How I became to be a pilot
Why Flying
Luck or will power
The first time I encountered the possibility to be a pilot was when I recruited for the exclusive course for pilots of the Israeli Air Force. This was a pleasant surprise and very flattering. This lasted only 3 days when I was informed that I couldn’t be a pilot in the Israeli Air Force due to a slight problem I had related to my medical reason.
The second time was when a friend of mine introduced me to the Microsoft flight simulator. I tried to play the game. At the beginning I struggled with take offs and landings but eventually I succeeded and found myself fly around the world. For a while this was fulfilling, but it was not the real thing.
The third time was years later, a colleague of mine told me excitedly that he started to take flying lessons. It activated an emotion that aroused my desire to be a pilot. Unfortunately this required a lot of money which I did not have at that time therefor I suppressed that idea. One day I was leafing through an auction magazine when my eyes caught an auction for a 40 hour flying course including the instructor. I checked immediately the actual price of this course and I submitted a bid for half the price. “To be or not to be that is the question” Winning the auction mean that I could be a pilot. To my big surprise I won and became a pilot.
Megiddo Aviation – Proudly I started to fly at the Megiddo Flying School. . At some point, the owner of the school wanted to buy a new plane, he organized six pilots including myself who invested half the sum and he completed the rest. The benefit was a nice discount at the cost of renting an airplane.
At first I practiced a lot, but I still didn’t feel confident with my performance, it took a while until I gain enough courage to take passengers. To increase my confidence I decided to take an instrument course. Indeed the course justified itself, I felt that my flying skills improved dramatically and gave me significant more confidence. The result was that Megiddo aviation was enough for me, they were very restrictive with what they allow to pilots to fly to. I wanted to be more independent, so I started to look for a place that suited my desire.
Baz Haifa – lucky me, I met a colleague that happened to be a pilot and he offered me to join to aviation club that he was a member of. This flying club “Baz Haifa” located in Haifa Airport; they had two aircrafts a Cessna 172 and Piper Lance. I joined the club. The atmosphere at the club was friendly; we flew together for fun flights around the country as well as for activities organized by the Aviation Organization such as precise landing competitions and navigation competitions. During that time I flew to almost every airport in Israel. After a while I felt boring to fly over and over again to the same airports. I decided to fulfil my dream to fly cross country in USA.
I then took an instrument flight course that improved my flying skills that made me a better pilot.
After a while I began to feel bounded in the ability to fly freely to where ever I wished to fly. The solution was thanks, to a friend of mine who invited me to join a group of twenty-eight pilots which own two airplanes, a Piper Lance and a Cessna 172. I jumped on the opportunity and joined to BAZ Group. It opened a wonderful world of flying with no restrictions. I could fly to any destinations with no time limit (according to the BAZ agreement). I learned to know all the airports in Israel, participated in navigation tournaments and precise landings competitions and found the fun to be a part of bunch of flying lovers.
Flying USA – In 2008 I came across an ad of a pilot looking for a flight partner to cross the US on his Mooney Rocket airplane, I jumped on the bargain and it was the most meaningful excited flight experience for me. We flew across the country from Jacksonville Florida to San Diego California. We first flew to Rhode Island, where after training I was certified to fly the Mooney as PIC. Then we started our way to the west, beginning with the Niagara Falls, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Brice Canyon, Colorado Canyon over the hoover dam as well as many other amazing places. In all these places we landed, rented a car and traveled around for a couple of days or more. Then I made a decision to fly to USA every couple of years.
I gathered a bunch of friends and flew with them to USA. We rented an airplane from WIFA School that situated in Gaithersburg Maryland and flew to events like Sun n’ Fun in Florida and the giant fly in in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In each of those trips we choose different routes. We flew around the Statue of Liberty, over the Hudson River, The Appalachian Mountains, the Thousand Islands River and more. I landed in more than 60 different airports, many of them without a control tower. All of them have FBO facility that assists pilots, to rest to use a computer to print maps and drink coffee. In many of those airports there were no landing fees. The amazing thing is that in many of them they have curtesy car for free, so hungry pilots can drive to the nearest town for lunch.
I found that there are almost no limits flying in USA. You can fly every day to a different airport, you can cross the country without speaking to a controller and you have the freedom to fly with almost no restriction, but you have to be familiar with the rules to avoid entering military areas or large airports airspace. This freedom forces a pilot to be much more professional, to be aware of the weather, the surroundings, knowing what to do and how to operate around big airports and to be familiar with the different charts.
Two critical incidents, the first incident was the tragic death of my instructor for theoretical material for Instrument course, he was very responsible person with over 6000 hours. His death was due to human error while performing aerobatics without adhering to basic safety rules to be high enough.
The second event was eleven years ago one of the members of the club departured for a local flight with two passengers on the Piper Lance without refueling, unfortunately he found himself on base leg to Haifa airport with a dead engine. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to reach the runway. Luckily he was close to the sea so he executed a force landing into the water. He and the passengers escaped from the airplane unharmed. According to this event most of the members wanted to leave the group This event broke up the club. 12 members including myself bought the Cessna from the rest of the members that left the club. Today we share our well taken care Cessna Skyhawk.
Being also a photography enthusiast, I opened an Internet site that tells about my flying stories in Hebrew and English. The site is called urieitan.co.il. Flying Pictures.
In the last 10 years we organized a group of airplanes owners, to fly together. One of our favorite places is our neighbor Cyprus; we fly to Cyprus several times a year, as well as for picnics in Masada, Kiryat Shmona for fun.
For me as long as I feel excited every time I fly I am going to continue as long as possible. I have about 570 flying hours but I still feel hunger for more.