What inspired you to get into flying?

woodchucker

woodchucker

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woodchucker
Just came across an old picture of my dad with his plane (and me sitting on top of the hub). That was in 1974, Alberta.

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He used to fly bush up in Canada/Alaska back in the day, as well as fire-fighting in DC-3s (I believe), and later on freight. Sadly, it took me almost 40 years after that picture was taken before I got my ticket.
 
Too lazy to werk, too sacred to steal. Riding around in airplanes was the perfect solution...no hard werk, decent living, didn't worry about recieving visitors on Sundays at the state home for the culturally deprived and disadvantaged poor. Besides, everybody knows pilots get to see the world and meat hot babes.

Noah W
 
It's something I've always wanted to do, and I've been in love with planes, especially old and interesting planes since I was a kid. I never knew anyone as a kid who was a pilot and never got a ride in a plane until I started taking lessons at 16.
 
I had a customer who was an important figure in Alaska aviation. He still had a maintenance shop, air taxi operation, and flight school, and one day he called me and invited me to come look at one of their latest creations, a newly completed Magnum Beaver, which his little company was famous for. A stretched, updated, modified version of the DeHavilland turbo Beaver. Seriously cool airplane. He told me to go take a discovery flight with one of his flight instructors next door. I did. I was hooked. I quickly got my cert and bought my first plane, a Hawk XP on floats. Airplanes became an important tool for transporting my family and remain important 25 years later. What a ride. Thank you, Gene Zerkel!

http://akaircraftsales.com
 
I had just gotten married and envisioned years of long distance driving, in order to see my wife's relatives and friends in various locations. About the same time, my best friend randomly gave me a flyer from a local CFI and asked me if I had any interest in learning to fly, I took that as a sign. So, I guess my dislike of long car rides prompted me to buy an airplane. We're on our second airplane now and my dream of flying my family to distant locales, instead of riding in a car for hours, has come true.
 
I opened this magazine and saw this beautiful plane skimming the grass and knew right then and there that I had to become a pilot.

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Flying family. Plus, I grew up in the 50s and 60s when WWII airplanes were still commonplace and exciting news about astronauts and X-15 test pilots inspired a lot of young boys.
 
My grandfather and great uncles were WWII pilots. Growing up looking at the few pictures they had and the occasional story had me hooked. I wanted to carry on the tradition. My cousin had two Air Tractors he sprayed with, and I would flag for him whenever I got the chance. He also had a V-35B that we rode around in. Those were the first planes I rode in as well. All that inspired me. I wanted to try and fly in the Air Force but had an eye injury my Senior year in HS that destroyed my 20/20. I was discouraged and gave up on it for a while. I finally got the bug again and got my ticket. The worst thing I did was wait so long to do so.
 
This. My wife tired of hearing me talk about it and bought me a 3-lesson package for a birthday so I would finally get it out of my system.
 
Crazy uncle when I was growing up.


Now I'm the crazy uncle.


man that bites ...
 
midlifeflyer said:
This. My wife tired of hearing me talk about it and bought me a 3-lesson package for a birthday so I would finally get it out of my system.
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Wait, you wanted cookies and your wife got you flying lessons?
Imagine what you would have gotten if you had asked for flying lessons.
 
My dad started flying when I was about 8, he bought a 182, the first of many N747JB's, to finish his PPL. I used to fly with him whenever I could tag along, he kept it on a friend's grass strip and I got to mow it occasionally before we could fly. :D He quit flying in 79 or 80 when business really sucked, the airplane sat at another strip idle for 4 years and I started flying in January 1984 and never looked back. I am pretty sure I am the one who inspired my son to fly, but who knows, it was probably his mother. :dunno::D
 
Girlfriend in college was pressuring me to take flying lessons. Turns out she was punting a pilot boyfriend. Interesting backstory: he and I became best friends and punted her. :D

Lots of water under the bridge (and a couple thousand hours) since then, but I'll always be grateful to her in a left-handed way. :yes:
 
9/11

Flying was on my bucket list. The people that died that day had buckets lists they never would complete. I decided to start marking things off the list and landing a plane was one of them. I just wanted to land and take off, but I got hooked.
 
Geico266 said:
9/11

Flying was on my bucket list. The people that died that day had buckets lists they never would complete. I decided to start marking things off the list and landing a plane was one of them. I just wanted to land and take off, but I got hooked.
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Objection!

"On what grounds?"

Tugging on heart strings makes my naked lady picture even more tasteless and cheap.
 
