Check one more item off the Bucket List
Ever since my first airline flight at age 3, I have always been fascinated with aviation. When I was in high school, I would draw airplanes to kill the time during the day. When I got my first aviation job, working in the Ops Center at United in JFK, my passion for wanting to fly really kicked in. I would meet and talk to the UA pilots everyday, and a few of them became very good friends. Finally I got the push from one of them to take flying lessons.
That was back in 1988...of course back then, my resources were few, however I did take lessons, and even solo'd some, but when you are learning to fly you need three things: Time, Money & Weather. Unfortunately for me, I kept running out of one of those three things. However, I always wanted to remember the memories, so I never threw away my logbook. I felt somewhere deep down inside that one day I would take to the skies again.
Fast forward to 2009. I earned my dispatcher's license from Flight Safety, and being my job now has me talking to pilots almost all day long, I knew I had to get back in the air myself.
After investigating schools at both Republic and Islip, this August I decided to train with Heritage Flight Academy at Islip. They just seemed more organized and more student friendly. They audited my logbook, and built a training program specifically to me to get my private pilots license. This attempt, money, time and weather all held with only 1 interruption and yesterday, October 17th, 2010, I completed my FAA Checkride, and earned my Private Pilot Certificate. I have to thank the guys at HFA, including Lou & Ivan my two instructors, both were very thorough yet knew how to present and teach the maneuvers in a way that kept me safe and proficient without draining my wallet.
