#86: Turned in his Wings
An era came to an end on January 31, 2011 when Arnold Palmer made his final flight in the left seat.
At the age of 81, and with the skies cleared for him by air traffic control, Palmer flew his Cessna Citation X jet from Palm Springs, California, to his home in Orlando, having already decided that he would not renew his pilot certification, which expired that same day. After amassing nearly 20,000 hours as a pilot, Palmer expressed no regrets at the time: “I'll still be flying in my plane as much as always, just not in the cockpit," he said. “Flying has been one of the great things in my life. It’s taken me to the far corners of the world. I met thousands of people I otherwise wouldn't have met. And I even got to play a little golf along the way.”
