Why an aviation blog?
For longer than I can remember I have been fascinated with things that fly. Growing up I was a kid who spent hours playing with rubber-band powered balsa models and foam gliders. I am sure that I bored my parents and brother with a constant stream of aviation-related movies and television. Over the years I checked out every book on flying available from our small town library. Even though I was still young to fly I knew more than anyone ever needed to know about jets, aircraft carriers, and helicopters.
After high school I was sure that I was going to someday fly for a living. Because my less than perfect vision precluded me from flying for the Air Force, I enrolled in Central Missouri State University (today the University of Central Missouri) and began flight training. It was an incredible experience and I was making steady progress when God decided to intervene and point me in another direction. During my time at Warrensburg I began to feel a call toward ministry and eventually ended up enrolling in seminary.
Although my seminary, the University of Dubuque, had an undergraduate flight school I simply had no time or the financial resources necessary to finish up my private pilot certificate. Over the next several years I focused my flying energy on simulators and radio controlled gliders. A decade later I joined a radio controlled club here in Dexter, Missouri and began flying powered models.
Eventually, my wife and I both settled into our careers and I became a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve. The extra Air Force income has allowed me to join the Dexter flying club and finally pursue my private pilot training once again. Although having to work around a busy profession has slowed my learning, I have learned to relax and enjoy the training process itself.
In October 2015 I soloed in the club’s Cessna 172. My flying blog will become a record of the remainder of my training process, as well as highlights from the world of aviation. Aviation truly is the greatest thrill in the world, and I hope that you will find it as exciting as I have.
