Have you ever thought about why do you want to become a pilot?

N918KT

N918KT

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KT
Last night, as I was laying in my bed, I thought long and hard on why I wanted to become a pilot. For most of my life, it was overcoming a challenge that I was born with and had when I was growing up. I just wanted to prove to myself and others like me that becoming a pilot is possible.

Then, I thought about freedom, and bypassing all those traffic jams on highways, and flying to places only a sport or private pilot can do.

My brother recently moved to Connecticut and then I started to compare the door to door times of flying GA, flying by airline, and driving there to visit my brother. Now I don't know how long it would take to fly from EWR to Bradley International Airport by airline, but for some reason, I feel that GA is the quickest way to get to my brother's home, door to door.

So yeah, those are my reasons for wanting to become a pilot. It's a mix of overcoming a challenge I was born with and had when growing up and flying to places only by GA or LSA can fly to, and like most other student pilots' and pilots' reasons, freedom.
 
Just for fun, no practical purpose, no justification. Risking it all in the sky for nothing.
 
"Imagine your up there, like a hawk looking down. The wind blows around you. The smell of the engine, the draft of the propeller. Up there you can let yourself fall. You can climb, turn, spin. Freedom."
Red Baron 2008 film
 
ClimbnSink said:
Just for fun, no practical purpose, no justification. Risking it all in the sky for nothing.
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This about sums it up for me. I dont plan to do much actual traveling using my PPL (although that might change). I just want to be up there and enjoy it. Oh yeah, and learn to do some awesome flips, rolls and **** eventually...
 
I think "freedom" is a word that's often used to describe General Aviation. I do think it's an accurate description in many respects, but I also find that word usage interesting, in that flying is a very regimented activity, complete with checklists and formal methods of communication. Just a thought that occurred to me awhile back and I thought it worth mentioning here.

Anyhow, I've always been somewhat interested in airplanes, but for me the push I needed to actually purchase one happened when I got married and I simply wanted a way to make traveling to see relatives somewhat entertaining and more interesting than riding in a car for hours. I don't live near a major hub, so any commercial airliner that I take to get somewhere will typically require some sort of intermediate hop, which helps to make flying my own plane competitive with airliner travel in certain instances. When I purchased my plane, I actually lived about 4 minutes from my hangar, so it made logistical sense.

Plus flying is awesome.
 
I have a few reasons:

Its been a childhood dream of mine since the age of 10.
I enjoy freedom and I think its important to have it.
I want to use my PPL to travel and just enjoy life.
I am tired of flying commercial and dealing with lines!!! hahaha.

most of all...I want to have fun
 
Landing an airplane was my goal. Then I set others goals along the way. Without them flying can die as with any passion or hobby. Set goals, and go after them.
 
Danger, freedom, beauty, pickup lines, sets me apart from the majority of the population, dream, etc...
 
MachFly said:
"Imagine your up there, like a hawk looking down. The wind blows around you. The smell of the engine, the draft of the propeller. Up there you can let yourself fall. You can climb, turn, spin. Freedom."
Red Baron 2008 film
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:yeahthat:
 
Because I didn't want to have to get a real job where I would have to do work ! Plus I wanted someone else to pay for me to go to all the places I used to dream about when looking at an atlas.
 
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I have never know another passion since I could talk (well except kicking footballs through 2 pipes but that only officialy lasted 8 years )
 
It's something I wouldn't mind doing for the rest of my life.

I worked a semi desk/security job at a major airport last summer and I loved every minute of it. However, I'm always drawn back to flying. I always get a rush going in and out of the most congested and complicated airspace I can find.

So far flying in a Fedex Push at KMEM is about the craziest thing I've come up with. Try working a Piper Arrow into MD-11s taking off or landing every minute.

Flying around in circles can get old quick. So I try to push myself out of my comfort zone.
 
Mostly to convince myself my brain is still working.

And it does remind me to pray just before I start the engine for takeoff.
 
Once aviation is in your blood it never leaves. I work as a CSR at an FBO because I couldn't get a CFI job (still working on my II), and every day I'm reminded how much I love the entire industry from being a CSR, to being a CFI to just being around it. I guess that's what happens when your mom is pregnant and flying freight, then strapping you in a carseat at the ripe age of 3 months to go along.

I couldn't imagine becoming a pilot without being involved in aviation already. I imagine it's like a foreign world.
 
Z06_Mir said:
I couldn't imagine becoming a pilot without being involved in aviation already. I imagine it's like a foreign world.
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It is, which is what drew me to it. I always wanted to be around airplanes but I never thought I would get to fly. Then I saw the sign at the airport for the $99 ground school and I thought "I'll do that to learn about it and maybe take a lesson or two." The rest is history.

