Yes, that's me posing with a very beautiful Beechcraft Bonanza A36, about to head off from home to teach a saxophone clinic in the Dallas, TX area.  And yes, I flew the plane myself. 

 

How does it happen that a musician is a pilot?  While I've been asked that question many times, and also told that those are very unusual activities to find being actively pursued by the same individual, my experience is that music and aviation are quite complimentary.  And, there are quite a few musicians who are or have been active pilots at one time or another.  Further, there are a number of professional airline, corporate and charter pilots who are or were very accomplished musicians.  So there must be something about the two activities that attracts people of the same mindset. 

 

As for my own aviation activities, you can read the stats & ratings elsewhere on this page.  My Dad obtained his private pilot license in 1961, and used that priviledge to travel from his home base in the Philadelphia area to various places for business and fun.  When our family relocated to the Southern California area in 1965, he continued to fly for awhile until, like many pilots at the time, family obligations and a diminishing need to travel by lightplane led him to stop, albeit reluctantly.  He turned to model airplanes as a way to enjoy aviation, which allowed the two of us to enjoy it together.  We built everything from stick-and-paper models all the way up to large (in one case, 10 foot wingspan) radio-controlled sailplanes, and I continued to build and fly those on my own for many years after moving out, getting married, and starting my music career. 

 

On at least two occaisions during college, I took a flying lesson in a real airplane.  I quickly realized two things about the activity: one, it was very expensive for a college student, and two, it was going to take some serious study and commitment to learn to fly.  Those of you who are professional musicians or studying to be one will know what I mean when I say that I just didn't have either of those resources available at that time!! 

 

But I also knew that I loved doing it, and that I was only putting it off until such time as I had enough dollars and extra time for lessons.  Then, in 1984, my dad began flying for his business again.  Newly married, fresh out of music school and self-employed, my dad offered to hire me to help in his business whenever I was available, to earn some much-needed extra cash.  The REALLY cool thing was, his business had moved to Pacoima, CA.  Right in the heart of the San Fernando Valley, and a stones-throw from Whiteman Airport.  He and I both lived well south of there, and so he was commuting by light plane between Long Beach or John Wayne airports and Whiteman.  Often I would get some stick time commuting with him to help out at his shop, and would let my musical colleauges know that I was in the area available for rehearsal bands and such too.  So I was getting to meet and play with some of the LA area musicians, earn some extra bread, and get to ride (and occaisionally fly) in an airplane. 

 

Things got better for my wife and I, little by little.  She was working, I was beginning to get more and more work, and so one day I went out and signed up for lessons at our local airport, John Wayne (SNA).  After three lessons, I was hooked on the flying, but didn't like the school or the instructor(s).  So I began to search for a teacher that I could enjoy working with.  I believe the Good Lord put Tom Kinda and I together for a lot of reasons.  Though based at Long Beach airport, I was commuting all over the LA basin, and managed to earn my pilot license in 5 months, between gigs and family time.  Tom and I really hit it off, and that made things a lot easier for me during the training. 

 

From there, I moved back to a flying club at John Wayne airport, closer to home.  And what did I do?  Why of course, I started commuting to work when I could, just like my Dad did!!  And it worked just often enough to cause me to realize that, under certain conditions, this was a real tool, as well as just being a whole lotta fun.  One night a fellow player and I commuted to a gig, and when we headed for the airport to fly home, the weather at home base was cloudy and misty, weather that I was not able to handle.  So he went home with another player, and I had to stay with the airplane.  I tried a hotel room, but this was Octoberfest weekend in a mountain resort north of the LA area.  It was, shall we say, a bit noisy.  Unable to sleep, I threw on my tux, and hiked back to the airport, got in the plane (Cessna 172), where I had a space blanket in my flight kit, and curled up to sleep there.  Next morning the Sherrif awakened me by banging loudly on the airplane door and shouting "we don't allow people to sleep in airplanes here!!"  To this day I can't duplicate the look on his face when I crawled out from under the silvery space blanket in my tux.  Priceless.

 

Anyway, on the trip home that morning, once things had cleared, I decided to get my instrument rating (to allow me to fly in clouds and weather).   My lovely wife Kim had tired of me stressing about getting home from a flying dinner-date (one of our favorite activities to this day) before our ever present Los Angeles marine-layer would come in too, so she endorsed the training. 

 

To be continued.....