As I was looking at old pictures the other night, I came across this photo from sometime between 1978 and 1980.. It was taken at the local airport where my dad was taking flight lessons at the time. All the guys pictured in this photo had had their weekly flight lesson with the local instructor (in the yellow shirt) as they worked toward their private pilot’s license. A little young for a flight lesson, but always eager to fly, I had sat in the pilot’s seat of the Cessna 150 pictured and had flown the plane with the flight instructor riding along and making sure I kept the plane in the air. He didn’t touch the wheel at all and helped me handle the plane when the stall warning horn went off on take-off.
We didn’t crash.
I vividly remember this picture being taken and feeling for the first time in my life that I was just one of the guys.