The movie Firebirds.
 
I was a CAP Cadet in the early 50's. My father said he's see me through solo. Started lessons when I was 15. Soloed 4 days after my 16th birthday in 54. (It was so smoggy on my birthday that it was IFR) Private shortly after my 17th birthday.
 
My dad had a 170 when i was a kid. Now i've got a 170. I found his old 170 about 45 miles north of my home field. Hopefully i can buy it one day.
 
My great uncle gave me the yoke of a plane and the helm of a boat when I was 4, pretty much put me on my path that an interest in mechanics helped propel me down.
 
I was always a transportation fanatic. I had posters of trains, ships, cars, and airplanes on my wall growing up. Loved going to the TransPo 74 as well. Spent lots of time reading books on flying. My father was an aviation attorney and I got as scrap paper lots of CAB briefs for old rate hearings. One of his labor clients who was a flight engineer (in an airline that got bought by American) gave me my first ride in a Skyhawk when I was probably about 12. Got my pilot's certificate as soon as I graduated from college and could pay to do so.
 
I needed eye surgery and getting my cert was encouragement as something for which i was ineligible prior to surgery (I knew nothing of SODA rides). Plus i was in CAP as a kid so at least had been in small airplanes. I was convinced at a young age that I would never be a pilot. Bass ackwards story...
 
Always wanted to fly since first memories from childhood. Had unsupportive parents on the issue growing up so never per sued. Now at 41 years of age I purchased a 1972 C150. My 14 year old daughter said she wanted to learn to fly so that's all it took. Told myself I would not deny her a dream if I could find ways to support. Now both of us are in the beginnings of making dreams come true. On a tight budget I might add ;)
 
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Mucking out horse stalls and hauling hay from the field to the barn.
 
It's the only thing I've ever wanted to do. My parents thought I'd grow out of it, like most kids do.

Wrong! :D
 
Took my first ride junior year of HS and was hooked. My dad is also a pilot/CFI and helped me out a lot.

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^^^^ very cool, man!
 
flyingron said:
I was always a transportation fanatic.
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Pretty much the same for me. Little brother got me a copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator for Christmas one year. Playing around with it I realized I was fascinated by all of it. How planes navigated from point to point, how they were able to fly, all the systems involved, everything... Decided to take some flying lessons and then now make a career out of it. Wake up every morning never feeling like I am going to "work"
 
I always wanted to fly since I was a little kid. I used to drive past Kickapoo airport here in WFalls and see the runway lights at night and thought how cool it would be to roar down that runway and pull back on the yoke and lift off into the sky at night. I also used to look at the runway of Bearce airport east of Mt. Ida Arkansas when my dad drove past it when we used to camp at Lake Ouachita every summer when I was in grade school and Jr Hi and dream of flying an airplane there too. I didn't learn to fly until my late 30's/early 40's but since then have made many night landings and takeoffs from Kickapoo's runway and have also fulfilled my dream of landing at Bearce and having lunch at the little motel cafe next to the airport there and then taking off from that runway and flying over the lake to see the campground where we used to stay so many years ago. I wished my dad could have been with me to see the lake in Arkansas from the air but he got sick with cancer and passed away a couple years before I ever had opportunity to make that particular flight, but I did get to take him flying many times before that, including my very first really long cross country flight when we drove up to Iowa together to buy my first plane, a Cherokee 140, and flew it back home together to Texas, leaving my truck up there where I took a commercial flight a week later to drive my truck back home.
 
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I was forced. The USAF said "here, fly it."
 
Greenhead said:
Always wanted to fly since first memories from childhood. Had unsupportive parents on the issue growing up so never per sued. Now at 41 years of age I purchased a 1972 C150. My 14 year old daughter said she wanted to learn to fly so that's all it took. Told myself I would not deny her a dream if I could find ways to support. Now both of us are in the beginnings of making dreams come true. On a tight budget I might add ;)
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Good for you and your daughter!
You're both sharing your dreams together, it doesn't get any better than that.
 
I grew up off the north end of the airport in a small town. I used to sit/lay in the front yard and watch the locals shoot touch and goes. Big thrill day when a Lear flew over one day after school. After that, I was addicted.
 
Natural, unrestrained, inexorable passion. And Tom Cruise.
 
My Dad and his friend were deep into model airplanes, especially early RC. My brother and I followed and it all blossomed.

I guess now a kid might follow his young Dad's interest in drones and it turns into a lifelong fascination with all things robotic.
 
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