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Taking To The Sky
Most Anyone Can Fly in an Airplane, But Only a Fortunate Few Can Do The Flying
Phil Scott
From the Print Edition:
The Sopranos, Mar/Apr 01
(continued from page 3)
It doesn't have to stop there. You can go on to get your instrument rating, which allows you to fly in poor weather conditions by reference to instruments and directions from air traffic control. You can also get your commercial certificate, which allows you to fly for hire. Then you can become an instructor, and build time toward a job with the airlines. And of course, all the astronauts start by being airplane pilots. Well, the cool ones do, at least.
Or you can simply impress the hell out of your friends by putzing around the traffic pattern on the weekends.
"It's like an explorer setting out on a new adventure," says my friend Robert, who has decided to take lessons. "All that 'Roger!' and leather jackets. A lot of people fly, but they don't do it themselves. It's like going into less charted territory." It's a territory worth traveling, at any price.
Phil Scott is the author of The Pioneers of Flight (1999, Princeton University Press).
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