- - - not sad as in injurious, just unfortunate. There's been a continuing thread here about aviation-related license plates. I was in the local Wal-Mart parking lot and saw a vehicle with plate FUT-PLT. It aroused my curiosity, particularly because of the Handicapped flag hanging from the inside mirror. Perhaps being the nosy type, I watched for the operator to return and when she did, I made inquiry about the Maine plates.
"Oh, it's because of my son. He's always wanted to be a pilot but it's not going to happen." She went on to explain that her teenager went to an affair at Wiscasset Airport "where they were giving airplane rides to kids. Xxxxxxx, whom I've known for many years and has been my son's school teacher, took him for a flight and that sealed his long-held desire to be a pilot."
Well, Xxxxxxx doesn't own his own plane and has used mine for years at the Fly-Ins for Young Eagle events. I asked if she knew if that plane was red and white; and when she said her son came home raving about the plane and experience with Xxxxxxx, I told her, "That was my plane. Xxxxxxx has flown many Young Eagles in it." She then continued.
"My son was so wound up about flying from that point we bought him the introductory lesson at Auburn Airport. He was grinning from ear to ear when he got into the plane for his first lesson. When he came back he was white as a sheet, terrified, and vowed he'd never fly again. That was the end of the future pilot desires but we've kept the plates while hoping he'll change his mind."
Then it got very interesting, though I had a hunch about the affair.
"The pilot was very young, and when I saw his picture on TV after the plane from up there flew into the mountain, killing him and several Lewiston High School students, I said to my husband, 'He looks like the same pilot that flew our son.'"
A bit of background: After the referenced crash, several high school students who had flown, earlier, with the pilot, testified about events that pilots might refer to as 'flying on the edge.'
My gut feeling, and only that, is that the kid's introductory lesson was also his first and only experience with showboating, to have terrified him such that it did. The son is 20 now; still has no desire to be a pilot after whatever happened during his first lesson. I sort of apologized for his unfortunate experience and suggested that Xxxxxxx, I'm sure, would take him for another flight if he would so desire. Sad story, really.
HR
HR
"Oh, it's because of my son. He's always wanted to be a pilot but it's not going to happen." She went on to explain that her teenager went to an affair at Wiscasset Airport "where they were giving airplane rides to kids. Xxxxxxx, whom I've known for many years and has been my son's school teacher, took him for a flight and that sealed his long-held desire to be a pilot."
Well, Xxxxxxx doesn't own his own plane and has used mine for years at the Fly-Ins for Young Eagle events. I asked if she knew if that plane was red and white; and when she said her son came home raving about the plane and experience with Xxxxxxx, I told her, "That was my plane. Xxxxxxx has flown many Young Eagles in it." She then continued.
"My son was so wound up about flying from that point we bought him the introductory lesson at Auburn Airport. He was grinning from ear to ear when he got into the plane for his first lesson. When he came back he was white as a sheet, terrified, and vowed he'd never fly again. That was the end of the future pilot desires but we've kept the plates while hoping he'll change his mind."
Then it got very interesting, though I had a hunch about the affair.
"The pilot was very young, and when I saw his picture on TV after the plane from up there flew into the mountain, killing him and several Lewiston High School students, I said to my husband, 'He looks like the same pilot that flew our son.'"
A bit of background: After the referenced crash, several high school students who had flown, earlier, with the pilot, testified about events that pilots might refer to as 'flying on the edge.'
My gut feeling, and only that, is that the kid's introductory lesson was also his first and only experience with showboating, to have terrified him such that it did. The son is 20 now; still has no desire to be a pilot after whatever happened during his first lesson. I sort of apologized for his unfortunate experience and suggested that Xxxxxxx, I'm sure, would take him for another flight if he would so desire. Sad story, really.
HR
HR