Hi folks
My story is similar to many of you in many ways. Grew up looking at the sky whenever a plane flew over and day dream 10,000 miles away from the US. Grew up reading about Spitfires, Mustangs, Gooney birds, P-38 Lightning, and building model airplanes. Then life took over but day dreaming about airplanes never stopped. Became an engineer and went for graduate studies to LSU in Baton Rouge. Since I did not have enough money flying was always in my dreams. After Baton Rouge, I came to Dallas to get my MBA and while I was a full time student I used to ride to Midlothian on my Honda VFR to work in a steel mill. On the way I used to ride by Red Bird Airport (now Dallas Executive). On my day off I would just come by and sit at the airport all day watching planes take off and land. The addiction was growing…
As soon as I graduated in 1995 with my second graduate degree and found a job and got my FIRST pay chq I rode down to Mesquite (HQZ) and enrolled in a flight school. HQZ was not a tower controlled airport then. I am 6’3” and my first flight was in Cessna 152 and we decided immediately to move to a 172 as after the 152 flight my instructor had to uses pliers to pull my legs from under the panel! It was smooth sailing till my instructor decided to take a job with an airline, and I moved to Red Bird to complete my training. I still remember my check ride as it was yesterday. I did all the maneuvers well and as we were finishing for the day, a massive front was coming in fast so my check ride instructor Don Scott told me to quickly get back to the airport. As we came close to the airport (ATIS still said active runway 31) but winds had picked up and within minutes the quartering headwind became a quartering tail wind when we were just 300 ft over the ground and took both of us completely by surprise. Thank God for the 6000 ft runway I came in fast, floated a lot and nearly took half the 6000 ft to land my 172. Don was sitting quietly and seeing me deal with numerous variables thrown at me. The only place he immediately interjected was as soon as I landed he took hold of the yoke and turned the ailerons into the wind. As soon as we tied down the airplane all hell broke loose with gusts of 50 mph, rain and hail. I was on pins and needles but thank God Don shook my hand and told me that he had never seen anyone deal with so many variables on their first check ride. I had my license!
After that I flew the rented 172 from an FBO in Red Bird a lot. Flew in a few Cherokees, Tomahawks, and also got checked out in an Arrow. I flew right seat in a 182 and Cherokee 6 and respected both the airplanes. One day I saw this beautiful A36 land in redbird. That silhouette in the sky, the sound of that engine, the graceful landing, and the ramp presence….it was love at first sight! I did not much much about the Bonanza’s then but knew one day if I were to buy piston plane this will be it.
From 1995 to 2000 I added over 400 hours in my log book. Then I had to move to Seattle as I had joined Microsoft. Life had taken over and we had our first daughter but I continued flying from Harvey Field and accumulated over 600 hours till about 2007. It is funny how when you have time you do not have money but when you have money you are short of time. I even explored a partnership in a v35 out of Boing field but then life threw a curveball. Microsoft moved me to India to run their business and the saddest part of going was not been able to fly. People who take freedom of flying in the US for granted, should take heed. You are one lucky bunch! You have no idea how hard or how expensive, or how unsafe GA flying is in other countries. You know the value of something you take for granted after it is taken away from you…
As I have started contemplating my return back to the US the first thing I did was….joined BT! It has been 4 months now and hopefully in 2019 we will be back. This time no renting, no waiting…and Neal, I don’t know you but it looks like you are the guy everyone says makes people’s dream come true so hopefully in 2019 you will be getting a call from me!!:-) First thing I will do after that is get accelerated instrument rating.
Till then I will learn from this forum, make friends, prepare…and dream
Cheers!
Hitendra

Wow!!
Hitendra, what a great story. Thanks for posting that. And welcome to BT. The advice and assistance you will receive here will impress you. Good luck and when you buy a Bo, always remember to drop the undercarriage!
Regards,
Frank

Hitendra,
Thank you for sharing your story..... and congratulations!

Congrats on:
- loving flying
- climbing the Microsoft ladder
- birthing GreenDust
- recognizing the desirability of the Bonanza
- acknowledging the necessity of getting Neal locked in to your plane search

You’re doing so many things right!

Keep us updated..

Welcome Hitendra from another forum new guy!

We share a connection with Red Bird. I flew cancelled checks out of there from one of the big quonset hangars on the field. Great time there.

We are indeed blessed in this country. Best wishes to you for your return to the US and aviation!

Thank you for the kind words! Look forward to meeting a lot of you soon and learning, learning, and learning...

Welcome. Great story. Can't wait to see what you buy!

Great intro, welcome to BT!

You lost me on this one. Autocorrect or some sort of inside baseball terminology?

We have quite an accomplished renaissance man on here.

https://www.owler.com/company/greendust

You lost me on this one. Autocorrect or some sort of inside baseball terminology?

Thanks for the background. Very neat!

You lost me on this one. Autocorrect or some sort of inside baseball terminology?

Hitendra,

Welcome to BT. I was checking on LINKEDIN and it turns out you and I are connected via a mutual work associate. I sent you a private message over there with some important information. Please check and reply.

Thanks.