Paper or plastic?

Well, my new license arrived in the mail today.

No, it's not the one I'll get that says 'Commercial Pilot' on it.

It's the license that was issued after I passed the checkride for my instrument rating 71 days ago and is already obsolete.

The important license is my new temporary certificate. Despite being little more than a piece of paper with some hand-written information on it, my temporary is much more impressive to me than the nifty plastic one I just got from the FAA.

Since I received my private pilot's license ages ago, I'd only ever had an old-style paper license. To be honest, it just wasn't that impressive looking and didn't hold up very well in my wallet.

These new plastic jobs are pretty slick, what with a hologram and everything.

I can't wait to talk to a pilot who got their first license after the FAA started issuing them on plastic.

I can play 'old man' and get that far-away look in my eyes.

Me: "Yeah, I remember back in the day when our licenses were paper. I used to hang an onion from my belt because that was the style at the time. And GPS was so new only a few airplanes had them. We had to get by with LORAN. Now that'll make a real navigator out of you son."

Young pilot: "Gee whiz, you had a paper license?"

Me: "Yessir. The best thing about the old paper licenses was that you could light them on fire if you were forced down in the wilderness and needed to smoke. Now, I don't what they expect us to do. Probably have to light the darn POH on fire but then how could you fly the airplane without the POH? Shame, really."

Yeah, the conversations that take place in my head are usually far more interesting than the ones I have in real life.