And so it begins…
I’ve always wanted to learn to fly, and this week I decided to make that dream a reality.
I’m not really sure when my desire to become a pilot began — and actually, thinking about my childhood experience of flying, I can’t quite understand why on Earth it’s been such an obsession.
I have messed up ears; perforated ear drums caused by chickenpox at 18 months old which never quite healed. I think my left ear still has a hole in it, though I’ve kind of lost track. Anyway, it meant that as a child, every time I got on a flight, went through a train tunnel, or was driven high up a mountain, my ears hurt. Not just the pop of the pressure, that’s normal — a sharp pain. It was excruciating, and family holidays for me meant buying chewy sweets at the airport, trying countless types of weird in-flight ear plugs, crying for take off and landing, and foggy hearing for a few weeks afterwards.
I do remember loving the feeling of flying though. The anticipation before lift off, the bumpy adventure through the clouds, the sights — oh the sights — from the slow miniaturisation of cities and landscapes to the sunsets and sunrises when cruising mid-flight. I still love all that (though the clouds now aren’t quite as fun an adventure and more a source of pit of stomach cartwheels due to the more consequence-riddled thoughts).
The earliest memory of wanting to actually learn though, came not from the emotions inspired by the flight, but from stumbling across an article in 2008 — at the age of 17 — about a private plane with folding wings. I was totally fascinated by this plane — I wanted it so badly! I have no idea about what makes a plane a good plane (yet), but I know I was totally taken by the ICON A5.
I was never really mad about any bands or music artists as a teenager, so I’m thinking maybe that feeling of young love and future-dreaming was what I felt for this awesome piece of engineering. Maybe it’s the same as when people who like cars look at their favourite model, I don’t know. I still think it looks cracking. Maybe in a few months when I know more about aviation I’ll find out the ICON A5 isn’t all I had it built up to be, but regardless, this was my ‘one day I’ll have that’ thing I set my heart on, and is what started my obsessive bookmarking of all ‘learn to fly’ resources I could find in 2008.
I must have been talking about it a lot, as my great aunts and uncles bunched together to buy me a flying lesson for my 18th birthday — my first flight — and I was hooked. I had to work out how to make learning to fly happen, and I didn’t have the patience to wait.
In 2009 I went to uni — and I chose St Andrews for its beautiful town, its maths reputation…and the fact it had RAF Leuchars nearby with a University Air Squadron. I was so excited to get involved with all that the Air Squadron had to offer — from the social life and the various extracurriculars to the leadership training and, of course, the flying lessons. I’d go so far as to say that the Air Squadron was one of the main reasons I picked St Andrews.
So I was more than a little downhearted when my application was rejected and I wasn’t allowed to join.
I think that was the point I parked my dream for a while. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that recently, I’d forgotten about it. I’ve been with my boyfriend for over 2 years, and the first time he heard me say that I wanted to learn how to fly was yesterday — I didn’t quite believe him, but I guess thinking back over the last 8 years since that rejection, there’s been little talk of my dream. My uni flatmates bought me a flying lesson for my 21st so I must have still been talking about it then, but I don’t remember having the same naive optimism and excitement as I’d had as a teenager. I guess part of the spark had disappeared with my chances to fly at Leuchars.
But yesterday, the excitement for a forgotten dream came back like a tidal wave.
I can’t remember what I was thinking about when the thought of learning to fly popped into my head — I was just eating lunch and I started Googling London flight schools. Within an hour, I’d researched the best ones, worked out my finances, planned my TfL route to the airfield and booked my first lesson — and the giddy excitement hasn’t left me since..!
So, this Sunday, I’ve booked my first real flying lesson. I’m ridiculously excited about getting started on my license. Knowing that a dream is literally becoming a reality is blowing my mind. So in a bid to untangle this overwhelming enthusiasm while still on the ground, I thought I’d collect my thoughts and stories here as I embark on this latest adventure of mine.
So — let’s do this thing.
