What senior in college wants to spend Wednesday nights talking about the principals of lift and aeronautical decision making. Not many that’s for sure, but here I am waiting patiently all week long for Wednesday nights when I can drive to the local airport and see what the crew there has in store for us.

I just got back from a weekly ground school that local flight schools started to help prepare people for the private pilot written exam and stay current with aviation material. Today the ground school still covers material for the exam, but also serves as a weekly meet up for local pilots to get together and talk about new things happening in aviation. Hearing stories of trips that pilots take, learning about new technology in the aviation industry, and listening to opinions about the future of the aviation industry is something that I have been looking forward to week after week.

I showed up to ground school for the first time knowing only one other person who would be attending, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I was thinking it would be structured like a lecture where someone would stand up and present information for about an hour and then we could go home. Thankfully I was very wrong.

I barley walked and sat down when someone stood up and asked if we would all be okay with going outside to check out an Archer plane that one of the members had flown in. Obviously, there were no objections to going to see the plane so we headed out and got to talk about the structure of the aircraft while climbing into the cockpit and taking pictures.

The only thing that was better than the way that this ground school was being run, was the people involved with it. It was nice to be around such an inviting group of people that had a passion for aviation. I have only been going to ground schools for a few months, but I am looking forward to my weekly dose of loud discussions, plane tours and some great insight into the world of aviation.