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View Full Version : How did you get bitten by the aviation-virus?


Old_Belgian_Student
5th Aug 2001, 22:19
Currently I'm in pursuit of my dream to become an airline pilot. Finished the theoretical exams for dutch ATPL, and into PPL on the practical side. Looking forward to my first solo, due any moment now because my instructor's been telling me he'll send me off on my own one of these days...! (Excitement !!!)
How did all this start? and what made me give up my career as an engineer in construction?
I think it all started when I was about 10 or 11 yrs old, the days I used to read books by the dozen, and one day I stumbled across a paperback copy of one of Biggles' adventures. Need I say i read all of the copies i could get my hands on from the library, cover to cover and back again. And soon thereafter I was glueing & painting together airfix models...
At the time we were living abroad as my parents (dad was civil engineer and mum was a teacher) explored ex-pat life in the late 70's and early 80's. So I used to travel by air quite a bit those days. Quite impressing for a 10 yr old. The vibrations & accelleration on take-off, taking this huge machine aloft. Visiting the flightdeck was no issue those days on the long-haul flights, as most of the time we were invited by the stewardess to come and have a look in the cockpit. (Secretly i think they just wanted to keep us busy and prevent us from being a nuisance in case we would get bored).
Seeing the men in front, hapily answering any question that would spring to mind, who were actually in control of this machine, just made me sit there full of admiration as I gazed at the (in those days) panel full of lights, switches and indicators for hours on end.
I think i was 14 or 15 when I signed up to receive my weekly copy of Flight International. Reading the articles the aviation-speak made sense little by little as i learned to understand more and more about aircraft, engines, etc.,etc.
Also first thing to read in each received copy was Uncle Roger's section! Allthough I admit i didn't get a third of the jokes in there the first couple of years...
By 18 there were big choices to be made regarding the future... What to study next? University? or becoming pilot? I was all for the latter, but my parents insisted I get a 'proper' degree in something first 'just to be on the safe side in case pilot thing doesn't turn out to be the right stuff after all'.
So I studied and became an engineer in construction and even before (a few weeks)I graduated I was offered a job right away. I enjoyed being an engineer and began to make career in the construction business. But after 6 yrs in the business, working like a horse, the aviation virus struck back! Whenever I was outdoors on a construction site near an airport I couldn't resist looking up to see what was overflying us!
I quit the job, went back to the books, studied for a year and a half and passed the ATPL theoreticals. The well earnt money saved over the years come in handy and seem to evaporate right now as I'm now learning to fly. The feeling is absolutely fabuleous!

I'd like to hear your stories, just out of curiosity, my fellow wannabees!

OBS

(Edited to correct spelling mistakes)

[ 05 August 2001: Message edited by: Old_Belgian_Student ]

low n' slow
6th Aug 2001, 00:03
Dad has been a pilot all my life. I've had aviation all around in one way or the other.
Then at about ten, I started building R/C aircraft. At 16 I got my Gliders license and now I'm in CPL training. Always flying in some way... :D
cheers/lns

Olympic260
6th Aug 2001, 00:14
Dad was working as an aircraft mechanic, Avionics department. I was lucky to be able to go with him as many times as I wanted. The first aircraft I was aboard was an B720, since then I have been on 727/707/732/734/742/AB4/AB6. Pilot job is realy exciting but mechanics have same fun too :-))))

Kermit 180
6th Aug 2001, 10:44
My parents used to live next to a military airfield, and Harvards used to rumble overhead from dawn to dusk, sometimes long into the night. I can still remember standing at the window sill as a nipper, watching these great machines (I used to refer to them as tractors :D )

Then, like many of you, I built Airfix models (I confess to continuing this in my adult years part time).

I then became an ATC cadet, and took up gliding. I did my first ever solo in a glider (can't remember the type except that it was canvass covered and very old). Then I left school, got a job and took flying lessons. From then on I was completely and utterly addicted, I wouldn't rather be doing anything else. I am now teaching others to fly, and getting a lot of satisfaction from doing so.

All my mates have houses cars and boats, I'm broke. But I wouldn't change a thing, I enjoy my habit too much.

