A New Pilot Shares Aviation with Millions

Flipping through the channels the other day I paused on Ellen DeGeneres’ talk show because the guest, Zach Braff of Scrubs fame, said a word that caught my ear, “Cirrus.” It seems he’s a new pilot, and to appear on the show, which is taped in California, he flew himself across the nation from his home in New York, and the audience cheered and applauded this announcement.

Saying that learning to fly was the fulfillment of a lifetime dream, Braff showed pictures from his flight, him smiling at a rear-seat passenger from the left seat and the left wing of the Cirrus above a solid blanket of clouds the color of burnished butterscotch in the late afternoon sun. Trying to describe the ineffable feelings of climbing through the layer and  being the only living thing in sight all he could says was, “It is amazing.”

Google led me to an article, Super Fly, Braff penned for BestLife, by the editors of MensHealth. Of learning to fly he wrote, “I earned my pilot’s license this past November, and it was one of the coolest moments of my life.”

His enthusiasm for flight and all of its benefits was an early Christmas present in a year buried in coal. As this year, which has not been the kindest to aviation, winds to a welcome close, my holiday hope is that 2010 will embody the enthusiasm of all new pilots and will begin a gentle cruise climb to better days that are peaceful and prosperous because people in all endeavors are working toward a common goal, not fighting each other for a larger slice of a shrinking pie. — Scott Spangler