In April of 2004 I had an idea.

I was having a lot of fun flying and working on my instrument rating and commercial pilot certificate, spending a lot of time in the air and with fellow pilots at the Hayward Executive Airport. With a fresh new red Miquelrius notebook I began journaling some of my aviation adventures in training. One of the pages in the notebook contain a series of adventures I have yet to do. A list of flights that would be wonderful accents to my journal, logbook and life.

Among the list of adventures are two trips around the world, one by the latitudinal route and one by the longitudinal. Of course there would need to be some less ambitious trips first like a transcontinental, trans Atlantic and trans Pacific flights to get the ball rolling. I have been mulling this around for some time now, I just haven’t gotten to it. If I am going to get any of these adventures under my belt I had better get to it.

Being a pilot is one of the most wonderful experiences you can have in life. It can also be a terrible curse. When you don’t fly for long periods a longing builds inside. You can spot a pilot over due for some time in the blue, when ever a plane or helicopter flies over head the look up almost gleefully, as it passes by their  head slowly lowers and the glee turns to longing. You find yourself looking for excuses to run errands near an airport, any reason will do.

It’s not just the longing to fly that pains me, it is the longing to share flying with others. The posting about the days flight, recorded bits of cockpit audio, photos of the coast and the Golden gate bridge that I took while crossing over it at 1,500 feet. I miss that very much. I miss flight planning.

I was asked by a friend what I wanted to do in life and it took a while to think about it. I finally to him I wanted to be an adventurer; I knew it sounded like a response from a young child, but that was what I thought. Since that exchange I have been thinking about it a lot. It is not that I want to be and adventurer, I am one. I just have not been on any adventures lately. I have been getting caught up in the grind and lost sight of where I was going, what I had set out to do on the 22nd of April, 2003; my first flight. I forgot what I had accomplished on October 23, 2003, my first solo. I had misplaced my drive that got me through my Private Pilot, Instrument Rating and my Commercial Pilot check rides. I had lost touch with the joys of teaching ground school, the anticipation of teaching flight in the airplane.

I have had some wonderful adventures in my life, I am an adventurer. I am due for some more.

~FBJ