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 hangar 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.