Kermie :D

NigelS
6th Aug 2001, 17:57
I've had the aviation bug ever since I can remember. My dad had flown on Vanguards in the sixties and had retained a keen interest in aircraft. My parents would take me to the airport just to see aircraft fly over. We never had any money and even though my dad would have been keen to fund my flying, he simply could not afford it. At school my ambition took a severe knock when I had an attack of honesty after the teacher asked us all to say what we wanted to do with our lives. Of course my ambition was met with hysterical laughter and I was teased for a long time. I left school and did not try and realise the dream sadly and went from job to job. I got O-levels and then A-levels well after school by attending evening classes. Eventually I went to University to do a Science degree. The flying bug started over when someone bought me a flying lesson.. I thought I could do it all but still couldn't afford it. I could't afford to go to fund a cadetship and for some reason didn't think I had a chance at the sponsorship (funding my part of it would have been tremendously tough too). I applied for the RAF but didn't get in.. The bug waned again as I started a series of jobs for which I was qualified. In my PhD I was doing experimental pathology (don't ask.. you don't want to know!) and that got me into pharmacueticals. I moved on to head up molecular pathology in a big pharma company and then took a new direction this year to become a marketing director. Last year I completed around half of the minimum hours for the PPL. The bug returned.
Now, earlier this year I attended a twenty year reunion of my old school. One of my friends told my wife "all he ever spoke about back then was being an airline pilot". She replied "that's all he talks about now". At the same time I took another look at the route and discovered the modular route. Anyway to cut what's already a long story a bit shorter, we sat down and talked about making it so, finally. My wife and I realised that although I've had some pretty high profile jobs in my career, I've never been happy, never had a decent appraisal (really) and all because... there's only one thing I truly want to do. Fortunately we can afford it now and there's a long road ahead. Also, whatever job I get at the end (if any) will be a severe drop in salary. I just know I'll be happy though.
There's just one thing I wish I had.. Your youth! I have arsed around for too many years dreaming but not doing. Almost doing then letting others get to me enough to abandon the dream. You're only in your early 20's, you know what you want, and you're going for it. Don't let anyone talk you out of it.

All the best

Nigel

stator vane
7th Aug 2001, 01:07
my father was scared to death of flying!!
no one in any part of my family had anything thing to do with an airplane. they all avoided them.

they were cars and trucks people.

i used to sit at the window of my father's 1955 Chevorlet Belair two door (not a hardtop though!) and hold my hand out into the wind and would make it go up and down with just moving my little finger. (what i learned later to be an aileron or flap simulation)

next thing with airplanes was in alaska at age 23. i worked across the street from merril field, one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world, i was told. one of the guys i worked with selling car parts was an instructor there. he took a group of us on a 30 minute flight in a C206 and i asked to sit in the front. i later thought, if he can do this, so can i. but nothing came of it then.

i banged around doing various jobs and not being very good at anything. in Memphis, TN while doing carpenter work and thinking that it was a bit too hot for that job, i went to the airport and looked around at the general aviation area.

the aircraft seemed so "spiritual" and the smells of avgas and jet-a and the sounds of the B727's as well as the smaller proppers was fascinating.

so i kept asking the supervisor for a job there and went there so many times that he knew me by sight and name and once he hired me, most likely to get some peace and quiet.

while working there, i started taking flight lessons and ended up with a military type instructor who would hit me with a map and scream his head off at me and curse with words i had never heard before or since, but i stayed with him because he was good. (maybe it was a matter of afraid to leave him) i also started mechanic school and things got so tight with full time work, full time school and flight lessons that i made a choice and dropped out of the mechanic school and even sold my car (1958 chevy) and walked to work to finish the flight lessons with that same instructor, whom i love dearly now.

then went back to alaska and there they had student loans at low interest and i applied for that and finished my commercial, instrument and instructor ratings as well as MEL, and ATP. i then became an instructor but since the weather was so bad so often i wanted to fly real airplanes.

i went to a 135 operator with twin otters and asked for a job, but they didn't need pilots, but i asked to work there anyway and worked on the ramp for i think 7 months. and each time i saw the chief pilot i pegged him for a flight job and finally he wanted some peace also.

but actually it was also a case of not being good at anything else either. i have tried to tell my two children to try many things and they will discover by default what they are good at. and it is the truth that there will be colleagues that will think that you are really no good at all at flying.

