Why did you learn to fly?

[FlyingSportsman]

Would be interesting to see your answers, many refer to the 'flying bug' and I suppose that is what motivates me.

However, the thing that made me want to fly was my first visit to a 767 cockpit of the one and only Britannia airlines. Haven't looked back since, and that was 14 years ago :ok:

FS :ok:

[Genghis the Engineer]

I grew up obsessed with space travel, and also liked the whole engineering business, and after my A-levels went to do a degree in aeronautics and astronautics. En-route, got sponsorship from the MoD.

During my training and degree, I spent some time in aircraft design, got a few trips in various things, managed to wrangle a short placement in a flight test department, and also got into the University Air Squadron.

I never lost the interest in Engineering, but decided that what I really liked was sexy manned flight vehicles, it just happened that the first sort I really noticed were spacecraft.

I decided that the best way to really engage with sexy flight vehicles was to pursue both flying and engineering. Over the 24 or so years since I started, I've just got steadily more obsessed with, and qualified in both. Both flying and engineering I do both as my job and my hobby.

G

[WALSue]

Funnily enough it was a visit to the flight deck of a Brittania 767 which got me in to flying
Did you get the flight deck poster too with all the bits labelled?! :)

[Johnm]

So that I could go to places in a small aeroplane why else?

[niallg123]

After hearing of Grandad's stories of flying spitfire's...

(Wholly manufactured - but the most exciting white lies I have heard!)

[Aphrican]

I grew up around planes and my dad (PPL) and grand dad (RFC) were both pilots. Flying Magazine (especially the "I learned about flying from that" stories) was a staple of my youth. I probably had 150 hours of RHS "flying" by the time my dad stopped flying when I was 17 but never had any formal lessons.

As I got older, I didn't have the time or the money to take formal lessons or gain any qualifications. Last autumn a friend of mine who was similarly bitten by the flying bug decided to do a compressed FAA PPL course. As I finally had the time and the money, I decided to join him.

All of my childhood dreams came true when I got my PPL late last year. It was one of the most challenging and rewarding things that I have done in my life.

I now find myself having to reign in my excitement to make sure that I get through the 50 to 300 hour "danger zone" as safely as possible and hope to get my MEL and IR in the next two years so that I spend quite a bit of the "danger zone" with an instructor and have positive behaviours reinforced and negative behaviours overridden as frequently as possibly.

My wife is so happy that I have realised a childhood ambition that she is going to do an AOPA style "pinch hitter course". While this is probably 10% of a PPL, I feel better about having at least 1.1 PPLs in the plane with me than just 1 whenever I fly.

[riverrock83]

I've always had an interest, although that waned when I realised my eyesight wasn't good enough for the RAF. Its in my blood too - although not as much as some of the others before me here! My Dad was in the air cadets although managed to fail his uni exams and had to re-prioritise before getting his PPL (he still hasn't got it). My Granddad flew transport planes at the end of WWII before going out to USA as an instructor. He changed jobs, becoming a chemical engineer, but kept up his skills as a PPL. Unfortunately he passed away while I was tiny - and so never took me up.

But then I started going out with a girl whoose Dad is a flight instructor / aeronautical engineer. It would only be polite of course to say yes when he offered me a trial lesson...
Now hooked in two ways (both to the girl and flying) he is taking me through my PPL. The flying incentive wasn't the only reason I got married... honest!;):O

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

I had my first flight in an Auster from Ringway (now Manchester Airport) when I was about 8. I sat behind the pilot and was amazed that he could move the stick and the whole world tilted over. "I want to do that one day; move a stick and tilt the world", I vowed. But I always thought flying would be too expensive so went on a gliding course at Nympsfield in the glorious summer of 1976.

Gliding (at Camphill, which I joined) didn't really do it for me. So in 1978 I went to Lancs Aero Club at Barton and 7 months later I had my PPL. Shortly after that I had a share in Chipmunk G-BCSL.

