As I described earlier this month, I starting thinking recently about taking flying lessons. That led me to attend a Zoom meeting of a local flying club. When I introduced myself and explained why I was there, one of the members recommended a book called How to Fly: For People Who Are Not Sure They Want To, by Gordon Baxter. I finished reading it last night.
That recommendation from the flying club member was spot on. This is the perfect book for anyone who is, as the title suggests, considering learning to fly but isn’t yet sure. It describes the entire process, from walking into a local airport and asking, “Who do I see around here to take flying lessons?” to becoming a licensed pilot.
The book was written in the 1980s, but for the most part doesn’t feel dated. There are new technologies, of course, from GPS to sophisticated iPad apps for pilots, but the overall process and requirements for learning to fly haven’t changed much. And the author, the late Gordon Baxter, is an amiable and unintimidating guide to the entire journey.
It’s clear that Baxter loved flying, but he doesn’t paper over the challenges of learning to do so. He simply lays them all out in a clear and relaxed manner so the reader can imagine meeting each one in turn.
Interestingly, I was less sure I wanted to learn to fly after reading Baxter’s book than before. The sheer number of skills one needs to master, and the multitude of factors that a pilot needs to take into account, was somewhat intimidating. Many of these things can only be learned by doing, and that means being bad at them before you can be good at them, which has never been something I relish.
But it’s seems clear that I won’t really know whether I want to go through everything it takes to become a licensed pilot until I’ve taken an introductory lesson. That’s when you put your hands on the controls and feel how the plane responds. At that point, I suspect, you either get hooked or you don’t. We shall see.