Huge thanks to Utranomad

Thanks for what? What has he done? Well, as we all know, he is always very helpful with his advice – but this thanks is not for that.
Do you remember the so called “butterfly phenomenon”? When a butterfly vibrates wings in Brasil, the resulting turbulence may cause a storm in Norway one year later. This story is not about one year but four – so a pretty long one.

4 years ago Ultranomad wrote this

I had been maintaining my own little Ralley and for some months been wondering if it was possible to get a mechanic licence at “a little advanced age” and that story made me really study the subject deeper. I made some queries to vocational schools and decided that I would like to really find out what kind of schooling that requires – so I could give advice to others if needed… and hopefully later be able to do the maintenance for my own Ralley – and other planes as well.

An old friend with whom I went to school some years (50) ago made a good point: “If it takes three years to go through that course, better start right now. Those three years will go by what ever you do. One day they are gone and if you do not start now, after those three years you will be at the same point as you are now. But if you do start, after three years you will be graduated!”

So I did that. One vocational school was really positive when I called them, I got a permission to enroll the next course starting in August -21. Doing shorter work weeks I went to school on free days and that was awfully nice and a lot of fun. Most students in that group were 16 and I was 66. Boy, they are nice guys and I really loved it.
The last April-May I spent at work practice in a big flight school in Pori, Finland (finaa.fi). After that I got the graduation papers from the course (including 14 of the “part-66-examinations” mentioned in Ultranomad’s thread).

It does not yet give me the mechanic licence because I need at least one year of work experience for the piston engine licence – I already have 1/3 of that collected in my papers. So I have to get some 7-8 months more.. but I will eventually make it some day. Right now I’m trying to find some place where to work with airplanes and get more experience, so if you happen to know one, give a hint.

So what did Ultranomad do? Because of his story I’m there. Without it I might never have really invented this idea and never started digging out how to get a licence. The school did not cost anything else to me than the gas when driving there every now and then – actually I figure out to have spent some 5000 euros for the gas in these years. So not fully free, as the school is 200 km from my home.

Probably the school gave a hint to the local newspaper about a graduating mummy, as they made this story out:
satakunnankansa.fi/satakunta/art-2000010413057.html
The full story is behind payment wall but anyway, as it is in Finnish, it may not matter.

You never know if you are the next butterfly, making someone else reach his dreams! Like he was.
Thanks Ultranomad.