34 years (and counting!) of flying small aeroplanes - best thing I ever did!

[flyinkiwi]

When I was a little boy, my parents used to take me to our holiday house on a small island in the Hauraki Gulf. I vividly remember watching a Grumman Goose come in low over our house on final for the bay with its P&W R985s throttled back. The first time I saw that I knew that's what I wanted to do. I am not a commercial pilot, but I'm up there sharing sky with them every weekend I can.

[waldopepper42]

1964. Nottingham Airshow. My dad had a few contacts with the railway. Travelled in the guards van behind a steam locomotive. Then, 9 English Electric Lightnings. Can have a strange and lasting effect on a 5 year old lol

[RTN11]

First visit to a 747 cockpit aged 12, first flight in a bulldog aged 13, first solo aged 16, definately caught the flying bug then.

[peterh337]

Had electronics as a hobby since age 6, and like the other chap above it has fed me, since the 1970s.

Periodically looked at getting a PPL over the years but could never see the point. Then one day, post divorce, out on a date with what turned out to be a certified bunny boiler, I saw a plane overhead and commented about maybe learning to fly. She said "why don't you stop wondering and just get on it with" so I did.

Ultimately I learnt to fly to go places and see Europe from the air, which has been achieved (http://www.peter2000.co.uk/aviation/index.html) pretty well albeit at a significant cost in time and money. After many years I am getting back into electronics (hardware/software) as an interesting activity.

[John R81]

My wife bought me a trial flight in a helicopter for a birthday present. Failing to achieve a hover convinced me that this was the hardest thing I had ever tried to do, and from there I was hooked.

[Megaton]

Always fascinated by flying and eventually joined the RAF as engineer (believing the lie that I could subsequently transfer to pilot). After a few years, my wife bought me a ppl lesson and I ended up finishing the course just to prove to myself that I could. After stumbling into flying, ten years on from that ppl lesson I'm now flying 747s.

[thing]

I was brought up on the Sunday afternoon B/W films on TV like Angels 15 and the Dambusters. Flying always represented freedom, doing something that few people did or could do. I've been an aviation bore for most of my life I think, I used to be looking up the details of the Daimler Benz powerplant in an ME 109 while my mates were in the school air raid shelter smoking. The highlight of the year was the Finningley air show. The smell of freshly mown grass and burnt avtur is the most evocative smell in the world to me.

I spent 22 years as an avionics technician employed by Betty, have flown gliders for decades and recently got my powered. I still love anything aviation related, feel totally at home in the sky or around aircraft and I'm very proud to be a pilot, as I think it's an enormous privilege.

[AfricanEagle]

Age 9 a flight in my father's friend's Piper, right seat, got to hold the yoke, couldn't keep straight (still can't).

Age 10 cockpit visit on Malawi Airways Super VC10, the Captain an unknown uncle WWII Lancaster navigator.

Age 10-16 many boarding school flights on Alitalia and Zambia Airways DC8s, most of the time spent in the cockpit.

Age 16 I became a hangar rat at the local aeroclub.

A simple PPL, with long range bimbles.

In a next life I want to be a professional ferry pilot.

[Grob Queen]

Visiting Sarfend Aircraft museum aged about 4

The Falklands War made a big impression on me as a 6 year old; loved the sight of the Vulcans taking off.

Had a family trip in the DH Rapide at Duxford for my 10th birthday

Read Paul Brickhill's "Dambusters" when I was 12 and watched just about every WW2 RAF film going...

My career has been with the RAF (with a slight excursion into the underworld of Pongoland, but please forgive me for that ;) So have always loved aircraft and things aviation.

But the icing on the cake as it were was when my friend took me for a spin in a BBMF Chippy in 2009. My first taste of flying a light aircraft, and he gave me control with some straight and level, aeros and landings...after that, with my interest as well, there was no going back. I had always had a dream of becoming a pilot since the age of 6 and now I just had to do it....so here I am, a student pilot :):)

[Tarq57]

Biggles.

