Finally, out of frustration, he said, “Why don’t you go get a license?”  Being of an independent nature I was kind of ashamed I hadn’t thought of that myself.  So I scheduled a demonstration flight.

My demo flight was in a 70’s vintage Cessna 150 at what used to be called Pal-waukee Airport.  It was thrilling!  I signed up for the Cessna Flight Training course that day.

I was a pretty good student–I read and understood the material and my flying wasn’t bad.  But I did have one major problem that really became a roadblock for me in my training and that was that I had difficulty understanding the control tower and I had a serious case of “mike fright” !

For those of you not familiar with Pal-waukee Airport, it’s a thriving airport just north of Chicago O’Hare (I believe it’s now called Chicago Executive Airport).  Traffic could be intense, especially for a tentative student pilot.  The controllers sounded like they were speaking a foreign language at hyper-speed.  Add that to the fact that it was being transmitted over an overhead speaker in a noisy C-150 and I can now understand why it was such a stumbling block for me.

At the time, very few flight students wore headsets for training.  In fact, I only recall one of the flight instructors who wore headsets on a regular basis.    I’m not sure why — I suppose it might have seemed an expensive extravagence.   But I have to imagine that I might have overcome my “mike fright” more quickly had I had a good pair of headsets and was able to hear and understand what the controllers were saying.  I’m sure I spent far more money paying for extra flight training than I would have spent on a good set of headsets.

I did finally break through the communication barrier and earned my ticket, all without headsets.  It seems silly now that I exposed myself to that kind of noise and frustration.

Student pilots now have many choices of headsets.  Find something that’s comfortable, appropriate for the type of aircraft you typically fly and within your price range and enjoy!  Happy flying!