Contributing Reporter
Four lucky Yale students and faculty members are getting an almost-free ride to the Midwest this weekend.
Amateur pilot Malcolm Dickinson '92 posted signs around campus in the beginning of September offering four people the chance to fly round-trip to Chicago in return for dividing fuel costs. Three days before the flight takes off, Dickinson is still taking names -- for the waiting list.
Dickinson works as a management consultant in Manhattan, a job which requires frequent travel. On select weekends, he dons another hat to work as a commercial pilot and flight instructor for the Yale Aviation Club at Tweed-New Haven airport.
"Flying is definitely a fun hobby for me," Dickinson said. "And it's useful. ... It takes an hour to get to Mount Snow in Vermont. You just take a friend, pack your skis, and go up, ski for the day, and fly back. It's so much easier."
Dickinson is offering the ride to Chicago this coming weekend for the first time. He is not charging passengers for his expertise -- since he will be flying out to visit family -- but has asked them to share fuel costs.
With four passengers, the cost is only $90 per person, about one tenth of what the trip would cost on a commercial airline.
Three days before takeoff, at least three hopeful travelers are on the waiting list.
Dickinson got his wings his junior year, when he saw the familiar Yale Aviation card in the post office and took it on a whim. Then he forgot about the card. An article more than a year later in the New Journal about a female instructor at Yale Aviation prompted him to call and sign up for lessons
"I was working in New Haven and thought, 'I could do this on the weekends," he said. "From the first lesson I was hooked."
Yale Aviation, which has close to 50 members and owns four planes, has declined in membership since the 1970s' flying boom. Since then, gas and insurance costs have made flying more expensive and club membership has dropped.
The club is seeking new members who, like Dickinson, want to learn to fly and have some free time. Lessons cost $50 per hour for the plane and $20 per hour for the instructor, at least $20 an hour less than other flying instruction clubs, Dickinson said.
Dickinson took lessons with the female instructor for ten months, then completed the written, oral and practical examinations for his pilot's license.
He admits he was nervous during the whole process, because "everyone prepares a lot for that day. You can make one mistake and [the instructor] can fail you."
One move Dickinson found particularly difficult was the "steep turn," where the pilot tips the plane to a 45-degree angle with the ground while maintaining altitude.
The written exam, which Dickinson took halfway through his 10-month preparation, tests how well the hopeful pilot knows basic flying procedures, navigation, and various weather conditions. Dickinson describes the test as "pretty basic," since a score of 70 percent or above is required for passing.
Since attaining his instructor's license, Dickinson has been teaching at Yale Aviation as one of three instructors there. He taught both clarinet and saxaphone as an undergraduate at Yale, so "it was just a natural progression to [teaching flying]," he said.
He teaches his students the same things that he learned: take-offs, turns, flying straight, climbing and descending, as well as landing and navigation techniques.
Dickinson urges other Yale students to take advantage of Yale Aviation, even if they have never before envisioned themselves in a cockpit.
"You don't have a lot of a free time when you're working," he said. "If you can [learn to fly] while you're at Yale, you should do it."