First aeroplane ride, at age 10: a birthday present. (specifically requested.) I got to steer. It was in this (http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/308720.html) very aircraft. (She was factory blue and white, then.)

Then later, I went through PPL training as part of my job.

[Humaround]

Aeroplane mad from a very young age - wasn't every boy in the 1950's?

Model aircraft, starting with chuck gliders and ending with designing r/c aerobatic gliders and powered aircraft in my teens.

Solo'd in a Mk3 on a week RAF Cadet gliding course at Weston super Mare (after 3 days actually) aged 17 and then didn't fly again for nearly 30 years...

Started gliding again and after 10 happy years doing that got my PPL. Now a proud part-owner of a 50 year old Jodel 1050 on a farmstrip.

You know those dreams you have when you just know you can fly (I mean, without an aeroplane) but you remain stuck to the ground?

Those dreams changed for me when I started flying - I can fly in dreams whenever I want now...

[FlyingSportsman]

great response chaps, one thing shared by us all, a passion to fly!

FS :ok:

[stickandrudderman]

Because I liked stewardesses!

[fwjc]

Someone I know did it to get laid. Didn't work for him, although it worked for me...

Space, wanted to be an astronaut, figured most of 'em flew. Air Cadets really taught me to love flying and I was hooked. Hangar Rat for years, still am actually.

The thing that hooked me was the feel of the air through the wings to the stick to my fingertips. Oh, and aeros.

[Pace]

In my case thought I was going to be World Champion in motor racing. Lost sponsor and pregnant girlfriend put paid to that :{

[englishal]

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

[Pilot DAR]

Watching the Thunderbirds and Joe 90, presuming that we can agree that those vehicles "flew"....

[n5296s]

When I was a kid my Dad would occasionally take me to stand outside the fence at Stapleford and watch the planes taking off. Never occurred to him to go in, I suppose he thought it was all above him (metaphorically speaking, I mean...). We were on holiday near Yarmouth in about 1964 and he took me for a very short "trip round the bay" from the airfield there. When I started work I started flying quite a bit, commercial, and was fascinated by planes just as I always have been also by trains and even buses.

Probably nothing more would have happened if I hadn't moved to the US - occasionally I'd buy a flying magazine and look at these "two week wonder" courses in Portugal or Florida and think about it, but it never went further than that.

Then as I was moving out here we had to visit another office, a horrible drive in the morning rush. A colleague of mine said, "well, I'll just fly there". "Oh, can I come along?" "Sure".

I was hooked. He introduced me to the place where I learned to fly, and that was that.

[ChrisVJ]

A flight with my test pilot stepfather in an Auster when I was four, but the clincher was seeing him fly a Hurricane at Yeovilton Airshow, 1948 or 49. He finished his display with a low pass and a half loop into the cloud base at about a thousand feet.

RAF Benevolent Fund sent me to a school well connected to flying and the RAF. Got my license, along with seven others, in my last year at school.

Colour blind so missed out on RAF and civil aviation commercially.

Hasn't stopped my kids though.

[Poeli]

First flew with Sabena at age of 3-4 to Spain. I remember it very well, it was so special to me. I remember me saying that I saw our house from the sky, walking from one side of the plane to the other (on the left was my mom and brother/sister, right my dad and me). I ate for the first time in my life chocolate mousse, since then I like it!
7-8 years later I got a book with all kinds of airplanes in it and since then my interest in aviation grew. With internet installed at home I had the largest library at home. Joined the air cadets when I was 16 and started gliding. Since then I'm an addict and am looking to take each oppertunity to fly (though it's been a while). The Air cadets were basically the biggest contributor. Thanks to the people there I chose to do my 3-year bachelor and now a master.
I hope to find some time to start gliding again and maybe even get a PPL licence! It's not really in the family here, though a cousin of my mom is flying with Korean airlines.

