48 | AUGUST 2019 FLYINGMAG.COMUN
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achievement in my aviation journey.
Who was I to dismiss the walls around
me and reach for more? Who was I to
demand my lifeless limbs to perform
miraculously pedestrian feats of abso-
lute normality? Who was I to live a life
I was willing to create and work hard
for? Better questions: Who was I not to,
and who would I become if I didn’t? The
road to my check ride was long and full
of turbulence. There were problems to
solve and new ground to break. But we
did the work, dug deep, leaned on one
another as a team, and stayed commit-
ted to putting one foot in front of the
other down the path. It wasn’t about
what could go wrong. Rather, it was
about what could go right. I studied the
physics of aviation like I was writing a
white paper on the Bernoulli equation
in the wild. I was prepared, and I trained
hard knowing my opportunity would
come. With time, obstacles became
runways and the impossible became
possible. So often, it’s the battles that
threaten to beat us, where our backs
are up against the wall, that we find
our master strokes—our raw and
unscripted greatness.
The sun finally rose on check-ride
day. The work was done, I had only to
execute. On this day, I would take my
shot. I would take a test I had dreamed
about since I was a child and been pre-
paring for over the past decade. After
passing the oral portion of the test, my
excitement rose to meet the challenge
which lay before me—the flight. Galen
and Shawna were there as I pulled a
carbon-and-aluminum modern marvel
from its hangared nest. Systematically
executing the many steps I had visual-
ized and practiced in my head, I found
myself on centerline releasing the
Above: Coffee cup in hand, Charlie
Bravo takes the field for a big day of
crosswind training.
Opposite Top: Unfiltered and full of
heartfelt emotion, Grant's dad, Larry
Korgan, embraces his son.
Opposite Bottom: Over Lake Tahoe with
his first passenger, Grant and Shawna
fly off into the sunset.
“ The road to my check ride was long and full of
turbulence. There were problems to solve and new
ground to break.”