Well, it's official.  I am goin' after a dream!  I am becoming a Commercial Pilot!  For those of you that know me, you know that I have been thinking about this for a looong time!  Like most wanna-be pilots, I have spent months goin' back and forth between the pro's and con's, talkin' with current pilots, searching for a flight school, and wrestlin' with the financial side of training.  And after much thought and research, I am goin' for it!

Over the next several months, I am going to try to provide a day-by-day behind-the-scenes look at what all is involved in pilot training.  I know that I benefitted greatly from reading the stories of professional pilots and their "typical" days, from reading comments from both current and former students, and from reading about the up's and down's of an exciting but challenging field.  My hope is that I can help someone else along in their journey as he or she dreams about having an office in the sky.

To start out, I will give you a quick snapshot of who I am and where I come from in terms of aviation.  Several of you already know me, but I am sure that others are just meetin' me for the first time!  I am 25 years old, and I have been fascinated with planes for nearly all my life.  My dad and I used to fly remote-control airplanes when I was growin' up; my bedroom had a couple of planes hangin' down from the ceiling; when I was around 14 years old I joined an aviation group out at Capital Airport in Springfield, IL, where I was able to tour the tower and maintenance operations (fun stuff!); my 16th birthday present was me getting to fly an ultralight; and in college, at the ripe age of 19, I wandered over to a nearby airport and started flying lessons even as I was taking classes back at school.  Needless to say, I was hooked.  And even now, every time I take a commercial flight, I always find myself takin' a tour of the cockpit.  I am simply fascinated by airplanes!

I ended up gettin' my Private Pilot license in June 2003.  Well, the years wore on, and four and a half years after my initial license, I found myself with only 90 hours of flight time.  I spent 50.4 hours gettin' my Private Pilot license in 9 months, and then I spent only 40 hours flying over the next four years.  As my dad says, "You have a Cadillac hobby on a Chevy income."  And that was true.  I was payin' off college, and flying wasn't gettin' the time it deserved, mostly because of money.

But my thoughts were always in the sky!  Every time I flew, I loved it.  I looked for opportunities to fly, and I especially enjoyed taking people up for the first time.  Even though the opportunities were scarce, my passion was still airplanes.

And so here I am, in February 2008, beginning an intense, challenging, and fun time of life...

I'll try to give you a day-by-day feel of my experiences.  I'll share an in-depth behind-the-scenes look at the up's and down's of training, the excitements and frustrations of aviation , the joys and burdens of flying and the cost of getting there.  And hopefully, I'll help you see what takes place in the life of an aspiring commercial pilot.

For now, it's a pretty sweet place to be!