[pudoc]

It's been in my life since I was born.

When I was a child I would cry all night and refuse to sleep, pretty much most nights I'd be screaming, and the only way my dad could stop me crying was to point out stars and he'd say they were broken down planes and then we waited for a real plane to come and tow it back to the airport.

My dad had his PPL and I would fly with him at a young age, I even remember attending the disco in the club house when I little.

Always been aeroplane mad, used to get people to buy me toy planes then I'd throw them off the balcony in hope they'd fly. Much to my upset they broke. :{

There's no way I could pick a career other than flying.

I'm still not keen on sleeping.

[Dave Gittins]

I started flying because I grew up in Isleworth and Twickenham in the 50s and 60s and planes of every variety flying into Heathrow were unmissable and I wanted to be amongst them. Soon I could identify most marques of most types and filled in my Ian Allan books assidiously but also had a long list of things not to be found there.

My first ever flight was at about 8 yrs old in an Auster from Sandown during a family holiday ... probably circa 1961.

I joined the local ATC in Warrington at 16 and soloed in a Cadet Mk III at Burtonwood before I could legally drive a car. Had great fun in 1970 with 2 weeks at the Long Mynd doing bungee launches in K13s, and driving a tractor to chase the sheep off the strip.

In the 1990s I finally had a little bit of money and was determined to get my PPL before 40. My first 2 hours were at Ringway and I nearly got it at Barton but the funds ran out. Then I had a job building a new terminal at Luton from 1998 and finally got my PPL there in 2002.

Flew from Fairoaks with LTFC thereafter but have had bimbles about almost everywhere I went including Tenerife, Malta, Crete, Colorado, Florida and California (where I flew a Cirrus last year.)

Spent 2 years in Doha from 2008 to 2010 and with considerable perseverence managed to wade through their systems and occasionally fly an Archer from Doha International but being out of the UK lost me my mediacl and there was nobody to sign my 2 yearlys off.

Now back in the UK am revalidating at Redhill in 172s to renew my license but planning to get a couple of hours in whilst in Barbados next month.

Just love flying for flyings sake. I am not hour building, I just love aeroplanes and aviation and I don't tire of it after some 42 years since I first flew as P1 in a glider with a piece of string on the pitot as the turn and slip indicator.

As the tee shirt I bought from Kermit Weeks says .. "Life's much better when you fly".

[thing]

Just love flying for flyings sake.

Couldn't have said it better. If I'm down the club prepping the plane, someone will usually ask 'Where you off to?' and I usually feel like I should say that I'm off on a navex for an hour or so, when in actual fact I'm just going flying. Any direction will do.

[AdamFrisch]

It's interesting to hear how different the reasons for flying are. Some just want to go for a bimble, some want adrenaline and aerobatics, some want vintage and open cockpits, some the newest carbon thing, some want high speed, some low, etc.

I personally stopped flying for 16 years because

a) I couldn't afford it, and b) I got bored with local flights.

The rediscovery of flight for me involved the notion of travel. I think it's the idea of freedom, being able to go to far away places,or off the beaten path places, that is my main juice. And once I discovered that, I can't really get enough. I fly as much as my finances will allow and I haven't gotten bored yet.

[Dave Gittins]

As I said I just love flying for flying's sake and I do like flying adventures and something different.

I have done mountain flying in Colorado, tried a Piper Sport in Florida and an SR-22 in San Diego in the past 12 months, in the past I had to do precise RNAV to avoid the Emirs Palace in Doha (to avoid the Mirage escorts .. go straight to jail) .... but I don't tire of plotting and trying to get exact a navex from Redhill round the Gatwick zone via Sevenoaks to Brighton Marina and the Spinnaker Tower and back.

I had a 2 hours in an R-44 in Colorado, the first and second times I've ever been in a helicopter and I may take enough lessons someday to be able to hover unaided ... just for the personal acheivement.

