I've always looked up to Amelia Earhart...

I have a new career desire! And if you think my career desires don't go anywhere, think again. I wanted to be a mechanic and became an oil change tech. Not the same thing? No, you're right, it isn't. However, being an oil change tech showed me I probably wasn't going to be keen on the whole mechanic thing. For one, that's back to school. For two, you mess up a car and it costs hundreds to thousands of dollars, and for three, I thought cars fit together like a puzzle with everything in the right spot, but it turns out as often as not either the engineers designed something that no sane mechanic would ever design or the piece rusted on or there are like five other pieces in front of the one you want and you have to remove them all to get to it. Basically, cars end up being a pain. And I discovered this without having to go to school for it, and learned to change my oil and replace my wipers and air filter to boot.

So, now I just need to figure out the halfway step for my next career desire, which is... flying! Yes, I might want to be a pilot. Might cause I don't know. I like flying well enough, although customs get annoying after a while. The starter place for this is a discovery flight, which is where you pay a little airplane service like Hap's Air operating out of a little airport like the Ames one. You give them fifty bucks, they take you up, tell you a bit about flying, and maybe let you touch the controls. If you think this is epic, you try to find a way to pay for additional lessons, and if you hate it you don't come back. Not as many benefits as oil change, but not as much commitment either.

Now before I get into this, I might want to address an issue that would be a deterrent from liking to fly. No, it's not air sickness. No, I'm not afraid of heights  No, it's not if they let pilots have dreadlocks. Granted, I've never seen a pilot with dreadlocks, but the TSA will accuse you of something if you even look at the pilots these days, so I can't say I've seen quite enough to draw a dreadlock conclusion.

The possible deterrent to me liking to fly is that I hate to drive. Now, people who fly know it is nothing like driving. I figure that means it doesn't control like a car and I get that. But is it enough not like driving that I will like instead of hate it? I'm not sure. To be fair, it isn't the act of driving that I hate so much, it's driving around other cars and traffic lights and signs. There have been times I've enjoyed driving and they usually involved heading south on a 55mph highway with no other cars in sight and my radio blasting. And I think maybe flying will be like that. Although I wonder if you could get rock stations in the air. Or if they let you play them.

Granted, I am deathly afraid of taking off and landing. I've seen enough movies to know that can be rough if not deadly. Maybe Die Hard isn't a good thing to base flying experiences on. But that is where they teach you things. I have an inherent fear of being expected to do something I don't know how to do and failing as a result. Well, they wouldn't give me a pilot license if I couldn't land a plane. I hope.

So am I going to run off and be a pilot? And forge checks and date flight attendants and become the James Bond of the skies? Not yet. And probably not the second question. Catch Me If You Can makes being a pilot seem glamorous.

You know what seems glamorous? This picture from Hap's Air website.