I have no reason to fly, but I can't imagine not doing it.
 
Art VanDelay said:
Because I didn't want to have to get a real job where I would have to do work ! Plus I wanted someone else to pay for me to go to all the places I used to dream about when looking at an atlas.
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I thought you were in the importing /exporting business
 
My earliest childhood memories are,
My first day of school at 4.
My father teaching me to ride my bike without the training wheels.
Looking up into the sky and being fascinated at airplanes flying over our house! I was absolutely amazed that people were up there flying these things like birds!!! Imagine the view from up there!

From that point on I knew it was something that I wanted to do. Growing up in the inner city of Newark (1960's/70's)in a relatively poor family, I didn't have much hope of ever being able to fulfill that dream. My father was my biggest supporter and it bothered him that he couldn't afford to send me to flight school. He would gather up me and my siblings and we'd take a city bus (we didn't own a car) down to Newark Airport to watch the planes. That was the coolest thing in the world to me.:yes:

Several years later, I was finally able to afford flight lessons. I passed my checkride which just happened to be on Oct 2nd, of all days. It was bittersweet because dad had passed away Oct 1st, eight years earlier:sad:. I'm sure he was with me in spirit and he would have been my first passenger.
 
It's all about the large watch and the epaulets with all those gold bars. And that cool cap they get to wear.
.
Really, it was just something I wanted to do and I have had a lot of fun doing it. I might have missed lots of museums along the way if it wasn't for flying out to them.
My record $100 hamburger run was a trip up to Eastport, Me. Round trip was just under 600 miles and one refueling.
 
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I grew up on a 2 mile final to 28R at KPIT. I would look up at the landing planes and thought it was really cool. I learned all the common planes in use there at the time: BAC 111, DC-8/9, the Boeing 70/2/3, etc. In 5th grade science class I did a nice presentation on the differences between turbo-prop, turbo jet, ram jet, and pulse jet engines.

I remember looking up at the 1st widebody/jumbos in awe, not just at the size but at the new sounds they brought. Gone were the high pitched compressor squeal followed by earsplitting roar. Now we had that distinctive sound of that big fan out front followed by a nice mellow hush after.

Hi-bypass really did cut noise way down. I remember the 727 and 707 (the one with the multiple round tube exhaust) as being particularly earsplitting loud.
 
I had zero interest in planes growing up. I was bored and wanted to try something new.

Seriously. The place I trained at was between my old job and my house, and also my house and all my friends' houses. I drove past the airport somewhere between 1200 and 1500 times. I didn't feel well the night before, or driving the 45 minutes home so I crashed at my buddy's house. I felt better the next morning, and on the way into being late for work, pulled in, asked what it took to become a pilot, and had a intro ride right there on the spot.

Had I not gone there to hang out or felt like crap the night before, I probably would have never taken lessons.
 
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N918KT said:
Last night, as I was laying in my bed, I thought long and hard on why I wanted to become a pilot. For most of my life, it was overcoming a challenge that I was born with and had when I was growing up. I just wanted to prove to myself and others like me that becoming a pilot is possible.

Then, I thought about freedom, and bypassing all those traffic jams on highways, and flying to places only a sport or private pilot can do.

My brother recently moved to Connecticut and then I started to compare the door to door times of flying GA, flying by airline, and driving there to visit my brother. Now I don't know how long it would take to fly from EWR to Bradley International Airport by airline, but for some reason, I feel that GA is the quickest way to get to my brother's home, door to door.

So yeah, those are my reasons for wanting to become a pilot. It's a mix of overcoming a challenge I was born with and had when growing up and flying to places only by GA or LSA can fly to, and like most other student pilots' and pilots' reasons, freedom.
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This question reminds me of when my wife asks me, "Why do you love me?"

I always felt it's unimportant to understand "why" you love someone. If you can make a bulleted list of why you love someone or something, then what happens if those things are taken away? I think it's more important to understand that you love someone or something 'despite'..."

I love to fly despite it took so long to learn
I love to fly despite that it's challenging and was hard on my brain
I love to fly despite that there's risk
I love to fly despite that it's incredibly expensive
I love to fly despite that if I lose my medical I'll cry like a baby

I love to fly, and none of those things can ever be taken away.

Gene
 
I wanted to be a pilot since I was a little kid. One of my earliest memories is flying onboard a Northwest Airlines 747 when I was a first grade kid. I thought you had to join the military to be a pilot.

A friend of mine invited me to go with him to Oshkosh in 2007. We drove there and stayed at some college dorms. It was at Oshkosh I learned about the Part61/FBO route.