I've just emailed Coconut Airways in Barbados to see if I can have some fun there in March and am getting excited already.

Maybe I can get Mrs D G to holiday someplace where I can try a floatplane.

Any suggestions ?

[Aphrican]

@Dave Gittins

Two places to consider (in the summer) are Muskoka / cottage country (Ontario) and Vancouver or Vancouver Island (British Columbia) in Canada.

The Island is probably prettier than the mainland in BC but there may well be fewer operators.

[cumulusrider]

My father was a navigator in the airforce so I have been around planes all my life. Tried to join the airforce at 19 as aircrew but failed the eyesight.
A few years later i was a rally navigator and my driver anounced that he was giving up to go gliding. One trial flight and i was hooked. A few years later I got fed up with waiting all day for a launch so went for my ppl. I achieved this a year later but had spent all my savings, and the bank loan.
Gave up for 16 years due to job, family, kids etc. Was made redundant and my wife was fed up with me around the house all day so suggested that I visit the local gliding club. a hanger flight at the end of the day reawakened my interest, so I have been gliding again for 16 years.

I find gliding more rewarding as you are constantly working the air to stay up and go somewhere. Power flying , once I had my licence and had flown all my friends and relatives started to become boring. The £200 cup of tea syndome.

[Footless Halls]

Do you know the question has never entered my head until now. I don't know.

[thing]

Well you're grounded until you find out then :).

[Katamarino]

For the babes and the glamour, what else? :suspect:

[NorthernChappie]

50% thinking if I didn't start at age 54, I never would.
50% thinking (on my x hundreth landing with Eastern Airways) "I could do better than that".

On the latter point, needless to say I haven't (yet). :O

[peterh337]

For the babes and the glamour, what else?

You have to spend significant money in GA to attract those ;)

Anybody read the book called Propellerhead?

[Katamarino]

You have to spend significant money in GA to attract those ;)

Peter, Peter, it must just be my natural charm and charisma then :}

[FirstOfficer]

My interest in flying comes from yearly ages when my parents use to take me to the airport to see the aeroplanes at the weekends. I had a couple of family members within the aviation industry, it also helped to develop the interest in flying.

Started doing the PPL many years ago, but then wife came along, then the little one and the PPL was forgotten. Son is now a little bit older and at school, wife is working and I have a little bit more free time and decided to go back to flying, and gosh how I missed flying!!!!

My plan was to go all the way, but for now I will concentrate in doing the PPL and then once it is done I will evaluate how the market and the industry is before making any decisions with regards to further training.

I am learning from the gorgeous Redhill Aerodrome, just next to Gatwick Airport, on a PA28. So if anyone is close by and would like to meet up at the aerodrome please drop me a private message, it would be nice to me some fellow flying buddies.

[redelect]

sick of looking up

[Dave Gittins]

Peter .... Did you see the new thread that there's a TV programme based on Propellorhead on TV next Monday ?

[Denti]

Funny enough nobody in my family had any interest in aviation nor did we fly at all, only used the train or car to get to our vacation spots. Always wanted to fly anyway though. So i started to draw planes around age 3, build paperplanes around 5, competed in paperplane competitions around 7 or so, then went on to build RC gliders, but never got the hang of that. Finally started to fly glider planes around 14 when i finally was able to save up some money, was solo after 28 starts, during a 2 week summer gliding camp with my club in southern france.

Stayed with gliding for a long time, i wanted to become an airline pilot but at the time i finished my A levels (Abitur over here) it was '92 and lufthansa just fired its first course of student pilots, not a good time. So i did my social service and studied computer science until i got into the lufthansa school in 98 (although i had to pay myself). During my gliding time i was able to pull my elder brother into flying as well and he was actually the first of us both to learn powered flight by getting is touring motorglider licence (back then that was still a standalone PPL).

