About your host

Flying may have been my first love. I don’t know – chocolate may have been first, but I can’t say which one was first with any certainty. But this space is not for chocolate (maybe I’ll devote a project toward that in the future). Whatever. Aviation has been a passion of mine from before my first utterance of words. This is true. From what I’ve been told, I didn’t speak until I was three but would point at the sky and grunt at any passing airplane. That’s remained consistent through today; I’m still pointing at the sky and at any magnificent flying machine.

My parents gifted me an introductory lesson when I was 16. No doubt, I was hooked and began taking flying lessons as often as I was able to get out to my local airport. The intro flight was a gift, but the training was self-funded. You can imagine that the standard income from after-school work doesn’t run deep and soon after soloing, I stopped.

Airman or not, I kept a toe in the aviation waters…or rather, sky. I consumed anything I could on the topic. Attended airshows and other special events, wrote for different aviation-related online publications, and established contacts within both the general and commercial aviation spectrum. My career path went one way, but I never abandoned my hunger of flight.

One day, while attending a media event at JFK Airport, I had an awakening. I was tired of sitting on the sidelines of the aviation community. I was envious of those that were directly a part of that family. I wanted that for myself. It had been over 20 years since I did that solo flight, too long of a hiatus. I wanted to return to the sky.

Immediately following the event, I drove another 30 minutes to Republic Airport and stopped at the first flight school that I had Googled. I asked my questions about starting up; I did a tour of the facility and their planes; talked to a student pilot about his experience at the school. I was ready to commit to the first lesson there but knew I would do a disservice if I had not done further research about on starting up. More importantly, I had to update my wife first. I didn’t wake up that day with the intention of committing thousands of dollars to flight training and she deserved a discussion and to be brought up to speed on my latest news. Knowing my love of flying, she was supportive (I never doubted that she would not be – she’s the greatest) and we did the discovery flight together. Seven months later my dream was fulfilled, and I became a licensed (certificated) pilot!

So here I am – a couple of years later - a general aviation, instrument-rated pilot living in New York City. It’s not my profession but it is a passion. Since earning that private certificate I’ve moved from the Cessna to the Cirrus; from Republic Airport to Westchester Airport. Change is inevitable and sometimes it does feel good.

These fingers can type no more. Thanks for reading and good day!

DMW