I count myself exceptionally lucky to have crossed off a bucket list item from my childhood.

I’ve been fascinated by aviation since I was a young boy, and knew that at some point I was going to make an attempt to earn my pilots license. Every year I would look up the requirements, the estimated cost, estimated timeline, and tell myself “not this year, you should save your money”.

When my previous company began it’s foray into using drone technology, it was at a time that you were not allowed to operate a drone commercially unless you held a pilots license. Due to this, it was decided that I would go to take a two week intensive curriculum where I would undergo classroom education for eight hours a day, and fit in flight time another four to five, weather permitting. Effectively for two weeks straight I did nothing other than study the regulatory information, safety protocols, and general aviation and aeronautical information necessary to pass the written test to obtain my license.

In case you’re curious of the aircraft I am sitting in, it is referred to as a powered parachute, effectively a go-kart with an airboat fan on the back strapped to a constantly deployed parachute. Not the aircraft I envisioned but as you can tell, I certainly wasn’t complaining.

To this day this is one of the more difficult achievements of my life, and one that I am the most grateful to have been given the opportunity to take on.