[Mariner9]

I wanted to join the mile high club in style. The grotty interiors of the club aircraft I used to rent soon made me give up on the "in style" part of the plan :E

[peterh337]

Peter, Peter, it must just be my natural charm and charisma then

.... or you just know some good sites :E

It's relatively easy these days, you know.... not like when I was young, in the 1970s, having to jump up and down in discos and all that crap :)

Did you see the new thread that there's a TV programme based on Propellorhead on TV next Monday ?

I heard but did not connect the two. Is it also about the city bloke who learnt to fly to get laid? He bought a Thruster, which may be a really apt name but the birds preferred a bit more comfort :) It was a fun book, though completely unsuprising. A £20 tent from Millets would be more comfy - as well as probably faster :E

I wanted to join the mile high club in style. The grotty interiors of the club aircraft I used to rent soon made me give up on the "in style" part of the plan

So... did you join the MHC without style, or did you skip that part completely?

[Mariner9]

So... did you join the MHC without style, or did you skip that part completely?

I thought that was the reason that autopilots, Traffic Service, and quadrantal rules were invented :E

[dont overfil]

For me it probably started because of living under the approach to RWY31 at Turnhouse Airport.

Becoming a spotter (11 Years old) and regularly cycling the five miles to the airport when rugby internationals were on to see the less common types such as Caravelles.

Pestering the captains as they came through the terminal to let us on to the flight deck. Bless them, they regularly did.

Aeromodelling from gliders through to competition aeros in self designed aircraft.

One flight in a Cessna 150 in 1968 courtesy of a work colleague who was a part time instructor. However at £8 per hour it was way out of my league.

Finally started working for a boss who was an instructor and owned aircraft he leased to local clubs. This was the opportunity to learn at a discounted price I could not refuse.

I often think how much more money I would have if I didn't fly. I am however much richer now in a wider sense having seen things, flown to places and met people I would otherwise have missed.

D.O.

[abgd]

A good thread - I've enjoyed reading all the responses so far.

My first flight was in a hot air balloon when I was about 8. A friend of my parents invited us to watch them set up, and I went in the basket as additional ballast to hold the balloon down as it was being inflated. My parents were as surprised as I was when I was whisked away. The next half-hour seemed to pass in 5 minutes and I remember afterwards being almost as fascinated by the warping of time as I had been by the flight - watching butterflies and birds flying a few hundred feet below. I also got a tour of the balloon factory and got to see Richard Branson's capsule hanging from the ceiling.

I also grew up watching the RAF bombing down the local valleys and listening to the occasional sonic booms from out to sea. I would have certainly applied to be a fighter pilot if I'd not needed glasses.

At university I started hang-gliding, then finally powered flying. I'm not sure quite what the attraction was then or now - lots of new things to learn, not least decision-making and learning to think about risk. But I think a big part of it is still simply a somewhat naive delight in flight - seeing something stay in the air and not immediately fall to the ground.

[PompeyPaul]

Was really into computers and role playing games but the geeks weren't geeky enough. Met some aviation geeks who were far more geeky and decided they were more my type of geeks.

Haven't looked back since. Aviation geeks are the geekiest geeks out there. Welcome one and geek.

[BWBI]

In order that I could pull the lady in the Office with the best legs and other large desirable attributes and me being a seasoned Divorcee and the object of my desires being a good few years younger and also looking it! I decided I was in need of a serious leg up or over as the case may be! Anyway Licence gained and she was soon mine!

Now after 5 years she still flies with me and falls asleep after a glass of red wine after visiting some suitable aviation venue when she should be looking out of the window for other aircraft! However she is forgiven as she never complains about my Aviation expenditure or the fact that she is still working whilst I am retired with even more time for Aviation!

[peterh337]

Sounds like you got the best deal of everybody :ok:

[Dan Winterland]

From watching Gloster Javelins blast skywards at Akrotiri as an earliest memory in the 1960s.

