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Profile: Sheila Croft, Student Pilot
As children, Sheila Croft and her brother would lay out in the
grass outside her mother's kitchen window and gaze upward at the skies
over Severna Park, entranced with the airplanes en route to what's now
a busy Class B airport, BWI. The dream began. Later, as a member of
the Civil Air Patrol in her teenage years, Sheila boarded her first
aircraft-a transport-class military carrier-that took her to Bangor,
Maine.
Over the years, the past
13 spent as a Realtor with ERA Caton, Sheila's encounters with
the world of flight were confined to accumulating frequent flyer
miles.
Six years ago, Sheila had a very serious fall on the ice. Her three
children and husband Rick stood by her every step of the way and she
credits their love and support as the best medicine of all. "Something
like that changes your life forever. When you almost lose yours, you
think differently. I believe God did not put us on this beautiful earth to
work constantly and not enjoy what He gave us to see. My goal happens to
be enjoy as much of it from the sky as I can."
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And that
she is. She decided the time had come to turn her dreams into action; there were so many things in life yet to accomplish. She
began skydiving (230 jumps to date), and
on January 27th, her lifelong ambition of learning to fly took off with her first lesson with instructor Cathy
Steele.
Sheila completed ground instruction at Community College of Baltimore
County-Catonsville this past summer. Like most people who've been away
from the books, Sheila was apprehensive about the 60 multiple-choice
questions comprising the FAA Knowledge Exam. Test-taking anxiety
notwithstanding, Sheila easily passed the "written."
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She soloed in June, completing the
traditional three flights around the pattern at Martin State. Not
long afterwards, her solo experience expanded to the Eastern Shore
practice area across the Chesapeake. Her first cross-country solo trip took her to Cambridge,
MD, and just after Thanksgiving, she completed a longer and more intensive solo flight to Millville, NJ.
We all have many goals in life but seldom more than
one dream. Sheila's was to fly. Through her own determination, her husband
Rick's encouragement, she's logged 70+ hours (20 of those solo). She and
Cathy are getting set for the checkride...and her Private Pilot's Certificate.
Regardless of when your ambition to fly takes off, Sheila will tell you
it's going to take organization, focus, and discipline. Flying's hard
work, but then again, so is anything that's worthwhile. As Sheila
discovered, there's a point in life where you realize it's time
to "Just do it!"
On October 2, 2001, Sheila earned her Private Pilot Certificate,
passing her checkride with DPE Michael DeRuggiero. Sheila intends to begin
her instrument training in the near future. Congratulations,
Sheila! |
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