Rob Mixon

To Look Upward Rob Mixon

It is strange how things that seem unrelated eventually come together in a pattern. An old man dynamite fishing in his homemade sailboat; a stay-at-home mom; the sight of my father's Pan American World Airways crisp uniform. These memories take me back to my early life and eventual career as a certified flight instructor. Reminiscing while slowly turning the pages of my pilot logbook, I scan the names of students spanning over forty-four years and 20,000 hours of flight time. In the remarks, procedures, maneuvers, and endorsements sections of the books belonging to my students, the endorsements were signed Robert G. Mixon, 1585409 Certified Flight Instructor, Airline Transport Pilot, Multiengine Sea, Multiengine Land, Single-engine Land, and Glider ratings. But those titles don't tell the whole story. Perhaps even more important is how a certified flight instructor can change the lives of others, using the airplane as a tool to replace insecurity with confidence, or over-confidence with humility. The realization that perhaps it is not the certified flight instructor or the airplane who makes this change, but a Higher Power. That may seem ridiculous to many, strange to some, but the truth that follows, you may find appropriate. "Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint" (Isaiah 40:31). This is a true story of survival of the heart and soul as well as survival of the body. My father's plane would come plowing through the water with the deep throated roar of the huge four engines echoing off the walls of the terminal building. Pan American World Airways "Clipper Ships" in 1934. Capacity included 37 day passengers or 14 sleeper berths. Celebrities like Winston Churchill and famous Hollywood movie stars flew to exotic places in the S-42 seaplane even before land bases were constructed throughout South and Central America as well as Hawaii and Europe. As a young boy, I stood with my mother on the roof that is the observation deck of Pan American World Airways seaplane base at Coconut Grove, Florida. That beginning would lead to the desire and dream of becoming a pilot, a pilot who would use his skill, not only to fly in aerobatic competition, but place his skills into the heart and soul of his students, including one who had been trapped in the darkness of abuse. Flight training became her route to personal freedom. The spiritual experiences in this book are not fiction but life-saving. Most of the characters' names have been changed, but the events are very real.