My mother in law has the theory that all little boys want to be train drivers and pilots. The ones who don't grow up actually become train drivers and pilots!

[Pilot.Lyons]

A visit to a cockpit enroute to france when i was 7 although i was wearing my pilots shirt so must have had the desire before that flight...

A serious motorcycle crash being told id never walk again and my grandparents and parents telling me i was too stupid and to think of something different.....

Well.... I can walk.. And i can fly!

In your face doubters... Tell me i cant do something and i will do it satnd tall knowing it :D

[thing]

and my grandparents and parents telling me i was too stupid and to think of something different.....

Jeez, no offence but what wonderful parents and grandparents...

[Pilot.Lyons]

None taken... Pretty cr*p upbringing!

Out of three im the only one with drive and determination... Brother and sister are both eternally messed up from it.

I learnt karate and kungfu when i was 8 through to bike crash (28) and that showed me focus and determination creates results.
We all can do whatever we put our minds too.... As long as we have the physical ability of course... Severed nerves puts a stop to that comment though :(

[Fake Sealion]

a/From about 5 yrs old I wanted to be a service pilot.

b/Learnt to fly at a University Air Squadron

c/Became a service pilot - RN variety

So I learnt to fly at b/ as part of achieving c/

Understand b/ & c/ opportunities are somewhat limited in number these days.

[thing]

Understand b/ & c/ opportunities are somewhat limited in number these days. Lol! When they flew the last Nimrod R1 down to Kemble late last year, one of our club members was saying that he would probably have to fly it down there. I asked him why and he replied 'Because I'm the last current Nimrod pilot in the world.'

[Whiskey Kilo Wanderer]

Having reached my mid-thirties and feeling that I needed to learn something new, it seemed like a good idea. My girlfriend at that time was going to do her PPL at the same time and then we would have something we could do together. Needless to say it didn’t work out like that and she departed for pastures new. Well, she was in to horse riding.

The easiest way of getting around the social / domestic side of things is to find a partner who already has her own aeroplane. I’ve been very lucky in that respect.

It does turn the domestic finance discussions around a bit: “Would you like your aeroplane’s engine zero-timed for your birthday present this year?”

[PompeyPaul]

Funnily enough I had a similar experience. Girlfriend at the time said I could either marry her or do my ppl.

I now have a ppl. And a new wife.

[FlyingSportsman]

fantastic replies,

cheers fellas! :ok:

[L'aviateur]

Grew up around aviation, and spent many weekends at the old Doncaster Aero Club. Got involved in the Air Cadets as I got older and flew from Church Fenton. Flew here and there with friends, and then eventually did half the PPL at Sandtoft and finished it off intensively in Newcastle.

Did consider at one time going further commercially, but felt it was too much of a risk to throw away a job I currently enjoy and thoroughly enjoy flying for fun and have in the last few years managed to work around aircraft as well.

Would love to do something long distance, intra continental!

[erikk the redd]

I always wanted to be a train driver but with the demise of steam (yes I'm really that old) decided I wanted to be a pilot. tried the RAF but my eyesight was not good enough, then found booze & partying and other silliness took over, followed by domestic bliss until my wife came into some money and suggested a trial lesson, bit of research later and turned up at Redhill, and never looked back, co-incidentally solo'd on my birthday and got the PPL in 1998

[P-MONKE]

As is common for a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut or pilot. I mentioned this to my careers "advisor" at school but I unfortunately also let slip that I thought I had a minor heart problem (It's very benign and no-one actually believed me for 5 years until I was eighteen when I spent a week in St Barts getting a proper diagnosis). Of course he just laughed at me and said "No chance - think about doing something else". The whole concept of private aviation was completely foreign to me and, coming from a "poorer" background with no friends or family even remotely connected with aviation, I soon forgot about the idea.

