Cavalier, North Dakota was just a little town. The 1970 census puts the population at about 1500 and several hundred of those worked at the base. The town had a little airport with a grass air strip. Small planes would land and take off from there quite frequently. There was this old guy who ran the airport and one day he must have decided he needed some extra money. He put up a notice that he was giving pilot lessons to anyone who wanted to learn to fly. I don’t remember exactly how much he charged but it was dirt cheap. Way less expensive than it cost in the big city. I talked it over with Karen and we decided I could take flying lessons.
I had always wanted to fly. I loved it. The old guy had a small prop place, probably a Cesna which was a two-seater. For the first 8 or 9 hours, you go up as a passenger with the instructor doing the flying. He would tell you how to land and how to take off and how to read the instruments. We went over the check list that every pilot must do before he takes a plane up. This is for safety. I bought a pilot’s log book and recorded every hour I spent with the guy. I was having a great time.
At about 8 or 9 hours, my instructor determined that I was ready to solo. I hadn’t just been a passenger. We had done take-offs and landings and I had done quite a bit of flying with only my hands on the wheel. Of course, the instructor was right there if I got into trouble. But, now I was ready to go it alone. There was just one little problem. FCC rules state that in order to solo, you need a physical first. So, I went to see a doctor. I was worried about my weight and thought that might keep me out of the program. But it wasn’t the weight, it was my blood pressure. It was too high. I wasn’t taking medicine for my blood pressure in those days (not sure if it even existed). But, I was out of luck. They wouldn’t approve me as long as my pressure was high.
I was washed out of the program before I even got started. There were at least four of my friends from work who went through the program and eventually got their licenses to fly. They formed a little flying club and together bought or rented a small plane that they all shared. As is the story of most of my life, I was on the outside looking in and couldn’t take part.
Dad