Welcome to FineScale, Throggy. I took one of my early flights in a Cessna 150, in 1962, with my Presbyterian minister, Garry Kamerling, who was certainly the closest I have come to personally knowing a true "sky pilot". That was in 1962, a few months before I joined the Navy. We flew around Cook's Peak in Southwestern New Mexico, just a months after he and I and a couple of my teenage friends had climbed the peak. Here's a photo that I took that day; the view is to the east-southeast, about 70 miles (113 kilometres) from Las Cruces.
On another flight with Garry, same we flew over our town, Silver City, and goosed the plane up to 10,000 feet (3048 metres), above which altitude it just refused to go, about 4,000 feet (1219 metres) above the city.
If you're interested in details about our climb, see Climbing Cook's Peak.
Bob
P.S. I remembered to add that Garry and I rented the plane, each paying $5 for a one-hour flight! That probably wouldn't cover the cost of taking off today.