ABSTRACT
The start of my aviation career goes all of the way back to when I was a young teenager in Chicago learning to fly. At 15 I was too young to drive, so my brother would take me to the airport. As I progressed toward the time when I would solo, it was then that I learned a valuable lesson about judgments and making decisions. My instructor was a seasoned veteran of the World War II era by the name of Wally Sedgwick. He was a FAA examiner as well, and had been instructing for a number of years. Although the required training elements a student pilot needed to master before soloing were not as many as they are today, it was necessary to demonstrate proficiency in forced landings. At about my eighth hour of training Wally decided to introduce me to this maneuver, so he discussed the procedure and told me we would try some forced landings on our flight that day.
