Last Saturday I officially met my flying mentor, Todd, of My Flight Blog. Todd was one of the first people I reached out to in the aviation community, and he’s been great every since that first e-mail. He is a local pilot, a great writer, and from reading his blog from the beginning, I get the sense that he truly enjoys every aspect of flying.
A casual e-mail turned into a new friendship. Pretty amazing if you ask me.
After we realized that we peripherally knew each other from our writing time at Chicagoist.com, Todd offered to become my AOPA Mentor. AOPA (Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association) offers a great program to help ramp up the, how shall I term it, aviation cultural awareness of those interested in getting airborne. Project Pilot helps foster mentorships by providing basic tools and education awareness about the world of flight. AOPA also serves as a non-profit organization of mostly General Aviation pilots in the U.S.
There is a very similar thread between AOPA and ARRL, the American Radio Relay League, of which I am a member. When I became interested in HAM radio, all roads seemed to lead to ARRL as a resource for new HAMs. It’s an organization that keeps the legislators on their toes when it comes to amateur radio operations and provides it’s members lots of information and benefits.
AOPA is to GA pilots exactly what ARRL is to HAM’s. A group of like-minded individuals with common interests, seeking to further their learning and their hobbies in safe, fun, educational, and beneficial ways. The community is the important part here, and both organizations have stated goals that keep their communities in mind.
I liked the fit, and so with Todd’s help I joined AOPA. The most interesting part is that I had never met Todd, and only exchanged emails up until last Saturday, when he picked me up and we headed out to DuPage Airport for a BBQ and short seminar at American Flyers.
Chicago isn’t really next door to KDPA and we spent an enjoyable drive to and from talking about everything from aviation to our experiences at Chicagoist. I can’t quite explain how awesome it is to have someone in-the-know available for questions. Even though I’ve yet to take a discovery flight, Todd has been more then helpful with loads of information.
The seminar was fairly short, covering lots of ground (pun intended) on takeoffs and landings. Quite a bit of it was Greek to me, but like anything in life, the more you hear, the better prepared you are. It was a touch noisy in the hangar where the seminar was held because we were right off the area where they start the planes, but it was cool to meet some like-minded people (met Tim and Josh) and talk a bit of shop with them.
Not that I’m an expert at talking shop by any means!
I realized that I’d forgotten my Kenwood TH-G71A at home. It’s my HAM HT for 70cm/2M and we could have used it to listen to ATC while watching the planes work the pattern off runway 28. I’ve listened to a ton of ATC at KDPA but had trouble visualizing the planes and their calls. Would have been great to have the radio, but there will always be another time, right?
All in all it was a great day. Now if I could only figure out when to schedule those discovery flights…
Peter - Thanks for the kind words! I am looking forward to helping you through this exciting process.