In the summer of 2009 after I had saved up some money, I did my Private training in a Cessna 152. Got my Private spring of 2010. I now have around 250 hours and have flown almost a dozen different types of single engine airplanes. I still need to knock out my Instrument and would like to go Commercial and get a Seaplane rating as well.
 
After a year of aero engineering classes, I realized I didn't want to build them.

Chicks? The only chicks that I ever saw that were impressed by pilots were the ones hitting on the FedEx pilots in Dallas years ago. I think it was the pay check that was calling them.
 
jonnyjetprop said:
After a year of aero engineering classes, I realized I didn't want to build them.

Chicks? The only chicks that I ever saw that were impressed by pilots were the ones hitting on the FedEx pilots in Dallas years ago. I think it was the pay check that was calling them.
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No thinking necessary. It's always the paycheck that's a deciding factor. How often do you ever see women trying to get a homeless guy to check them out?
 
I've asked myself that question a hundred times since I started training six months ago. I used to love flying RC planes, but walked away from the hobby a dozen years ago. Purchased an AC Cobra replica and spent ten years driving/fixing/modifying/enjoying that pastime. A visit to Sun 'N Fun a few years ago got me interested in kit helicopters - specifically the Mosquito. When a nice one came up for sale in a neighboring state, I decided to flip the Cobra for a Mosquito, but figured I'd take a few hours in a commercial helicopter to see if I really liked it. Fortunately for me, there's a helicopter school ten minutes from my house.

I went in with the plan of getting my ten hours and moving on, but by by the time I completed the third lesson - I was hooked. I'm 60 years old and have nothing going for me with respects to 'quick learning'. I found it to be unbelievably hard - especially learning how to hover. Once I could do that (and not freeze up on the radio), I started really enjoying the experience.

Every couple of months, there was a new challenge for me to stress over. Picking up without sliding on the skids, setting down without bouncing (and sliding on the skids), holding airspeed and altitude, remembering carb heat, auto-rotations, navigation, written test, solo etc.

Now fifty hours later, I can take the keys and fly to my heart's content. It won't be long before I'll be taking my check ride. Flying a helicopter is incredibly expensive and I see no practical value getting a PPL - but when I consider every milestone I've had to conquer, I get a feeling of immense satisfaction. While flying over the rural countryside of north Georgia, I have to pinch myself (after setting collective friction) to believe I'm actually piloting a helicopter! Unbelievable!
 
I've wanted to become a pilot since childhood when my father took me flying in a small Cessna. Then I wanted to become a fighter jet pilot in the military but unfortunately due to my eyesight requiring glasses, this was not possible. So the fulfillment of a dream is why I wanted to become a pilot.
 
skynewbie said:
I've wanted to become a pilot since childhood when my father took me flying in a small Cessna. Then I wanted to become a fighter jet pilot in the military but unfortunately due to my eyesight requiring glasses, this was not possible. So the fulfillment of a dream is why I wanted to become a pilot.
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I feel ya! Wanted to fly for the military every since I was a kid. It was between that or become a mechanic. Well I did the mechanic thing so now I need to fulfill my other dream...
 
Tradford said:
I've asked myself that question a hundred times since I started training six months ago. I used to love flying RC planes, but walked away from the hobby a dozen years ago. Purchased an AC Cobra replica and spent ten years driving/fixing/modifying/enjoying that pastime. A visit to Sun 'N Fun a few years ago got me interested in kit helicopters - specifically the Mosquito. When a nice one came up for sale in a neighboring state, I decided to flip the Cobra for a Mosquito, but figured I'd take a few hours in a commercial helicopter to see if I really liked it. Fortunately for me, there's a helicopter school ten minutes from my house.

I went in with the plan of getting my ten hours and moving on, but by by the time I completed the third lesson - I was hooked. I'm 60 years old and have nothing going for me with respects to 'quick learning'. I found it to be unbelievably hard - especially learning how to hover. Once I could do that (and not freeze up on the radio), I started really enjoying the experience.

Every couple of months, there was a new challenge for me to stress over. Picking up without sliding on the skids, setting down without bouncing (and sliding on the skids), holding airspeed and altitude, remembering carb heat, auto-rotations, navigation, written test, solo etc.

Now fifty hours later, I can take the keys and fly to my heart's content. It won't be long before I'll be taking my check ride. Flying a helicopter is incredibly expensive and I see no practical value getting a PPL - but when I consider every milestone I've had to conquer, I get a feeling of immense satisfaction. While flying over the rural countryside of north Georgia, I have to pinch myself (after setting collective friction) to believe I'm actually piloting a helicopter! Unbelievable!
Click to expand...

Sounds like great fun!
 
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