What made you get into aviation?

TheWife

New Member
I am just wondering how you got into it, whether for hobby or career. Was your dad a pilot? Did you just love it from day one? Did someone take you on a flight? For my dh he has known since he was little. He just thought it was a "cool job" ever since he met a pilot on a scout event.
 
I have no idea. It's just been something I've always wanted to do. I have no family members in aviation. But my parents say I loved airplanes back before I could hardly talk. Who knows, just was meant to be I guess.
 
My mother was a travel agent back in the day (when travel agents could make money
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). So I was always being brought home small aviation trinkets and such.

I was on airplanes a bit when I was younger (mostly before I can remember), so who knows if that has any factor.

Two of my cousins are pilots, though I've never met them. Perhaps it's in my blood
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I can't really say one particular thing made me want to be a pilot though..
 
No one in my immediate family or extended family has ever been a pilot. However, since I was a little kid I've been fascinated with airplanes. My dad and I used to build Plastic Models of old WWII warbirds and modern jetfighters. My dad also took me to a lot of airshows when I was in elementary school. I still have a paper I wrote in 3rd grade describing how I wanted to be an airline pilot when I grew up (complete with a colored sketch of a 747 in delta colors at the top). My favorite part of every family vacation we took was the flight to and from our destination.

During my middle school/high school years I sort of forgot about aviation and never really considered it seriously as a profession. Then as a high school graduation gift, my parents bought me a flying lesson at the local airport. On the first flight I had a blast, soloed quickly thereafter and started thinking "I can't believe people get paid to have this much fun". I know that was a nieve thought, but from that point forward I started doing everything I could to put myself in a position to fly for a living. I'm now working on my CFI and am in the middle of my 5th college semester. Doug and this website have been immensely helpful so far. I doubt that I would've seriously considered flying as a profession had I not stumbled across this website when I was a student pilot. However, I should give most of the credit to my parents for financing this whole gig and being supportive every step of the way.
 
smart chicks dont dig pilots.. they dig the guys who OWN the airplanes.. (this was predictably told to me by the owner of our FBO).

I got into aviation for a pretty simple reason. I got sick of sitting next to runways and watching OTHER people do it!
 
That is a really great story! Your dad sounds like a really great guy to do those things with you.
 
Back in highschool I ended up getting involved with the Civil Air Patrol in Virginia for a little while. One day over at the airport it just dawned on me "hey...I can do THIS for a living." And here I am.
 
When I was a very young boy...an old Stearman cropduster would spray the apple orchard next to my house. It flew quite low and sprayed this stuff called DDT...it's been banned for years. I used to always get some on my skin while watching that plane buzz just over my head. I think it made me a little crazy.....

I used to like to build model planes and then light them on fire and "crash" them.

I used to ride my bike, 5 miles each way, to the airport and spend all day watching the planes take off and land.

No idea why I did these things...flying didn't run in the family at all.
 
I really don't know, but we are 3 brothers, and all of us are NUTS for airplanes. When I was 19, I told my girlfriend that I was considering going away to the air force academy -she freaked out-. Basically told me that our relationship would not survive....
Well, I chose our relationship and I dont regret it BUT.....it took me 18 years to finally learn to fly (I'm 37), have great kids 2 kids and been married for 14 years to the love of my life, again I dont regret it, but its kind of late to make a career now, so I have to settle with flying just for fun on a 172 instead of a 767....
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There are no pilots in my family....never even knew anyone who flew!!!! But I remember when I was 4 years old, we took a family vacation from San Francisco to Montgomery, AL. When rode a Delta L-1011 to Atlanta, and I remember (clearly) sitting in my Dad's lap, wanting to know about all of the "moving things" on the wing. He very patiently explained to me that those were the control surfaces that helped the pilots control the airplane. I knew from that point on that I wanted to fly airplanes!!!!

I never flew again until I was in the ninth grade, and I rode a Navy C-9 (DC-9) from San Francisco, to North Island, CA. It was the greatest thing in the world!!!! Flew again to visit my family in Louisiana, and had Continental MD-80's for the entire trip...awesome!!!

The next trip was not so fun.....a United 737 to San Diego, for boot camp...I don't remember much about that flight, except for being kinda sick, and wanting to go home
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Anyway, throughout my childhood, I remember telling everyone that I was going to fly airplanes! I didn't know how, or when, but I knew that I'd fly them someday. Everyone said I was crazy, or that I couldn't do that. My family especially pointed out many reasons to me why I wouldn't be able to be a pilot (for reasons I'll not get into....lol). It took until I was 23 to take my first lesson, but I eventually did it!!

If I had to point out the reasons that I wanted to fly, there would be alot of them. I always liked the sound of planes flying overhead. I always wondered how a pilot controlled things like yaw and roll. I never had anybody close to me that could explain them, but I thought it would be awesome to know how to do that. I remember being in high school, wondering exactly how the pilot was able to control the plane all the way to the ground, and make the plane land with the main wheels first, while the plane flew without the main wheels being lower than the nose wheel (I knew nothing about slow flight at that point...
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).

I didn't know what a J-3 cub was, or how much money pilots were supposed to make (or not make). All I knew was that it was pretty cool, and I wanted a piece of the action!!!
 
haha, nice one aloft
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Well, I always used to love planes and flying when I was little, and my parents USED to be kind of rich, so we would travel a lot. We always flew on this charter airlines out of denver called "ports of call" or something like that. They had their own airport (maybe it was just their own building, I guess it was located at stapelton, but I know it was seperate from the actual airport) and a small fleet of planes. Anyway, I had all the little models and got to meet the pilots and all that stuff, but then my father's businesses went under, and we were suddenly not at all rich and as a result I never rode on a plane again until about 7 months ago (a period of almost 15 years). Since then I've had to travel by plane about once a month and that has totally re-kindled my old love for aviation. My whole time in college (I graduate in december) I was kind of bummed because I didn't really enjoy what I was studying and didn't want to do it as a career, but now for the first time in my life I'm really interested in something, and I can't wait to start my training after I graduate! Anyway, just my story...
 
