Dear Garrett..

Following my first flight, I continued working at Roley’s Mobil on Third Street in Watsonville. I liked a girl who worked across the street at the Rexall Drug Store. Her name was Carol.

Carol’s Dad was a prominent Watsonville business man. He owned a nice bar and restaurant across from the bowling alley. When Carol’s Dad found out that Carol liked me, he forbade her to see me. He liked me at first, then didn’t when he found out about my negro stepdad. We still saw each other but had to keep it a secret. Carol would bring me delicious steak sandwiches from her Dad’s restaurant for me to eat during my lunch break while working at the Mobil Gas Station.

Six months after my first flying lesson, I began taking the regular lessons with Tom. A month later I was ready to solo. As it turned out, with Tom’s much appreciated help, I did learn to fly an airplane well enough to fly alone.

I felt surprised when Tom got out of the airplane and told me to do some takeoffs and landings by myself. I thought, “Are you sure about this? I guess it’s okay if my instructor thinks so. He supposedly knows what he’s doing.” Tom had already flown with me for 1.4 hours that day after putting me up for a 15 minute Progress Check with the Chief Instructor. After receiving brief instructions from Tom, I headed out for my first flight without my Instructor on board to make sure everything was okay!

I taxied out to runway 28L at Monterey, California, did my runup and checklist, called the tower and was cleared for takeoff. It felt amazing rolling down the runway all alone in the Cessna 150, N6981F. The feeling was exhilarating beyond anything I had ever experienced. Rolling down the runway was one thing. Lifting off the runway and climbing higher and higher above the Earth’s surface was another! A part of my mind was saying, ”Okay you’ve done it – – now you’re in a critical situation – – and you are the only person who can get you out of it! You are the only person who can get you safely back on the ground!” From there I simply did what I was trained to do by Tom and everything worked out just fine.

I felt excited and nervous in a good way. It was a new feeling I had never experienced before. My hands were sweating and my heart was beating faster and harder than usual. But I felt okay and managed to keep everything under control. I also felt freer than I had ever felt before. These feelings were all new to me. I wasn’t used to doing anything this incredible and sophisticated. I liked flying solo a lot. Flying solo showed me that I could trust myself on a higher level than I had ever known.