I still really enjoyed flying as a passenger on the big jets though and was lucky enough to get a cockpit visit on a Trident when I was ten. It was night-time and my overriding memory is that of the odometer clicking the miles off at the rate of about one every ten seconds or so!

Fast forward twenty years or so, I had an air experience flight in a K13 aero-towed to 2000' from PNGC at Lee. I was really looking forward to it, but when I finally got strapped in, I realised that I was absolutely bloody terrified. It was a really tame evening flight with no lift and only very gentle turns, but I was <i>so</i> glad to get back on the ground afterwards. Of course, I didn't bother to pursue it any further for that reason and that, at the time, PNGC was a typical forces club that was hard to get membership in.

Roll forward another 10 years to 2009 and I found myself working at a large aircraft evaluation company in Wiltshire (long story). This company offers, each year, sponsorship for ten employees to learn to fly to solo at the local gliding club to "gain an appreciation of the workload in the cockpit". It didn't take imagination to realise that this was probably going to be my only serious chance to gain my wings and I jumped at the chance!

I was still <s>bloody terrified</s> nervous though, and it took me about 30-40 (winch) launches before I could even stop giggling like a loon at every slight bit of turbulence. All I can say is that my instructors were patient. Very patient indeed. Anyways, after about a year and more flights than I'd care to say here, the DCFI finally told me to get in and then proceeded to close the rear canopy of the K21 from the OUTSIDE. I'd done it, and they still let me fly by myself now!

So, to finally get to the point, I learnt to fly for two reasons, in no particular order of importance: It was a childhood dream; and I wanted to over come my fear of actually flying! :D

[gingernut]

My dad used to take me to Ringway and Barton when I was kid, just watching the planes.

Was a great day when I finally took him up myself. Even if I did have to do a few go-arounds.

Haven't been PIC for 4 years now, and I daren't go back, as I know I'd be overcome by an overwhelming desire to fly again.

[Jake.f]

Bit strange that I would start to learn to fly really.

I have absolutely no aviation background whatsoever and can remember the first flight I ever took, a 737 to Fiji. I was absolutely terrified and I also was too scared to ask to visit the flight deck, pity really because those 2 flights were my only two flights pre 9/11 so the chance of visiting the flight deck of a jet in flight is now more or less lost.

I live under a fairly active bit of airspace and so constantly watching Piper Warriors, Cessnas, Jabirus and the odd metroliner whizz past overheard kind of made me think I will do that one day. Tried RC planes but kept destroying them so gave up on that.

Couple of years ago I was on a flight back from Cairns to Brisbane and we hit a small air pocket on takeoff and I was a nervous wreck for the whole flight. After that I thought that's it, enough of this fear of flying. I went and bought Flight Simulator game and taught myself how to fly on that.

Then late in 2010 I decided it was time to start flying for real and took a TIF. I really enjoyed it but still hated the turbulence. Took another TIF after that with another school and loved the flying but hated the experience with the unmotivated and clearly sick of his job instructor. Turned my back on that school and halfway through last year started lessons at the first school I flew with.

Didn't take long for all fear of flying and turbulence to disappear, even having things fly around the cockpit doesn't phase me now.

Went solo on the 11th of January this year with less than 10 hours of lessons and coincidentally pulled off the best landing I had ever done when no one was there to see it, but I got it on video :ok:

Halfway towards a certificate now, although seeing as I have just been accepted into Med School flying will not be a high priority for the next 5 years :( My goal is to get my certificate, then get a PPL and somewhere in between star gliding and go solo in a glider (Love the idea of having no noisy engine when up there, just you and the air. Also like the cost benefit). Another goal is to start paragliding!
Might try get a CPL one day and search for a weekend job dropping skydivers or flying joy flights, but whether that happens or not is another story.

[P-MONKE]

Didn't take long for all fear of flying and turbulence to disappear, even having things fly around the cockpit doesn't phase me now.

It's a good job that you've overcome your fear of turbulence if you want to fly a glider for any length of time ;)