This Aviation Lifestyle
Patience and pursuit throughout the seasons of our lives
Recently I was having dinner with a friend. He mentioned in conversation that due to the current economic challenges going on, his father had seriously been considering selling his plane. The rest of the family, however, convinced him not to; or at the very least, not to “just yet.” They know how much this plane means to him and how much it has become such a part of him. As a teenager, he began pursuing his pilot’s license. All these years later, it is still one of this man’s greatest joys to be up in the air in his beloved airplane.
Many of his son’s fondest memories are the times he’s spent with his father in the plane, around their hangar and out and about various small airports. He shared with me some of these memories and they’re worthy of a short story collection: touching, humorous, endearing. I have learned a lot about my friend’s father, and his character, from these plane stories shared.
Even though my friend isn’t interested in working on his private pilot’s license, his older brother is and just soloed a few months ago. It does seem, to a degree, that aviation gets-in-the-blood. That this particular passion and pursuit can be carried along through the generations as well as throughout one’s individual lifetime is shown within personal examples found here and there.
For many people, aviation is the constant of their lives. Wherever they are, whatever they’re doing and however life’s circumstances come their way, aviation is truly there for them in some way or another.
I think of how aviation, and our mutual interest in aviation, has meandered through both James and my life so far. And also how aviation has manifested itself in differing ways and levels of experience for us. Obviously for James, being an aerobatic pilot and commercial airline pilot keeps aviation front and center in his life. He also has enjoyed doing volunteer work within aviation and has a bevy of aviator friends. For me, aviation has mainly manifested itself as the writing of columns and articles over the years plus being a passenger and observer at air shows as well. However, back when we lived in North Carolina, I had begun to take private pilot’s lessons and, one day in the future, am determined to finish them.
I am slowly learning during these decades of my adult life, the age old lesson of being content to wait-out life’s varying “seasons”: the various chapters of situation and circumstance one lives out within their lifetime. Sometimes it’s really not the time to begin or finish or even begin dreaming of something one desires to experience and/or accomplish. Flexibility, patience and a good sense of ironic humor are the adulthood survival skills that should be taught in school. These are skills that are gradually developing for me out of care giving for my parents over these past five years. My late mother always used to quip, “be careful to pray for patience!” Oh, how very right she was indeed.
Much of aviation whether it’s a hobby, volunteer activity, sideline job, career or all consuming passion involves flexibility, patience and heaping doses of ironic humor. There is so much to love about aviation and also so much to get frustrated with but above all, aviation is just so incredibly neat to be a part of whatever part it is.
I have really loved the small part I’ve played within the aviation realm so far and hope one day to expand upon it. I aim to eventually become a private pilot. Whether it takes me moving into another life chapter to be able to do so or just waiting a bit longer within this current one, I can rest within a sense of patience.
Last year I was able to realize a longtime dream of graduating summa cum laude from graduate school which was such a thrill. It took me 16 years from college graduation to get myself to where I could apply for and start a graduate program. Then three years later, wow, there I was going across the coliseum’s stage in my mortar board, robe and hood receiving my master’s diploma. I have to admit that it was very hard to be patient during those 16 years I slogged through a business management career that wasn’t really “me”. Yes, it was lucrative and, at times, interesting and rewarding. It also was wonderful real-world experience which aided my graduate work and so I am grateful for the experience of it. However, my heart’s always really been in academia and so naturally, I am now pursuing admission into a PhD program that seems a perfect fit. Hopefully it won’t be another 16 years before I begin with that. Ah, patience…patience.
And so it will be as well with the private pilot license lessons. This will be something I continue to look forward to going back to finishing up whenever my life situation allows that to happen.
I hope one day to be like my friend’s father and also like my husband James. I hope one day to be like so many of you who have a plane you take great joy in flying around, tinkering with in a hangar and providing sweetly satisfying life stories for subsequent generations to savor. Maybe one day, I’ll have my own version of James’ Miss Pitts- now that’s something indeed to be looking forward to!
Happy New Year and happy future-looking-forward-to aviation pursuits, pleasures and patience to you all this 2010 and beyond.
By Lachlan Ivy