Saturday, September 17, 2016

Up Up and Away

So here I sit, killing time until I have to go pick Gage up from class.  The last time I posted about Gage and school, he was leaving home and venturing out into the big, bad, scary world as a college student.  Well expensive lesson learned!  He wasn't quite ready for that.  And the course he chose to take didn't hold his interest once he started the actual program.  So after the first semester, he decided to cut his losses, drop out and move back home.  While I was disappointed for his sake, I'm not going to lie, despite the renewed chaos in my house, I was super glad to have him back.

So since January he's been back with us.  The house has been overrun by hordes of 19 year old 'kids' (plus Roan's friends) again, the grocery bill went up, the laundry loads increased but so did the stories and conversation.  During this time he has been working part time, obtained his driver's license and decided on a new career path and put a plan into action.

Last month, I guess it was, he enrolled in Ground School and has started to work towards obtaining his Pilot's license.  The end goal, after a bunch more years, is to become a Commercial Pilot.  Roan finds it funny that school to become a Pilot where you fly an object is called Ground school.  I'm hoping it's because they are going to teach him mad skillz so he always returns a plane to the ground in one piece!  This whole flying those little metal coffins with wings part is causing this poor momma some added stress.  Between driving a car and flying a plane, I have a feeling all those grey hairs I have managed to elude are going to come in full throttle.

Eric and I have been telling him for the past few years, while he was trying to sort out what he wanted to do for a living, to find something that he enjoyed that he could also turn into a career rather than just having a job.   A family friend who has been working towards his own Pilot's license over the past year or so offered to take Gage up for a Familiarization Flight back in May/June.  Unbeknownst to Gage the Pilot let him control the plane from take off through to lining it up for landing with the runway.  He spent about 30 - 40 minutes flying the plane over the Welland Canal and parts of the Niagara Region.  The only thing he didn't do was put the plane back onto solid ground.  Needless to say, he loved it.  He talked incessantly about it so, we planted the seed about turning this into a potential career.

After another month or so, we did some research and learned he could take classes a couple days a week and fulfil his flight hours through the Niagara On The Lake Airport all the while living at home and working part time; both of which would help offset the costs associated with all this training. 

So here I sit, waiting to pick the kid up from class hoping he never crashes a plane, never has to do an emergency landing and gets a job with Air Canada. 




This image has nothing to do with flying or Gage's schooling.  It's stupid and funny and I had no where else to put it.



2 comments:

  1. wait till about his 8th lesson and hes recovering from a spin stall at 4500 ft in a cessna 172 lol. he'll be talking about that one for awhile hehe. good times.

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