It felt as though I were flying through a time warp…like it was March 1962, when I made my first solo flight. But it wasn’t 1962. It was December 2021, and I was “first soloing” for the second time in my 59-year career as a pilot.
My instructor, Emerson Stewart, signed me off at a uniquely charming grass field—Red Stewart Airfield (40I) in Waynesville, Ohio—named for its founder, Emerson’s grandpa “Red,” and operated continuously by succeeding generations of the Stewart clan since 1946. With my Cessna 180 in for annual, I was learning to fly again and taking the private pilot practical test in one of the Stewarts’ Cessna 150s. The painful nine-month hiatus—imposed by the FAA for my misbehavior— was finally over.
