09/05 - Is Now the Time?

09/05 - Is Now the Time?

By Steve Krog

Is today’s economic uncertainty preventing you from pursuing your dream of learning to fly?

I’ve spoken with a number of potential students over the past six months who have expressed a strong interest in flight training. However, several of these prospective pilots qualify their comments with statements like, “I’d really like to learn to fly but the economic future is so uncertain that I’d better wait until times are better.”

So, when is a good time to learn to fly?

What type of person are you? An optimist? A pessimist? Do you see a half-filled glass of water and think it’s half-empty? Or do you see it as half-full?

I can appreciate today’s feeling of uncertainty and creeping pessimism. My 401K is now a 101K, much to my frustration. However, with the help of a planner, I’ve done all I can to protect myself. I no longer need to waste time and energy worrying and thinking about it because I can’t do much about it other than have patience. In time, the economic picture will improve.

I come from a long background in marketing. For over 30 years I worked with all types of clients in all types of businesses and encountered all types of challenges, positive and negative, facing clients. As a marketing professional I was asked for advice and direction on dealing with these challenges. It was extremely important to be the calming voice and eternal optimist when facing clients and their respective challenges.

Flying, for most all of us, begins as a dream. The dream, when allowed to gel, becomes a passion. And finally, we make the decision to act on that passion and make it a reality. For some, the reality is realized in our teens and twenties but for others it has to be postponed until reaching our fifties, sixties, or even our seventies!

I’m currently working with a group of approximately 22 students ranging in age from 15 to 72. They come from all types of backgrounds and financial situations. But the common denominator is they all have the desire to act on their passion and make learning to fly a reality, regardless of today’s economy.

As humans we are unique, ingenious, and can figure out a solution to most any challenge provided we have the drive or passion to do so. For example, I have one student, a 15-year-old young lady, who has that passion but not the financial wherewithal to pay for flying lessons. To her credit her parents taught her that if she really wanted something bad enough she had to figure out a way to earn it. She approached me last summer offering to clean and wash airplanes, keep the hangar swept and organized, and perform any other jobs in order to keep the flight school running smoothly and professionally. Seeing that passion in her eyes I couldn’t help but find a way for both of us to succeed. She began working at the hangar 3-5 days per week. No job was too tedious. In exchange we flew several times a week. Today, as she rapidly approaches her 16th birthday, we’re together counting down the days to that magic birthday and first solo.

I have another young man who will be graduating from high school in a few days. For the past year he has split and stacked firewood, mowed my lawn both at home and around the hangar, and assists with minor preventive maintenance functions on the airplanes in exchange for flight time. He’ll be ready for his private pilot checkride in a few days and the only out-of-pocket expense incurred was the cost of the FAA written test and the examiner’s fee for the checkride.

Finances are very tight for another student - a 30-something woman - but she has that passion to fly! A bookkeeper by training, she is trading accounting time for a good portion of her flight training. She is making her passion become reality.

Another student, a young man in his twenties, is working part-time while attending school. His financial situation only allows him to fly about once a month. However, that hasn’t deterred his passion for flight. We fly whenever he is able to afford doing so and I try to squeeze an hour and a half of training into every hour of flight, helping him out as much as I can because he too has that passion and is acting on it.

Last summer I had another student who had just graduated from high school whose passion for flight was beyond description. Consequently she researched, found, and applied for numerous flight-training scholarships and received two of them. The combined sum paid for nearly all of her flight training.

The examples I’ve mentioned here all had the passion to learn to fly. Each, in his or her own way, has come up with a workable solution to meet the challenge and make learning to fly a reality.

Looking back I recall times in my life where I really wanted something but my financial position didn’t allow me to acquire the desired item. In one instance I wanted a motorcycle so bad I couldn’t sleep. I would lay awake at night trying to figure out what I needed to do to make that motorcycle a reality. It took some time and adjustments to my monthly budget, but finally the day came when I could make the purchase. It didn’t make a difference to me that the economy was in the tank and interest rates were astronomical. Did I miss the things I’d given up to save the money? Not really. I was focused on the motorcycle.

When I was in the marketing business, I’d frequently share a simple statement with my clients when they were feeling “doom and gloom.”“When those around us, including competitors, are sitting down, it’s time for us to stand up!” The definition was simple enough. Dig in and look at challenges as an opportunity; it may require looking at the challenge in a different manner.The old cliché of “thinking outside the box” really applied. With all of the managerial brainpower gathered in the meeting room, there was no reason why we couldn’t turn the challenge into an opportunity. Once everyone’s mind began thinking optimistically, the solution was easy, attainable, and profitable.

Making the decision to learn to fly in today’s economic environment is really no different. First, ask yourself: “Do I really want to do this?” If the answer is YES, then pursue it.

Are you ready to make your passion become reality?

Comments: