What inspired you to get into flying?

Bill Watson said:
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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The future is always full of inspiration of new things.
 
Like many here, my dad. My dad got his private pilot license, but didn't fly after he got it. I guess that he couldn't justify the expense. When I got to be a teenager, he pushed me to get a pilot license and my A&P. I flew and worked on planes then, off and on, for over 46 years, with a big break in the middle of it. I know that this is a bad place to confess, but I don't like airplanes that much, and never did. I don't dislike them, but aviation was my Dad's thing. He hauled me to every air show he could find, and even though he didn't fly, that is all he talked about. At the time, I didn't have anything else to do. A few years before he died I took him up several times in a 172 and just flew him around. He was so happy to be in the air. I always felt like I needed to keep a foot in aviation just because that was about all we had in common.
 
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thread resurrection time.. (figured this one would be more than 2 pages, no?)

Anyway, I'd like to hear what sparked others to get their first hour of training.

I'll post mine a little later, I have to think about it.....
 
I would like to say that I got into flying thanks to Rod Machado but I think he was not the last straw, I believe my father's passing was. I decided "f*** it, I'm not waiting to die anymore", found an AME and started flying within weeks.

Thanks, dad!
 
For me, it was John Denver. I was 4 and he flew so I had to do the same.
 
iRyan said:
For me, it was John Denver. I was 4 and he flew so I had to do the same.
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I actually read about him on Wiki a few days ago. Interesting life he led. Dad was a B-58 pilot...sweet aircraft.
 
May 30, 1952 my Dad piled some parachutes on the back seat of a PA-11 Cub (on floats) so I could see out the windows. It was my 3rd birthday, and I still remember it like it was yesterday. I've been hooked since that day.
 
Greenhead said:
Always wanted to fly since first memories from childhood. Had unsupportive parents on the issue growing up so never per sued.
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Same here... Wanted to become a Lufthansa pilot... Didn't think about flying for ages. Oliver enrolled us into a paragliding taster course and while reluctant before we went to the course, I was hooked after the first time, my feet left the ground. After flying paragliders for a while, we started flying powered paragliders (really heavy equipment and not very comfortable). Then we had an weight shift ultralight (trike) before we decided that we want to travel longer distances in a warm cabin and with all the luggage we usually need while traveling... :lol:

Started paragliding in 2005 and got the PPL in 2010. :D

Sometimes I think, I should have been more persistent when I wanted to become a Lufthansa pilot. But then again I am not sure, if flying professionally would have been for me... I am happy as is now. :yesnod:
 
I couldn't help but be knee deep in flying. My earliest memories were flying with my father and grandfather, they always had planes. My father taught me how to fly along with so many others. He always made it look so easy. I wish I had the time to do more flying these days.
 
I'm the first pilot of the family so unfortunately I had no close relatives to inspire me as I hope to inspire others. As a younger pilot I have to say it's actually Microsoft Flight Simulator that I can say got me enthralled at a very young age. I would fly on it for hours a day everyday. It was at this point around the time I turned 14 my dad asked if I'd like to try flying for real at which point we took a discovery flight... The rest is a familiar story to everyone here :)
 
I grew up a mile from KDET, heard the little planes flying overhead every weekend, rode in the car down Conner past Lank Tygard's flight school signs beckoning me to "LEARN TO FLY", and my Dad worked as an Engineer for the FCC and told me lots of stories about his experiences flying with the FAA guys on investigations. So I always wanted to do it, someday. But I knew it was expensive, my parents were on the overprotective side, and I forgot about the idea by the time I was old enough to pursue it using my own means.

Then I met a sometime poster on this board who owned a Cardinal RG, and after a few rides in her plane I was hooked. The most memorable flight was one to Wisconsin that started out in hard IMC with a temporary lost com situation and ended with spectacular views of cloudscapes, Lake Michigan, and the Door peninsula. I started lessons a couple of weeks later.
 
When I was 14 I opened a magazine and saw a picture of a sleek looking airplane and a hot girl and thought "Gee, I'd like one of those." ;)

Seriously, it was a dream to travel - first when I was in the Navy, so I could get home more often. Then when i was driving back and forth to work long distances - it was either $1000 plane ticket or 5-6 hours driving and I knew there had to be a better solution.

Neither one of those worked out quite right, but I'm flying and just starting to get into traveling more.
 
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