John's Pilot's license (OM65)

John got his private pilot's license when he was 17 years old. He was sitting in his High School gymnasium pouring over the FAA pilot's handbook, trying to take their dumb test. John flew a lot with his dad. His flight book is somewhere in his house. John's dad's plane was a Cesna 172 with the call-sign 634MA. Already when John was 10, his dad turned the controller over to him to practice flying in a straight line, check the instruments and keep them puttering along. Flying a small plane is not hard.

When John was a kid, the airport beacon from Merrill Field airport was visible from their house and when he was up late, he would look out and watch the green/white rotating lights of the beacon reflecting in the clouds. It was spooky in the same kind of way that he imagined the whistle of a steam train had been to his mother’s generation. It seemed otherworldly and also old.

Random Facts

John still has saved all love letters he ever received, which tapered off around 2006 when people stopped writing letters.