I’ve wanted to be a pilot for as long as I can remember. Growing up, planes always held a kind of magic. Somewhere along the way, I even tried out for the Indian Air Force. I passed the pilot aptitude test but didn’t make it through the rest of the process. Like what happens to a lot of childhood dreams, life took me in a different direction - into engineering, then grad school, then a PhD. That was that. I moved on.

Fast forward a few decades, and I found myself living right next to an airport, surrounded by flying schools. Every time a single-engine plane buzzed over the house, something stirred. I’d catch myself watching takeoffs, lingering on flight school ads, wondering, “Could I still do this?”

It wasn’t a dramatic leap. Instead, it was more like a slow pull. Over time, curiosity turned into action. Eventually, I signed up. I didn’t have grand ambitions of switching careers or becoming a commercial pilot. This was a pure passion project.

In hindsight, I should’ve done a bit more homework. Like most people, I underestimated how much time, money, and planning it takes to earn a Private Pilot License (PPL). I expected a few challenges, scheduling conflicts, weather delays; but I didn’t realize how many other factors could derail progress. I also had no idea that only about 20% of students actually make it to the finish line when it comes to earning a PPL.

Unsurprisingly, I blew past my original budget and timeline.

To be fair to myself, I wasn’t exactly a typical student. Most of my instructors were at least a decade younger than me, and the other students even more so. Almost everyone around me was dreaming of a career as an airline transport pilot. I wasn’t. I was juggling a full-time job (one I love, by the way), plus two kids who needed help with homework and had to be shuttled to and from after-school activities.

I’m not saying this to complain, rather to provide context for others in a similar boat, on their way to becoming aviators. When you take on something like this, you’re essentially managing a project. And the two main resources you’re managing are attention and money. More attention roughly translates to less money spent on repeat lessons and delays. However, that attention has to come from somewhere. Less attention? You’ll likely spend more money making up for the slower pace.

It’s a balancing act. And honestly, it’s the hardest thing I learned during this process, even harder than landing.

There were plenty of rough patches. I missed family time. I studied late at night and on weekends for the knowledge portion of the course, including the written FAA exam. Sometimes, I could see the frustration in my instructors’ faces when I took longer than average to hit milestones. Just as often, I saw the same frustration at home, for missing too many family outings. I even wondered if this whole thing was just, as some friends joked, a midlife crisis. I still wonder that sometimes.

But despite all of that, getting my PPL was deeply rewarding. I can fly and land single-engine land planes. I can show off my pilot-speak and use the NATO alphabet to help Starbucks staff get my name right. I can name the cloud types, sure, but more importantly, I’ve got the lessons that came with the license.

Someone once told me: “Degrees and licenses are just receipts for the money you spent on a course. The real value is in what you carry forward.” And looking back, I’ve carried forward quite a bit.

Here’s what flying taught me, lessons that go way beyond the cockpit:

• You can’t throw money at every problem. Some things just need your full attention. Conversely, you can’t always focus your way out of spending money either. There’s a floor.
• Project management isn’t just for work. It’s how you balance real life, side goals, and everything in between. And a lot of project management isn’t unlike aeronautical decision-making: evaluating situations, assessing risks, and selecting appropriate actions.
• Your time is your most valuable currency, guard it. We’re all monotonously walking toward the end. Be mindful of what you want to spend your time on.
• Plans will go sideways. Learn to adjust in real time, not just in hindsight. There will always be things to do, but don’t let perfection be the enemy of getting things done.

Flying forced me to think clearly under pressure, make decisions with limited information, and adjust on the fly (pun intended). Those aren’t just aviation skills, they’re life skills.

Fellow Aviators, I would love to know your thoughts. Share your insights!

PS: One thing that I really would have done differently if I had to do it all over again with everything else the same, is to have spent more time chair flying. I only seriosuly picked this up quite late in the program. It would have saved me more time and money.