Rediscovering My Childhood Dream
Welcome to ProdSecPilot.com. This is my beacon in the Internet where I am documenting my pilot training journey. Hi, I am Romeo Lorenzo, currently a Product Security (ProdSec) Engineer in the medical device industry in San Diego, CA. The past few years, I was heads down working hard to get my cybersecurity career off the ground after getting my MS in Cybersecurity, now focusing on Medical Device Cybersecurity.
TL;DR
I recently (2022) stumbled on a YouTube (YT) video that reconnected me to my childhood dream and now have the flying bug again. I know this is not going away, so, I bought the ProdSecPilot domain, threw together this blog with Ghost and now blogging about my journey in general aviation.
The Long Story
I made tons of paper airplanes as a kid. Back then, I’ve always wanted to fly. What kid didn’t dream of being a pilot, jumping into a cardboard box and pretending to be a jet fighter pilot. In high school, we had an aeronautics class. I didn't sign up for the class because I thought I was smart enough. I also thought flying was for the uber-rich and that you needed to have 20/20 vision, and definitely had a lot of self doubt back then. I was totally misinformed.
After high school, life happened and that dream became just that, a dream. I would catch myself, however, still looking up into the sky every time I hear a plane.
We didn’t have a lot of money growing up. I didn’t know general aviation was a thing and no one in my circles of family and friends are pilots. The closest to aviation I guess I had was my dad. He was a jet engine mechanic on the USS Intrepid and the USS Eisenhower in the Navy. But I was also too young to know what he was doing. All I knew back then was that my dad was working on a ship in the Navy. Come to think about it now, that was my first exposure to watching planes fly. I was always taught to be frugal and so never thought flying could be a hobby. Don’t get me wrong, it is still expensive, but it is attainable.
Fast forward many years later. I never really gave it much thought but I love to watch planes take off and land. From time to time, I drove downtown and sat around Harbor Drive watching planes fly over the 5 freeway to land in San Diego International Airport. It was San Diego Airport back then.
I use to work in Information Technology (IT) in the Kearny Mesa area and would go out to Montgomery Field during my lunch break to watch the Cessnas take off and land. When I was still dating my wife way back when. She lived in MD while I lived in SD, she took me out to Gravelly Point Park in Arlington, VA to watch the airline planes fly overhead. That was so cool! She was so cool, I love her for that.
Today, I’ve established a career in cybersecurity. My YT incoming feed is all about computers, networks, home diy stuff and mobile security. My Insta- @romeolorenzo is all cybersecurity, snowboarding, learning 日本語 related. Flying was always only a childhood dream... Until now.
June 2022 when Covid regulations were starting to lighten up, I caught a segment on TV of Ashley Jacobs from TheLOCAList SD, a reporter on the local news, was reporting on a Flight Discovery program at Palomar Aviation for the summer. I thought, “That was cool.” I remember taking a photo of the tv and was going to research Discovery Flights in San Diego. But life took over again. I had just past my second year in cybersecurity and was focused on that. I was eating, sleeping, pooping cyber.
Until last November 2022 and out of the blue (pun intended), a video of a girl showed up in my YT feed. It was her Part 3 video on moving from Michigan to California, flying her V-Tail Bonanza (Stevie Triesenberg). N5921C looks awesome, I thought, first time really noticing a v-tail plane before. I remember thinking, “She’s flying??? Her own plane???? … to California? WTF?”
Needless to say, that video caught my attention. I ended up watching Part 1, Part 2, and before I knew it, watched all of Stevie’s videos. My initial reaction was, “Wait, how is she able to afford to have her own plane.” She’s a software engineer working remote. It was funny, I started to think to myself, “I’m a prod sec engineer and I’m working remote-ish (go to the office as need).”
I started googling how to fly a plane. OMFG. Had NoOoOOoOoo idea so many people were into general aviation and of all ages, guys/gals, people from other countries. It was like I was living under a rock and now eyes wide open. Then the idea, "Can I buy my own plane? Wait, what? I can buy a plane for the same price of a Tesla???"
After doing more research, “This is totally doable! Holy-F@ck!” And just before our company holiday shutdown in December, I decided that I am going to do my Discovery Flight on my birthday in February 2023! 2023 Goals! Started buying the FAA (Private Pilot License) PPL books. Shortly after that, I bought an XBOX, a Turtle Beach yoke and rudder, and purchased the Sporty’s Private Pilot Course. Before you know it, I unofficially started flight training on my own, self-study. It's January and I am looking forward to that Discovery Flight next month. In the mean time, I’m hitting the books, created this blog to document my adventures in reconnecting with my childhood dreams of becoming a pilot. I am not making a career change but learning how to fly. Follow my Insta-ProdSecPilot or YT-ProdSecPilot and join me as I rediscover my childhood dream of Flying.