First off, song lyrics typically fall on the poetry side of the poetry/prose divide and sometimes bend grammatical rules in the name of aesthetics or emphasis. Having said that...

When I listen to this song, I hear the missing word as “I’ll”, not “I”. That would make the revised sentence:

[I’ll] make my way home when I learn to fly.

This sentence is in the first conditional, which does express what you’re thinking it does.

I think the primary reason I’m interpreting this sentence this way is that people generally learn to fly only once, so it can’t be a habitual action that would use the zero conditional.

First off, song lyrics typically fall on the poetry side of the poetry/prose divide and sometimes bend grammatical rules in the name of aesthetics or emphasis. Having said that...

When I listen to this song, I hear the missing word as “I’ll”, not “I”. That would make the revised sentence:

[I’ll] make my way home when I learn to fly.

This sentence is in the first conditional, which does express the meaning you’re expecting.

I think the primary reason to interpret the sentence this way is that people generally learn to fly only once, so it can’t be a habitual action that would use the zero conditional.

First off, song lyrics typically fall on the poetry side of the poetry/prose divide and sometimes bend grammatical rules in the name of aesthetics or emphasis. Having said that...

When I listen to this song, I hear the missing word as “I’ll”, not “I”. That would make the revised sentence:

[I’ll] make my way home when I learn to fly.

This sentence is in the first conditional, which does express what you’re thinking it does.

I think the primary way I’m interpreting this sentence this way is that people generally learn to fly only once, so it can’t be a habitual action that would use the zero conditional.

First off, song lyrics typically fall on the poetry side of the poetry/prose divide and sometimes bend grammatical rules in the name of aesthetics or emphasis. Having said that...

When I listen to this song, I hear the missing word as “I’ll”, not “I”. That would make the revised sentence:

[I’ll] make my way home when I learn to fly.

This sentence is in the first conditional, which does express what you’re thinking it does.

I think the primary reason I’m interpreting this sentence this way is that people generally learn to fly only once, so it can’t be a habitual action that would use the zero conditional.