for brian hooker, a 31-year-old atlanta technology entrepreneur, flying has been a lifelong dream. >>y to fly and immediately said, i belong here. >> within six months of his first flight, brian earns his pilot's license and instrument rating and joins a flying club, and then his first long solo trip, 600 miles from georgia to ohio to spend christmas with his girlfriend. >> i wanted to meet her folks and enjoy christmas with them. so we traveled up to cleveland to make that happen. >> the flight north is perfect. after spending the holiday with his girlfriend's family, he expects an equally smooth return south. the only difference, this time he takes along a passenger, darryl robinson, his girlfriend's cousin, who's also headed back to atlanta. this will be darryl's second flight ever. but he says he's not nervous. >> he said he was instrument rated. obviously, that is a rather skilled pilot. he knows what he is doing. he can fly whether he can see or not. so i pretty much trusted him. >> the flight is scheduled to take five hours and conditions seem ideal when the two take off late t