This is the start of my journey. I will be adding to this section as time allows until completion. Thanks for reading!

Today is 14 May, 2015...

March 21, 2013 is the first entry in my log book and the day of my Discovery flight. I remember the day well. A few days prior, after deciding that I wanted to pursue my private pilot certificate, I searched local airports for any flight school's and I ended up deciding on Capital City Jet Center at Bolton Field, KTZR. I drove out there to inquire about the process, but unfortunately the school was closed at that hour. There were, however, several stacks of business cards for flight instructors on a small desk in front of the office door to the school. To this day, I'm not sure why I was drawn to the pretty blue and red card, but I picked it up and the name upon it was Eric Howlett, CFI, CFII, MEI. At the time, I had no idea what any of those letters meant. But the next day I called the number on the card. I spoke with Eric and decided on flying my first lesson that coming Thursday. It was a cold day in central Ohio, but that did not deter me from heading to the airfield. Upon arrival, I met Eric and it seemed like we did not run out of anything to talk about, and none of it was even related to flying. There's a certain comaraderie among Boy Scouts, and I was pleased to be in the company of one. After discussing a bit about the weather, and learning how to check out the airplane, we headed to the aircraft. It was a Cessna 172P, N62266, and the first Cessna I've ever sat in. Flying as a boy with my grandpa, it was always a Stinson. The snow started to fall, as we spoke with ground and tower and taxied to runway 22 for takeoff, but that didn't detur us. I added the power in slowly, the speed began to increase and before I knew it, airspeed was alive and I pulled back on the yoke. It was a smooth rotation. Eric and I were flying. While I can't recall the specifics of instruction during that flight, what I do recall is: "Are you ready? Watch this! My plane." He had the controls, and then we were in a steep climb, then all of a sudden, he pushed forward on the yoke and I felt that same feeling in my stomach as I would on a roller coaster hill. That insane, euphoric feeling. From then on, I knew would be good friends. The hour went quick, he radio'd tower for a landing clearance after we checked the ATIS, and we headed back. He helped me with the landing. After taxing back to parking, securing the aircraft and heading inside, we did a small post-flight briefing. I was hooked on the thought of being a pilot. Then it was time to pay my bill, and it was at that very moment, I realized that I could not afford to become a pilot; not in that fashion anyway...paying as I go. I learned that if was going to do this, I would need some financial assistance to make it possible...

Mid 2013 - Late 2014...financing proved difficult initially. My credit was not in the best of shape, and it took me a long time to get things corrected and remedied to be able to apply again. It was the beginning of 2015 in which it seemed my credit was satisfactory enough to attempt to apply for pilot financing again. I was approved! I was excited! I was going to be a pilot! I attempted to reach back out to Eric. I left several messages on the last phone number that I had for him, along with several emails, to which none were returned...

I had come to find out that Eric tragically died doing what he love to do, flying. I invite you to read more about Eric Howlett here...
I met the guy once, flew with him for an hour, but the loss hit more that I expected it to. I internally debated for months to determine if this is something that I wanted to continue to pursue, knowing how quickly and tragically it could come to an end.  

To be continued...