A Musician Turned Pilot Reveals It’s By no means Too Late to Discover a New Profession

“It’s By no means Too Late” is a collection that tells the tales of people that resolve to pursue their goals on their very own phrases.

Stay music was no extra. Patrick Milando might draw no different conclusion. However perhaps he might pivot.

It was a summer season day in 2020, a peak of the coronavirus pandemic, and Mr. Milando, a French horn participant, had been driving by way of a locked-down, emptied-out Instances Sq.. Then 67, he had spent almost a half-century as an expert musician, from the Metropolitan Opera to over a dozen years with “The Lion King.” Now that musical, together with a lot else, had shuttered. At an age when his friends have been wrapping up their work, Mr. Milando discovered himself pondering a brand new solution to pay the payments — 5,000 toes above his previous means.

Typically we leap fortunately to an all-new life. Typically we leap fortunately with a push.

Mr. Milando had begun flying single-engine planes earlier than the pandemic, however purely as a pastime. (He had logged round 300 hours of flight time.) Now, he puzzled, might he truly develop into an expert pilot? He was too previous to fly for the key airways (the cutoff is 65), however there was no age restrict on educating others to fly.

Mr. Milando discovered a small flight college in New Jersey and got down to earn his business pilot certificates. The opposite pilots there tended to be a long time youthful, and never as soon as did he spot a fellow French hornist. (Most appeared to work in computer systems, he noticed.) However he felt at residence; flying unlocked one thing in him.

“There’s a freedom, an autonomy. You’re the grasp of your individual future,” he stated.

Right this moment Mr. Milando, 71, has two careers — it seems the loss of life of dwell music had been tremendously exaggerated. He splits his time between the orchestra pit and the pleasant skies, the place he teaches budding pilots like he himself as soon as was. (The next interview has been edited and condensed.)

How did you get concerned about flying?

Being a musician, I did quite a lot of touring. I used to be very intrigued by the flying side. I obtained a flight simulator sport for enjoyable, when my youngsters have been younger. You’d hear me within the basement yelling, “Pull up, pull up!” After I turned 60, my spouse obtained me flying classes. From there, I obtained my non-public pilot’s license.

What do you want about flying?

It’s very serene. One of the vital pleasurable instances is whenever you’re going by way of the clouds, and also you’re relying in your devices coaching, then rapidly you’re above the clouds and you’ve got this stunning panorama in entrance of you.

It’s a rush. The primary time you do it, it’s life-changing. Life-changing and life-affirming.

It appears a tad riskier than taking part in the horn. Was it ever scary?

The scariest was touchdown for the primary time. I bear in mind I had an opera down in West Palm Seashore, and I’m up there with my teacher at 1,500 toes, wanting down on the tarmac, pondering, Properly, I simply need to land this airplane. Afterward, I felt like I used to be going to cry. It was simply so intense, and superb.

What prompted you to consider flying professionally?

When the pandemic got here, all of us musicians have been like, “Oh my God, what are we going to do?” The prevailing feeling was that music was going to cease; Broadway was by no means going to return again.

I bear in mind driving sooner or later by way of Instances Sq. and seeing the whole lot boarded up. It was actually scary and I assumed, OK, let’s simply attempt profession No. 2. I’m not one to take a seat round and do nothing.

So how did you make it occur?

I discovered this small flight college in New Jersey, referred to as Sky Coaching, and obtained my business score. Then I flew to Minnesota later that summer season to get my licensed teacher’s score, so I might educate different individuals to fly. I additionally picked up a seaplane score, only for the heck of it. Finally I flew a seaplane over Lake Como in Italy and was waving all the way down to — who’s it that lives there? George Clooney?

Anyway now I educate individuals to fly the whole lot from a single-engine Cessna to a multi-engine Piper.

Are there similarities between music and flying?

My success as a musician has all the time come once I’m completely centered within the second. If you put apart all of the extraneous issues occurring round you. That’s form of what it’s a must to do whenever you’re flying an airplane.

As a instructor, I’ve had a pupil freeze 100 toes from the runway. I needed to push his arms off the controls and take them. He was in a psychological freeze, couldn’t get out of it. You all the time need to be within the second.

How typically do you fly now?

That’s the difficult half as a result of I’m chargeable for eight reveals every week at “The Lion King.” Monday is darkish, so I normally pack the day with college students, and simply retaining present on flying completely different airplanes. Then I’ll normally rent somebody to play for me one other day that week, and educate extra individuals. So I find yourself flying perhaps 15 hours every week.

Any recommendation for people who find themselves concerned about making a change like this, however fear they’re too previous to study one thing new?

I say go for it, completely go for it. There’s no purpose to not.

Are you carried out making large modifications?

I’m like a shark, I gotta preserve transferring. I’ve run eight marathons; I like studying languages. Now I’m form of questioning about an Airline Transport Pilot certificates, the A.T.P., so I might begin flying individuals all the way down to the Caribbean. It’s just about the ultimate step in aviation.

Every time I say I’m carried out, my youngsters say, “Yeah, I’ve heard that earlier than.” So I suppose I’m going to get that A.T.P.