I bought a Cessna 340 several years ago for business and personal use. It was my first pressurized aircraft, so my insurance carrier was quick to point out that despite hundreds of hours of multiengine time, I needed not only a high-altitude endorsement but also formal schooling on the aircraft before it would cover me to fly solo. I chose to satisfy the requirement by hiring an insurance-approved instructor who could travel to my home base and give me the training in my own aircraft. In the midst of the schooling, which was going well, the opportunity arose for me to conclude a multicity business trip in Chicago and meet up with the instructor and the airplane for a short evening flight home. My Chicago meetings were very near O’Hare International Airport, so it would be the obvious choice.
Wait, the obvious choice? Well, in my 1,000-hour pilot experience I thought, “Why not?” A veteran instructor was along, the weather was a perfect sunny September evening with light winds, O’Hare was 10 minutes from my meeting site, and I had been gone a week and wanted to get home. How tough could this be? It hadn’t occurred to me that professional airline pilots go to ground school for O’Hare before they even take a right-seat flight into the place. We were embarking on the slaughter of the innocents.
