“It’s By no means Too Late” is a collection that tells the tales of people that resolve to pursue their desires on their very own phrases.
Dwell music was no extra. Patrick Milando might draw no different conclusion. However perhaps he might pivot.
It was a summer time 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 Occasions Sq.. Then 67, he had spent practically a half-century as knowledgeable 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 had been wrapping up their work, Mr. Milando discovered himself pondering a brand new method to pay the payments — 5,000 toes above his previous approach.
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 passion. (He had logged round 300 hours of flight time.) Now, he puzzled, might he really grow to be knowledgeable pilot? He was too previous to fly for the main airways (the cutoff is 65), however there was no age restrict on instructing 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 many years 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 personal future,” he mentioned.
At the moment Mr. Milando, 71, has two careers — it seems the demise of stay music had been significantly 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 thinking about flying?
Being a musician, I did a whole lot of touring. I used to be very intrigued by the flying facet. I obtained a flight simulator sport for enjoyable, when my children had been younger. You’d hear me within the basement yelling, “Pull up, pull up!” Once I turned 60, my spouse obtained me flying classes. From there, I obtained my personal pilot’s license.
What do you want about flying?
It’s very serene. Probably the most gratifying occasions is if you’re going by way of the clouds, and also you’re relying in your devices coaching, then unexpectedly you’re above the clouds and you’ve got this lovely 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 enjoying the horn. Was it ever scary?
The scariest was touchdown for the primary time. I keep in mind I had an opera down in West Palm Seashore, and I’m up there with my teacher at 1,500 toes, trying down on the tarmac, considering, Properly, I simply should 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 had 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 keep in mind driving sooner or later by way of Occasions Sq. and seeing all the things boarded up. It was actually scary and I assumed, OK, let’s simply strive profession No. 2. I’m not one to sit down 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 time to get my licensed teacher’s score, so I might educate different folks to fly. I additionally picked up a seaplane score, only for the heck of it. Ultimately 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 folks to fly all the things 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. Whenever you put apart all of the extraneous issues happening round you. That’s type of what you need to do if you’re flying an airplane.
As a instructor, I’ve had a scholar freeze 100 toes from the runway. I needed to push his palms off the controls and take them. He was in a psychological freeze, couldn’t get out of it. You all the time should be within the second.
How typically do you fly now?
That’s the difficult half as a result of I’m chargeable for eight exhibits every week at “The Lion King.” Monday is darkish, so I often pack the day with college students, and simply maintaining present on flying completely different airplanes. Then I’ll often rent somebody to play for me one other day that week, and educate extra folks. So I find yourself flying perhaps 15 hours every week.
Any recommendation for people who find themselves thinking about making a change like this, however fear they’re too previous to be taught one thing new?
I say go for it, completely go for it. There’s no purpose to not.
Are you carried out making huge modifications?
I’m like a shark, I gotta preserve transferring. I’ve run eight marathons; I like studying languages. Now I’m type of questioning about an Airline Transport Pilot certificates, the A.T.P., so I might begin flying folks 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 children say, “Yeah, I’ve heard that earlier than.” So I suppose I’m going to get that A.T.P.
