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// January 12 [Pilot's License!] 
// Story: Silver Glow's Journal 
// by Admiral Biscuit 
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January 12

I got my pilot's license today!

After poetry class (we’re reading Henry Wadsworth Longfellow now and he’s kind of like Walt Whitman), Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn picked me up in Sienna and we went back out to a different airplane station where a new FAA person named Mister Vogt and a man named Mark that was called a flight instructor were waiting for us.  

The airplane station was a small place, smaller than the one in Kalamazoo and much smaller than the ones that we had taken the airplane from when I first got to Earth. And instead of being one big building that was all connected and branched off everywhere, there were several little buildings on the airport. 

They started off by testing me on subjects in the book, to be sure that I understood all the rules. Then they gave me a radio, which is sort of like a telephone, and had me demonstrate that I could make it work on the frequencies they told me to use, and that I could talk on it properly.  There is a funny version of the alphabet that they use where they give all the letters names like Juliet or Charlie or Delta, and I had to recite that for them, too.

Then we got back in the van and drove over to a building called the FBO, and they took me out behind it to a large open area that was near the roads where the airplanes fly from. He said that they were called runways, because airplanes run along them until they are going fast enough to fly. (The Wonderbolts have a similar runway on a mesa-top at their training grounds.  I’ve seen pictures of it.)

Mister Salvatore gave me a special bright-colored vest I have to wear whenever I want to fly higher than buildings. He also gave me a flashing light on it that is very bright and annoying. I don't like either (the vest clashes with my coat), but I understand why I need them. Sometimes on night weather patrols, the weatherponies have to carry crystal lamps so that they can all see each other.  Other airplanes have flashing lights or are painted bright colors so that they don’t bump into each other by mistake.

I bet if I’d had a yellow coat, I wouldn't have had to have the vest.

Then Mister Salvatore gave me a small altimeter that he said was used by skydivers, which are a kind of people who jump out of airplanes.  I wonder if there are any of them around Kalamazoo?  Flying up in an airplane wouldn’t be fun, but jumping out would be, and maybe it could go where I’m not allowed to.

He showed how to reset the altimeter—he reminded me that air pressure changes with altitude, but it also changes depending on the weather, so the instrument has to be reset every time.  He didn’t need to tell me about atmospheric pressure; every pegasus knows about it.

I strapped it to my foreleg, where I could look down and see it easily, and then the instructor told me to walk out to the helipad—which was marked with a big 'H' inside a circle—and use the radio to ask for permission to fly a lap around the airplane station, reporting to the control tower what I was doing.

The FAA inspector reminded him that I needed a call sign, and there was a bit of discussion, and then we decided on “Pegasus 1.”

So I did what he told me to do. The book had said how a helicopter was supposed to take off and fly around the airplane station, and I followed the instructions to the letter. I kept checking my altimeter to make sure that I was at the right height, and I told the control tower what I was doing so that they would know.

I could hear some other pilots talking on the radio as well, and I had to wait my turn. As a result, my downwind leg was longer than I meant it to be, but it is very important to not change course until after you have told the control tower you intend to do so. The book had said that, and it was because unless you said you were doing something else, everyone would assume that you were still doing the thing that you had been doing.

When I finally flew down for the landing, the flight instructor came up and crouched down and reached out his hand and gave me a hoofshake. He said that in his experience, I was qualified to fly.

After that, I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, certifying that I had flown for more than twenty hours, and that at least fifteen of those hours had been with a qualified flight instructor. He said that an adult pegasus pony counted as a qualified flight instructor.

Then he and the FAA man signed off on some papers, and I was qualified to fly!  They gave me a temporary license, which says right at the top ‘Ornithopter Pilot License,’ and under that, Silver Glow.  Plus it’s got a bunch of stuff like my birthday and address and age and weight.

There are a few rules I have to follow, though, or else they’ll take it away. I can only fly above trees in what they call VFR (which means a certain visibility distance) conditions, and only during the day. I have to wear my vest or carry the flashing light.  I am not allowed to carry any passengers, or fly above ten thousand feet (which is three thousand meters), and I can't fly in Class A airspace.

He also explained that I could not land on the roofs of buildings off campus unless it was an emergency or I had gotten permission first. Then he gave me a second map that had several buildings circled in red where I was not to fly. And that was it!

The FAA man was still a bit grumpy, but he shook my hoof and congratulated me anyway. I don't think he wanted me to pass the test, but I couldn't think of why he wouldn't.

Mister Salvatore and Miss Cherilyn and Mister Mark were really happy and so was I and I celebrated by making another flight around the airplane station (I got permission first). Mister Mark gave me a card with his phone number on it and said that I could call him whenever I wanted to. Then he gave me a big hug and congratulated me again. I could tell that he was pretty proud of himself, too.  I bet I’m the first pegasus who he’s helped become a pilot.

Then we got back in Sienna and they asked me if I wanted to have dinner with them but I was too excited to want to sit down and eat, so they took me back to campus and I told Peggy and she called a bunch of our friends and pretty soon we had a gathered up a little group.

We decided that this called for celebration, and it was still light enough that I could have a quick flight, so I put on my vest and we went out to the quad and I flew up and did some stunts in the air and by the time I landed there were a bunch of other students who were watching me zip around.

We all went to dinner together, and then afterwards everyone went to Christine's room, and we crowded around her TV and watched Return of the Jedi. I had to share the papasan with Peggy because there were more of us than there were seats, and it took a little bit of cleverness to figure out how to both fit on it and be comfortable.