Never thought I was cleaver enough..
This thread got me thinking....
Never thought of becoming a Pilot mainly because academically I wasn't very cleaver, so never thought of going down this road, so joined the Fire Service, and stayed there for 17 years. Decided one mad day to do a parachute jump(why I don't know!) But loved it, have all ratings to tandem instructor, then after throwing myself out of a perfectly servicable aircraft for 13 years, thought to myself I really should know how these things work.
I went up with a very good friend of mine and asked him to show me, well to my surprise I sort of enjoyed it. Absolutly dreaded the written exams. Anyway, manged to obtain a PPL to more surpirse!. The same friend then bought a Bell 47 Helicopter and said ' fancy coming to fly this' so now fully confident that flying isn't a huge task at my very low PPL level trundled off to fly the chopper. What A Hoot!!! If I managed to keep the helicopter on the aifield in the hover that was great!!. I was 100% hooked on these now. So took a loan out (OH God) and persued my PPL(H) and got it (FAA). I then went all though my FAA qualifications to CFI, the exams killed me, god it was hard for me, I wish I had a memory like some people who can just read it and remember it. I then had an oppotunity to be a flying instrucor which I absolutly enjoy. So I resigned from my job, sold my house, car, motobike, pararchute everything! Relocated, and now teach for a living. I owe this all to my friend who showed me, and gave me a huge amount of confidence that I could really do this, my flying instructor at EGKB was great!!! he must have had the patience of a saint!
I've looked into the JAA commercial exams, but 14 exams and I have been told that they are some what difficult, so not so sure I could do them, studying always seems harder when your older, especially if it doesn't come naturlly.
I enjoyed reading this thread and wanted to contribute..
Darren