its historic low of $34 a share and my father supported the family on his $2,000 a year salary, enough to purchase a four-bedroom house for $7,000 and a new car for $740.

Charles Schnabolk is a 50-year consulting engineer, a former professor, and author of several textbooks on security design for complex buildings and institutions. He now carries an iPad.