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I have no idea. It's just been something I've always wanted to do. I have no family members in aviation. But my parents say I loved airplanes back before I could hardly talk. Who knows, just was meant to be I guess.

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Same thing here! I used to ride my bike to the airport too... now I get to drive
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I remember the year before I started flying I couldn't get my parents to take me to the flight school (maybe they didn't take me seriously?), so I had my 16 year old buddies drive me. The three of us kids went in and had an interview style talk with one of the head guys. Good times
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I have no idea. It's just been something I've always wanted to do. I have no family members in aviation. But my parents say I loved airplanes back before I could hardly talk. Who knows, just was meant to be I guess.

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Same thing here! I used to ride my bike to the airport too... now I get to drive
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I remember the year before I started flying I couldn't get my parents to take me to the flight school (maybe they didn't take me seriously?), so I had my 16 year old buddies drive me. The three of us kids went in and had an interview style talk with one of the head guys. Good times
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HA HA - I drove!!!!!
 
I'd been interested in flying since I was a kid, but was discouraged in jr high (do they even have jr high anymore?) by a "friend" who told me I could never be a pilot because I wore glasses. So I gave up on flying at that point, but stopped being fascinated by it (actually I love anything that goes...cars, boats, planes, the space shuttle).

I've no idea why I like transportation / vehicle. I didn't spend a lot of time around cars or boats or even planes as a kid. I just liked 'em. Maybe I was a pilot in a former life. Who knows.

It wasn't until I got married and my wife started med school that I even thought about getting into flying. A fellow student of her's was married to a guy who was going to FSA. He took me up one day, demoed a stall or two, scared the hell out of me, did some less dramatic manuvers, and let me fly a bit.

After that I did some research and found that low and behold you didn't need perfect vision, I scheduled my first lesson the next summer after I'd work out some of the financials.

Right now it's just hobby and an expensive on at that, but I know that there are three days in my life to this point that I'll never forget: my wedding day, my first solo, and the day (hopefully very soon) when I pass my first checkride. I'm definately going to get more ratings / certificates (IR is next and at some point I'm getting my seaplane rating, helicopters too...), and lately I have been thinking that it might make a cool career. Who knows I've been kicking around FSA so I may end up there next year.

I just gotta see where life takes me.

Naunga
 
I'm a bit sentimental when it comes to this, so I apologize if I bore you. My father had been a flight instructor from the early 70's until the early 90's. He instructed on and off during this time frame, working around his full time job and family obligations. As a young child I remember him taking me for airplane rides and letting me "steer". I always loved it and was always very proud of dad.

When I started college my father was laid off from his full time job, so he started instructing again. I went to the airport with him one time and he took me for an airplane ride. I started taking lessons and he trained me through my private license.

After getting my private license in 1988, I wanted to continue to work towards my ratings, but that didn't work out for various reasons. I finally started training again in 1999 and now instruct part time for the same company my father did. I've even soloed students in the very plane that my father soloed me in.

I don't know where my flying career may take me, but the highlight of my flying career has been the time spent with my father during my primary training. Those are memories I will always treasure.
 
When I was a young'n (lol, I'm only 21 now), as a child I must have watched "Top Gun" every other day. That and "Midway." My dad used to work on an Aircraft Carrier and other relatives were in the Navy, but not aviation. Anyhow I would see them in their dress whites, the cool guys who got to fly jets, and that's what I wanted to be.

The feeling kinda went away for years, but in the summer of 1995 my family and I went to Disney World in Orlando for a week and that was the first time I ever flew (BWI). I loved it, it fascinated me. The entire airport scene fascinated me, tons of people, the hustle and bustle, etc. It was an environment that I was fascinated with.

A few years later, the summer of 1998, I flew out to Indianapolis by myself, and the plane encountered turbulence and even though I was on my own, I wasn't nervous and I thought, I can handle this.

These are the times were I really started to get the itch.

I always figured learning to fly was too expensive, although I never looked into it. Once I joined the Air National Guard, I thought, hey the Air Force can instruct me, so I looked into it.

I started training for my PPL, and just loved going up, and having an entirely different perspective on the world.

Well, I finished my PPL training, passed my checkride, and am currently looking into my options. May not be able to fly with the Guard due to a lazy eye.

*People ask me why I don't want to fly fighters, especially after living and breathing "Top Gun"
The need for speed thing just isn't me, I'm more into controlling something enormous that just doesn't look like it belongs in the air.
 
Great question! This will keep the emotions on the happy side.

I've always been interested in aviation, but never really thought about getting my ticket until I started playing some sports with a guy who is flying corporate. So one day, when we're just shooting the you know what, I asked him, how much does it cost to learn to fly? And he said, well, it will probably run you around $5K for your private.

I said, whoa, that's a lot of money. But he said, well, you can go and take an intro flight and see if you like it.

I did it, and I loved it. So I knew I was going to get my private after that.

Anyway, I said, you know what, why can't I be like my buddy and get paid to do this? This is so much fun. So I asked him and some other pilots I knew about what it takes and they told me. And I asked them if there was anything else they'd rather do and they said no.

That got me going. That, and hating every single moment of my last job!
 
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I don't know where my flying career may take me, but the highlight of my flying career has been the time spent with my father during my primary training. Those are memories I will always treasure.

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Dude, that is so cool. Plus getting to solo students in the same plane that your dad trained you in. Wow.

You should send that story to someplace. I am sure with all the 100 years of flight stuff that's going on, someone would love to run that article.
 
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