The author's first experience with flight was over Christmas break, 2000. As a freshman in college, the author discovered that the world's best paragliding instruction was just a state away. Dixon White, a great pilot and even better teacher, ran Airplay Paragliding from the cinder cones just east of Flagstaff, Arizona (see image by author of unknown pilot). Although a year passed before the author received his P2 rating (USHPA #80180), he was hooked. In Arizona, the author was introduced to many members of the surprisingly small US paragliding community, including Doug Stroop and Denise Reid (now of Aerial Paragliding in Cashmere, Washington) and Rob Sporrer and Marty Devietti (now of Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara, California). Dixon passed away in 2004, but will always be remembered in the paragliding community, especially at the schools that he helped found. The author still flies with his long-time instructors regularly.

Seven years to the month after first flying a paraglider, the author began his training in a fixed wing aircraft. In the first week of December, the author took an introductory flight with Byron Bly through Advantage Aviation. It went well, so he dove right in. Flying primarily out of Palo Alto in Advantage's three (now four) Cessna 172SP G-1000s, the glass cockpits and fancy avionics definitely made learning and surviving the San Francisco Bay Area's rather involved airspace much easier. The author's first solo flight was on February 26th, 2008 in N824LB. After a total of 70 hours of flight, most of it in '4LB, the author passed his checkride on May 25th (see photo), 2008, receiving his private pilot's certificate, #3344973.

In the summer of 2008, the author's air time was restricted to paragliding in Washington state. In fall, he arrived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and looked for a way to continue his fixed-wing learning. The two ratings that were interesting were a tailwheel rating, opening up a much wider range of rental aircraft, and an IFR rating, making cross country flight on the East coast more feasible. On a student's budget, tailwheel training seemed like the obvious first step. The author learned that Paul Patterson gives tailwheel lessons in the Little Blue Champ (see photo), his 1946 Aeronca 7AC. Based in Finleyville, most grass field training is done at Bandel and paved field training is done at Rostraver. As of this writing (October 2008), the author has just two hours of time on '875, and is still getting used to the transition from a glass cockpit to no electrical system at all, let alone taxiing around with the wheels in the wrong place.