While I'm no Nathan King, I've been finding instructing students very rewarding as well. I ended up piloting my first "introductory" lesson last fall when I showed up at a training night and none of the instructors had brought a club trainer out to the field. I just happened to have my trainer, radio, and buddy box in the car with me and somebody asked me to take a couple of kids up.

I really enjoyed teaching the budding young pilots how to turn the airplane, and they certainly had fun trying it for the first time as well. A friend of mine starting flight training a couple of weeks later while meeting me out at the field whenever his schedule permitted. He's been progressing well and we've been getting together on weekends whenver his schedule permits. What's funny is I keep telling him to come out on Thursdays to fly with Nathan and the other club instructors, but for some reason he wants to keep flying with me.

I think having him see me skip my King Kobra down our runway last Sunday like a bad penny might have convinced him to come out for training night. Fortunately I always land his new Avistar more gently than my own planes! Hopefully Nathan and crew will start seeing Mike out at the field on Thursdays on a regular basis. I've always enjoyed Training Night at our club and I hope to return to help out when my work schedule permits.