to this day, i think i should have finished the mechanic school and then went flying. would have been good to fall back on sometimes.

and i was told NOT to fly for a living. my uncorrected vision is very poor, but with contacts they do the 20/20. but it has kept me out of the majors where a person can make some real money and seniority. might should've listened to that too.

and honestly, if i could find something else that would pay as well, i think i would take it now.

the truth also could be summed up as,
"if you can't be anything else, then be a pilot." meaning among other things, if nothing else satisfies you, give it a try.

i never even wanted to be an airline pilot. i wanted to stay in the smaller aircraft. my most rewarding flying was a an instructor, taking someone from 0 hours and getting them to commercial standards in 20 hours for their private license. but the money and weather would not cooperate.

tried to be an air traffic controller and that was one of the first things i really tried that i could not do!!! i have all the respect in the world for ATC'ers.

if it were not for the fact that i am 46 years old, i would start over with the mechanic school.

or marry a rich woman.

all the glory of aviation has just about gone, the way these low cost companies are squeezing the pilots. regardless of how much you love flying, after so many years of not knowing your schedule for more than a week or two in advance, and having to change jobs every three years, and living in different countries and seldom seeing your children, you too would tell yourself, "that's another fine mess you've gotten yourself into, Ollie"

pilot in command really means nothing more in these low cost airlines, than the one to blame when things go wrong. you can't say where you will go, when you will go or how you will get there. the gate agent tells you when you can close the door. ATC tells you when to go and not go. but Lord help you if you are at the helm when something goes bad wrong. they will even say that you are responsible for what other people did.

and fight as you will, when you arrive, you often still have a plane load of complaining passengers. and when the day is over, you get to the low cost hotel room after riding on the bus that you waited on for 30 minutes, and lie down and look up at the ceiling and realize you forgot your tooth brush.

while some desk driver who makes the big bucks, can plan his weekends off months in advance, use the company computer during working hours to get his tickets and hotel reservations online, and sleep in the same bed each night if he wants to.

when its good its good but when its bad its very bad.

be very very careful about getting into aviation these days. it has undergone some serious changes.

start early and go for the majors. there are some flying jobs that you may get on your CV that will actually be a mark against you.

that's enough now.

Tiger_ Moth
7th Aug 2001, 01:11
I remember when I didnt even like flying. Then one day Iwent to farnborough when I was 10 or something and I all of a sudden liked planes. Its odd because back then I only liked fighter jets and laughed at rickety things like Tiger Moths and even spitfires. I only liked fast jets. I have never liked airliners and never will, I have always regarded them more as transport rather than planes. I made models and read books and then eventually realised that fighter jets are not so good. I then bagan to dislike all the computers and stuff thats present in modern planes and realised that I actually liked planes from the dawn of aviation most. It was so much better when you could jump in a plane whenever you wanted and fly as much as you pleased without having to have a hundred man team to prepare each flight and special runways. You could just land in any old field, just like in the great book Saggitarius Rising. It was pure flying without any techno babble and computers.
One year ago I wouldnt have thought I would be actually flying myself in one year, let alone in a great vintage plane. Last year I went with my dad to see his friend go solo and I didnt even wanto go as I thought Id get bored. Then I happened to see a Tiger Moth in a hanger and then it got wheeled out. Enquiries revealed I could actually have a flight there right then as they had a slot available. I couldnt believe it and spent most of my money on a short ride inwich we did a loop and a roll. The pilot mentioned something about a place in Cambridge that taught on Tiger Moths. I didnt realise they actually did PPLs on Tiger Moths until I rung them up and then I knew I had to learn there. I couldnt believe that I could actually learn on such a great plane, something that RAF pilots would have learnt on in the second world war!
So then I decided to get enough money to learn to fly. I had a trial lesson at Cambridge and spent a terrible 6 weeks working full time in the summer then I got a part time job and now, a year latter I am finally learning to fly. The Tiger Moths at Cambridge are actually cheaper than the cessnas at Wycombe where I first saw the Moth. I was amazed to hear that one of the Moths at Cambridge was actually used in action in WW2 over Dunkirk, doing reconnaisance and was the only Moth that came back from France in 1940. Its the only surviving Moth that has seen action, and hardly any did in the first place anyway.