D. Patrick Caldwell on The Joys of Flight

So, I was in my senior year of high school about a decade ago. I was dating a girl name Jennifer. She had a friend named Brent. After high school, I moved to Alabama for college. After that I moved to North Carolina for work and more school. The day I finished graduate school, I headed back to Georgia.

I got this job working for an entertainment company (no, not adult). We rented inflatable things (again, not adult . . . get your mind out of the gutter). No, we rented like moonwalks and things. Turns out, everybody in that company was pretty loopy so after about 2 weeks of the weirdest work experience of my life, I quit and started my job search again.

I got a job with Emerald Coast Software and I ran the newly opened Alpharetta office. A few months later, my boss decided to move the whole company to Alpharetta and I took over our research and development. ECS employees started making their way to Alpharetta one by one. Ike was one of the first to make the move. Before Emerald, Ike worked for Harrison County Schools where he met James.

James is the guy they offered my position to, but James wanted to focus on programming so he passed it up; I took it. James and I have become pretty close and we hang out quite a bit. Just before James moved to Alpharetta, Ike left for another position working with a friend of his from Mississippi named Brandon. At some point after James got to Alpharetta, Brandon invited Ike to hang out, Ike invited James, and James invited me.

We've all become friends and we hang out regularly (them more regularly than me, but such is almost-married life). So, across the street from Brandon's townhouse lives Stacy who is friends with Kelly who used to date Nathan who is pretty awesome! Now, Nathan is a very fundamental part of the group.

Nathan has a friend at the Pure Taqueria (a former gas station which has become a great restaurant). Her BFF has a boyfriend named Brent who happens to be the same Brent I met through Jennifer a decade ago. Tonight, Nathan invited Brent to our weekly comedy show.

I couldn't believe what a small world! So, we got a big kick out of that, but it turns out we had a lot more in common. Same high school, similar friends, etc. But, we also drive the same motorcycle and we're both pilots. We both have really similar aviation goals and we both fly out of the same airport.

Sometimes I lament that aviation is such a small community because I often wish I had more pilot friends. On the other hand, if it wasn't such a small community, it wouldn't be nearly as remarkable when you do make a new connection with a fellow pilot.

Have fun. Be safe. Happy Piloting.