When and where did Jimmy Buffett Learn to Fly?

[UNDav8r]

Does anybody know when and where Jimmy Buffett learned to fly?

[palmettopirate]

Jimmy was in Charleston over the weekend and flew out Sunday.

[PirateJohn]

Does anybody know when and where Jimmy Buffett learned to fly?

Jimmy has been flying for a cat's age and no doubt has had many instructors.

There was a story going around here in Jacksonville a few years ago that he brought a group over from Craig Field and set them up at a bar across the street called Sneakers. They were all in some aviation-related class that he was attending, and it was graduation time. The story goes that they came in quietly, the waitresses didn't recognize Jimmy, and when the bar was ready to close the manager asked a few of the staff to stick around for a private party during which he played a bit.

[Sam]

I don't know what year it was but I do know where he was..he was in a plane. LOL

Seriously I am not sure. I can't remember what year he took the cat-shot off a US NAVY Aircraft carrier, in an F-14, but I think it was in that time frame. Read A Pirate Looks At Fifty" I cannot locate my copy right off so I can't tell you for sure.

He may have always been wanting to fly, and was working on getting his pilot's license for a very long time, and put it on hold for a while, with having a family and doing his shows and businesses.

Maybe a couple years before or so it seems. I could be mistaken about that. That may have been when he finally made the decision I am not sure.

I do know that, when he had the crash in his seaplane and broke his leg, he said he owed his life, to the training he had to go through, in order to make the cat-shot off of the aircraft carrier.

[AlbatrossFlyer]

the details of his learning to fly are in "a pirate looks at fifty"

[purpleskye]

the details of his learning to fly are in "a pirate looks at fifty"

I just finished this wonderful book and in fact all the details are in there!!!

[parrottheadbaby]

My favorite is when he says his friend told him if he was ever in a water crash.."Just remember Bubbles up , Rockstar"

[Quiet and Shy]

My APLA50 top-of-mind summary...

Flew a very little bit around his college years...had no money and quit.

Gave up drugs in his late-30's and decided he wanted a pilot's license by the time he was 40.

Practiced take-offs and landings in a sea plane around Key West...and many times people would run to look when he'd land because they thought a plane had crashed.

Was one of two pilots out of Key West who knew how to navigate by the stars...the other, his friend Larry Groovy Gray died a couple years back in a plane crash. (Larry introduced Jane and Jimmy; "Coast of Carolina")

He describes flying as 99% pure joy and 1% sheer terror.

His F-14 "survival training" helped him survive his Nantucket crash (as others have said), but he didn't break any bones there...just got banged up a bunch. (The broken leg 3x's in one year was back in the 70's).

He now owns "heavy iron" (the new Falcon)...and a "GD air force," according to Jane.

And one of the funnier stories in APLA50...packing the Hemisphere Dancer for the journey....

[palmettopirate]

Thanks for the reference to Pirate. Haven't read it yet. I'm just finishing Joe Merchant. Frank just got busted out of jail.

[bravedave]

I can't post all the links here, but a Google search on ["jimmy buffett" lessons flying pilot] will bring up enough information to piece together a timeline. He made good on his promise to get his pilot's license by age 40.