First Solo Flight for our Youngest Son

As I have said, our job is to prepare our children to fly on their own. Our youngest son left last night on his maiden voyage of solo flying. It is a rather short trip of four months, for a first flight; yet it is his first. With it come two predominant thoughts. One, I will still worry, and the other is we have great communication equipment in today’s world of flying.

We have been through this twice before. But I still worry when they fly on their own. I know they are not always going to make the best decisions. But, flying on your own, is the biggest and maybe best part of learning. Before they leave, you are content with that thought. But after they leave, those thoughts put gray in your hair and what does not turn gray falls out. It usually takes a few days, but when there are no reports of 'crashes,' the anxiety will begin to settle down within you. If there are no major malfunctions you will sleep easier. Until then, you trust, not in your child, but in the One who created your child and gave you the responsibility of teaching them to fly.

As has been the case since they were very young, this is a great time, to spend a lot of time, on your knees. It is out of our control. If we have done our part of teaching them to fly, sit back and watch. Watch what kind of flight God has in store for them. It most likely won't be what you expected, but I have found it is an exciting and fun thing to watch. Your job is not over yet. First flights are just first flights. Now that they have the controls in their hands, there is more teaching to be done, but it is a different kind of teaching.

When I left for college, I was gone and there were no easy way to call back to the tower for instructions. Today you can get block-by-block instructions on where to turn by cell phone. You will love this story. My youngest son, who left last night at 10:00 PM no less, was not going to carry the address or driving instructions of where he was going with him. He was going to wait until he got to the city where he was headed, then call his friend, who was already there, and his friend would talk him down and tell him where to go by cell phone. Which, to him, sounded like a good plan, until I reminded him that cell phones are not 100% reliable and batteries run down. So unless he wanted to spend the night in a parking lot, or do a house-to-house search, it might be a good idea to at least carry the address with him. After rethinking it for just a few minutes, or maybe patronizing me, he decided to spend a little time preparing some instructions for his trip and to carry the address with him.

That story highlights his trust in technology. It demonstrates to me my job is still not finished. There are some refinements yet to teach.