BRIEFING MUSINGS / Hanging up the headset Know when to walk away BY MORT CRIM THE HEAVY HANGAR doors banged shut with a sound of finality. I clicked the padlock into place, picked up my flight bag, and headed for the car. I did not look back. A breakup is hard, especially when you're still in love, and even when you know it's for the best. This was not just some fling that was ending. It was a romance that began before puberty and lasted more than 75 years-a passion that still makes my heart beat fast. The thrill I felt the first time my hand pushed a throttle full forward never faded and my obsession with airplanes has been shameless. 46 AOPA PILOT / November 2021 I was 9 years old when I began cutting out balsa wood wing spars and fuselage parts with an X-Acto knife, gluing them together, installing a rubber band motor, then spraying my J-3 with water to stretch the " fabric " before painting it the familiar Cub yellow. Just talking about those days revives the aroma of Elmer's glue and Testors enamel. When I was 15, a friend took me up one Sunday afternoon in his Cessna 140 and I was hooked for life. I always knew that someday it would have to end. No matter how well they're maintained, neither pilots nor airplanes are built to last forever. But someday was always away off in the future. When I TAYLOR CALLEREY