CPA to the Skies.

• Position: Final entry

Recently, David Klasing, CPA, owner and operator of his namesake tax practice, brought his CPA talents to the air, launching his own plane as a new tool for his growing business. We talked to Klasing to see how this idea came about and ways his pilot license is helping him serve his clients.

When did you start flying and why?

My father was trained by the Dutch Airforce as a fighter pilot and flew P38s. Before I could walk he was taking me on frequent family outings to airshows and I guess you could say it was in my blood from day one.

How challenging was it to get your pilot's license?

Learning to fly was an incredibly emotional and challenging experience. I experienced emotional swings from elation to desperation, self-doubt, aggravation, sweat-inducing fear, regret, excitement, pleasure and pain. It's incomprehensibly expensive, time consuming, infinitely complicated and mentally stimulating. My five-year journey began by building a flight simulator and by taking a six-month private pilot ground school class. Because I was over 50 and had high blood pressure I had to go through all sorts of vigorous testing to make sure my heart could take the rigors of flight training: blood enzyme tests, halter monitor, tread mill, EKG, etc. Flight training is very misleading. I could probably teach the average CPA how to mechanically fly the airplane, turn right, turn left, go up, go down in all of five minutes. It's all of the theory that makes flight possible, all the systems knowledge you're required to have and all of the federal air regulations you have to know cold that makes the task of actually becoming a pilot so difficult and expensive.

Landing an aircraft is purely art and not science and every landing is unique and different. It's by far the hardest thing to learn how to do safely and can be downright frightening at times. I have had landings where I almost ran out of runway, and put flat spots in the tires trying to stop the plane, I have had landings where the plane pitches sideways at the last second for no apparent or logical reason responding to either a sideways air current or the jet blast from a distant parked or taxiing jet. I have had landings where I could not keep the airplane on centerline and nearly careened off the runway. The scary part is that my experiences arc common to all "low time" pilots.

What are some exciting flights you've logged?

The most exciting flying I have done is to Catalina's "airport in the sky." The...