I got hooked at 4 years old when we visited a family friends ranch and he had a pretty yellow and red T-Craft in his hanger. He took me for a ride, I was standing in the back cargo area with my Dads arm wrapped around me. I fell asleep about 4 minutes into the flight. from then on I looked every airplane photo and read every flying book I could find. Was never really interested in big aircraft or jets. Was mostly interested in single engine taildraggers and 50+ years later still am.
In Jr High School my the same friend introduced me to the mini/micro computer (Digital Group Z80). And I became pretty much equally hooked on computers which greatly improved my interest in Math and Science which I didn't have much interest in before and my grades reflected only a barely passable interest. I high school I attended a career day sponsored by Hewlett Packard where I remember them showing us an HP 3000 computer and a Pen Plotter. At that time I decided I would like become an electrical engineer. I still had the interest in airplanes but the path forward on how to do that was unclear to me where as electrical engineering was easy, as in head off to college. After year in college, I liked the engineering computer classes the rest not so much and was having work full time to keep myself in college and my grades showed it. I did have a cool job as fortran programmer. But after 18 months I got laid off from that job and was unemployed, not very interested in college and didn't have any money to go if I had wanted to. So I joined the Army Reserve. I still don't know why I didn't go into the Air National Guard. We had/have a unit only a few miles away from us. I just new a few people that had joined Army, just no one in the Air force/ANG.
After Basic Training/AIT, I was more motivated for college and went back to school for Electrical Engineering and did better. I was working almost full time as a Pizza Delivery Driver. My 2nd year of college for a girl friends birthday I stopped by the local airport and asked how much to take us for a short ride. At the end of the flight, the pilot said if I was interested to come back and schedule a lesson, and I did. I would show up say I had enough tip money for a 45 minute flight and off we would go. It took me about 6 months to get my private rating. after my 3rd year of college I was hired by Denney Aircraft (Kitfox) and worked on the production line for about 9 months before he asked me if I would like to work on the Thunder Mustang Project. I ended up doing a lot of the Cad and Design work for the Thunder Mustang and was having so much fun college was low priority and fell to the way side again. I kept flying as I could afford it and kept adding a ratings about every 2 years. Picking up my CFI, CFII, and CFIG ratings along the way and started instructing part time. I also purchased and started racing a sailplane. I worked on the Thunder Mustang for about 10 years until they closed up shop and I was looking for a Job again. Turned out Hewlett Packard liked my experience with CAD and Plotters and I have been working in their Large Format Printing Business for the Last 25 years. I am still instructing part time which I think is the best of both world for me working with computers, Electrical Mechanical Equipment and Flying.
Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
In Jr High School my the same friend introduced me to the mini/micro computer (Digital Group Z80). And I became pretty much equally hooked on computers which greatly improved my interest in Math and Science which I didn't have much interest in before and my grades reflected only a barely passable interest. I high school I attended a career day sponsored by Hewlett Packard where I remember them showing us an HP 3000 computer and a Pen Plotter. At that time I decided I would like become an electrical engineer. I still had the interest in airplanes but the path forward on how to do that was unclear to me where as electrical engineering was easy, as in head off to college. After year in college, I liked the engineering computer classes the rest not so much and was having work full time to keep myself in college and my grades showed it. I did have a cool job as fortran programmer. But after 18 months I got laid off from that job and was unemployed, not very interested in college and didn't have any money to go if I had wanted to. So I joined the Army Reserve. I still don't know why I didn't go into the Air National Guard. We had/have a unit only a few miles away from us. I just new a few people that had joined Army, just no one in the Air force/ANG.
After Basic Training/AIT, I was more motivated for college and went back to school for Electrical Engineering and did better. I was working almost full time as a Pizza Delivery Driver. My 2nd year of college for a girl friends birthday I stopped by the local airport and asked how much to take us for a short ride. At the end of the flight, the pilot said if I was interested to come back and schedule a lesson, and I did. I would show up say I had enough tip money for a 45 minute flight and off we would go. It took me about 6 months to get my private rating. after my 3rd year of college I was hired by Denney Aircraft (Kitfox) and worked on the production line for about 9 months before he asked me if I would like to work on the Thunder Mustang Project. I ended up doing a lot of the Cad and Design work for the Thunder Mustang and was having so much fun college was low priority and fell to the way side again. I kept flying as I could afford it and kept adding a ratings about every 2 years. Picking up my CFI, CFII, and CFIG ratings along the way and started instructing part time. I also purchased and started racing a sailplane. I worked on the Thunder Mustang for about 10 years until they closed up shop and I was looking for a Job again. Turned out Hewlett Packard liked my experience with CAD and Plotters and I have been working in their Large Format Printing Business for the Last 25 years. I am still instructing part time which I think is the best of both world for me working with computers, Electrical Mechanical Equipment and Flying.
Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
